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The Accessible Web
Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic And UserCentred Approach To Web Accessibility
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
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Contents
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Reflections on today’s themes
Web accessibility & innovation
Revisiting Web accessibility:
Contextualising Web accessibility:
What Next?
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Today’s Talks
What have we heard about today:
• Museums 2.0: just do it
• How tagging can help
• Potential of Second Life
• Maybe Semantic Web has a role
• The challenges of the personalised Web
and the ethical Web
What do you think:
• Toys for the boys?
• Or not?
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Accessibility and Innovation
“I’m looking at Web 2.0 / Museum Mashups / Facebook /
Second Life /…. What do people think about these
technologies?”
Common responses:
We are committed to complying with accessibility
guidelines; we won’t be driven by new technologies
But might this actually mean:
• We can’t be bothered
• We’re threatened
• We’re scared
•…
What if new technologies actually enhance accessibility?
What
the accessibility
are out-of-date?
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Where Does Accessibility Fit In?
What is your view?
 Web innovations typically add to the
accessibility barriers people with disabilities
face:
Need for caution and delaying innovation until
accessibility features are developed
 Can’t decide; it’s too complicated
 Web innovations often enhance
accessibility:
Opportunity to exploit innovations and gain
experiences
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My Views
My thoughts on this:
• We’ve interpreted accessibility incorrectly
• It’s not about:
 Control
 Universal solutions
 A worry
 Rules
 An IT Problem
 Avoiding being sued
• It is not about:
 Empowering people  Widening participation
 Contextual solutions  Blended solutions
 A great opportunity  Being appreciated
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Review: WAI Approach
Background: W3C WAI & WCAG
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):
• Body responsible for coordinating development of
Web standards
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative):
• W3C group responsible for developing guidelines
which will ensure Web resources are widely
accessible
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines):
• One of three sets of WAI guidelines. WCAG
provides advice of accessibility on Web content
(e.g. HTML pages)
• Other two WAI guidelines cover accessible user
agents (UAAG) and accessible authoring tools
(ATAG)
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Review: WAI Approach
The WAI Model
The WAI model for Web accessibility is
based on three components:
• Content
• Authoring Tools
• Browsers
Assumption: do three right  universal accessibility
But:
• We have no control over browsers & authoring tools
• The browsers and authoring tools aren't great
• The content guidelines are flawed
• What if users are happy with their existing browser?
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Review: WAI Approach
Interpretation of WAI WCAG
How do you interpret WAI WCAG (must use ALT tags for images;
HTML must be valid; must use style sheets for presentation; …):
• Mandatory, with following characteristics:
 Clearly defined rules
 Objective
 Checking mostly objective
 Penalties for non-compliance
 Similar to checking that HTML complies with the
standard
Which reflects your organisations’ view most closely?
• Advisory, with following characteristics:
 Useful guidelines, to be interpreted in context
 It's about providing useful, usable resources
 It's contextual
 Checking mostly subjective
 It's similar to checking that a Web site is well-designed
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BK
Limitations
Limitations of the WAI Model
WAI approach has shortcomings:
• WAI model relies on conformant Web sites,
conformant authoring tools, conformant user agents
• …and conformant users!
• WCAG guidelines have flaws ("must use W3C
formats; must use latest versions; …")
• Has a Web-only view of the world:
 What about other IT solutions?
 What about blended (real world) solutions?
• Has a belief in a single universal solution:
 But isn't accessibility a very complex issue
 Is it reasonable to expect an ideal solution to
be developed at the first attempt?
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What do we mean by Web
accessibility?
Can we provide accessible Web services without a
clear understanding of what we mean by this?
Small group exercise:
• What do we mean by Web accessibility?
• Where does usability fit in?
• Where does interoperability fit in?
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E
Usability & Interoperability
What about:
• Usability
• Interoperability
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/InternetHome.hcsp
Example:
• Long, application-specific URLs can cause
accessibility/usability and interoperability problems
Addition Problems:
• We’ve got WCAG AA (and checked with users)
 We don’t need to do anymore (it’s costly)
 We don’t need to address usability
The focus on priority levels can limit what’s done
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Context
Diversity – Content
WAI guidelines focus on informational Web sites:
• Here’s the train timetable – I want the information
and I want it now
• This is reasonable and desirable
But is this approach always
relevant to learning and cultural
contexts:
• Here’s something – you must
interpret it (and being wrong can
be part of the learning process)
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Universal Accessibility?
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Our Work
Holistic Approach
Q How do you make highly
interactive e-learning
services universally
accessibility (e.g. 3D
model of molecules)?
A If this would be
unreasonable, make the
learning outcomes
(rather than e-learning
resources) accessible.
Can we apply this approach
to cultural resources, with an emphasis on providing a
diversity of cultural experiences?
15
See Developing A Holistic Approach For E-Learning
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Accessibility
by Kelly, Phipps & Swift
Our Work
Articulating the Approach
The "Tangram Metaphor" developed to avoid checklist /
automated approach:
• W3C model has limitations
• Jigsaw model implies
single solution
• Tangram model seeks to
avoid such problems
This approach:
• Encourages developers
to think about a diversity
of solutions
• Focus on 'pleasure' it
provides
userin digital information management
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Our Work
Tangram Model & Testability
"WCAG 2.0 success criteria are written as testable
statements …" (nb. automated & human testing )
Issues:
• What about WCAG principles that don't have defined success
criteria (e.g. "content must be understandable")?
• What about 'baselines' – context only known locally
• What about differing models or / definitions of 'accessibility'?
Note vendors of accessibility testing services will market
WCAG tools e.g. see posting on BSI PAS 78
Tangram model can be used within WCAG
• Distinguish between testable (ALT tags)
and subjective (content understandable)
• Supports baselines
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Testable
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Baseline 1
Accessibility 2.0 Paper
Paper presented at W4A 2007 conference:
• “I don’t disagree – but WAI focusses on
accessibility of Web resources”
Our misunderstanding of WAI’s role:
• Decide on the services you wish to
provide, then look at accessibility
not:
• Look at accessibility guidelines to see
what is allowed
Note this ties in with Seb Chan’s talk on the processes
for
selecting
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WCAG 2.0
Latest WCAG 2.0 draft is much improved
Focus on four key principles (POUR):
Perceivable: Information and user interface components
must be perceivable by users
Operable: User interface components must be operable
by users
Understandable: Information and operation of user
interface must be understandable by users
Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be
interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents,
including assistive technologies
Note WCAG 2.0 draft removes some of the flawed guidelines – and HTML
compliance is toned down. This may result in many Web sites will enhance
their WCAG
rating
overnight!
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WCAG & Holistic Context
Proposal for a museum’s accessibility policy:
• Museum services will seek to engage its
audiences, attract new & diverse audiences,
...
• Museum will take reasonable measures to
maximise access to its services.
Interpretations:
• Second Life, Web 2.0, … to attract new
audiences (e.g. young people)
• Reasonable measures to ensure Web 2.0 is
widely accessible (e.g. WCAG if possible)
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On Reasonableness
How do we know what is reasonable?
• Every page must be WCAG AA compliant
(including HTML-compliance, even if 99% of Web
pages fail this test)
• No Podcasting, as can’t be heard by deaf users
(to hell with blind users)
• No Flash – even if people say they like it
• No surrealism – people won’t understand it
Or:
• Staff training so they’re informed of best practices
• Sharing our approaches – and learning from
others
• Engaging with our user communities
• Doing what museums are expected to do
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Not In Isolation
How do we:
• Develop staff?
• Enhance the effectiveness of our
approaches?
• Develop an understand on what is
reasonable?
Answers:
• Documenting policies
• Sharing our experiences
• Sharing our resources
• ofDiscussing
and debating
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An Emerging Roadmap
Accessibility Summit II held in Nov 2006 agreed:
• Need for a manifesto:
 Building on WAI’s foundations
 Developing a user-centric approach
 Developing a contextual model
 Developing an evidence-based approach
• A roadmap for future work:
 Engagement with disability communities
 Engagement with WAI
 Identifying areas of research
 Gathering case studies of best practices
…
Follow-up workshop took place at MW 2007
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Application to Second Life
How do I make SL accessible?
Wrong question – ask:
• “How do I maximise the
accessibility of my museum?”
Solutions:
• Wheelchair ramps
• Web sites
• Accessible Web sites
• Web experiences
• Immersive environments
• …
Compare with the BBC. Is the radio
universally accessible to the deaf – or do A portfolio of solutions aimed
the BBC Ahave
a expertise
portfolio
of channels?
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at widening participation
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Next Steps for Museums
http://museums.wikia.com/
wiki/Accessibility_2.0
At MW 2007:
• Museums wiki service
described
• Accessibility 2.0 added
to wiki
An opportunity for you:
• Use this to briefly
summarise your
approaches to
accessibility 2.0
(And keep copy for use
elsewhere)
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Just Do It!!
What not to do:
• Seek 2 year funding in order to explore
implications, set up case study database,
QA processes, …
Instead:
• Write case study on the train home!
• Document what you’ve done - you’ve
probably adopted a user-focussed
approach anyway! (cf. Tate’s i-Map work
described by Caro Howell 2 years ago)
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What Next?
What should the next steps be in development
of approaches for Web accessibility in a
museum context?
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