Making your website easy to use for diverse audiences

Transcription

1 Making your website easy to use for diverse audiences

2 About AbilityNet AbilityNet is the UK s only charity dedicated to ICT access for people with disabilities We support people on a one to one basis The web team can help with every aspect of web accessibility

3 The trinity of accessible web design Relevant Content Design Intuitive Non-jargon Usable Concise Attractive Clear & accurate Summarised Markup Relevant Legible Rich media enhanced Scaleable Standards compliant (W3C) Semantic or structured markup Progressive enhancement

4 Some Statistics 8.6 million disabled people in Britain - that's one in seven of the population 36% of 9 million UK disabled are online (Compared to 60% of nondisabled)* Nine million deaf and hard of hearing people Two million people in the UK have significant sight loss Around 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK, many have a secondary impairment One in 10 people in the UK have dyslexia (6 million) One in 12 of the male population is colour blind * Many have more than one disability

5 How disabled people access the web The groups that have specific Issues with web and intranet accessibility are: Vision including blindness, colour blindness and tunnel vision Hearing both total deafness and hard of hearing Mobility problems with hands and arms Cognitive, Mental and learning disabilities Many have more than one disability

6 Beyond screen readers Voice Recognition Software: Say What You See Can be tiring to use Using a keyboard only Fatigue, painful, can be laborious Dyslexia Can be issues with short term memory, time and organisation management, information overload Learning disability Complex languages, designs, difficulties reading

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8 Web accessibility The Stick You are legally obliged to make your website accessible

9 Disability Discrimination Act The DDA covers employment and the provision of goods and services to disabled people The DDA has been rolled out in stages to give organisations time to adjust grey areas clarified by case law An accessible Website is given as an example of a reasonable adjustment in the goods and services DDA code of practice law since 1999 A service that is only available over the web is arguably most at risk from this legislation

10 Is our web site DDA Compliant? The DDA does not refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) though they are the defacto standard The DDA effectively calls for all websites to be accessible and usable for all: WCAG compliance can be used as an indicator of legal compliance but in itself does not prove compliance WCAG AA is now the widely accepted benchmark Do not rely on mechanical box checking Following PAS 78 guidance, including disabled user testing, provides a valuable audit trail How you deal with a complaint is likely to determine whether it goes further

11 DDA: Background & the web October 99: DDA Section 21 came into effect February 02: DDA Code of Practice revised July 03: RNIB issues county court proceedings April 04: DRC Formal Investigation into Web Accessibility Report April 06: PAS 78:Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites A replacement PAS is currently in development

12 PAS 78: Background Disability Rights Commission research on web accessibility found that awareness of the issue is high, but good practice is very low The Disability Rights Commission has commissioned the British Standards Institution to produce a PAS (Publicly Available Specification) The purpose of the PAS is to meet the needs of website commissioners

13 International legal cases In June 1999 Bruce Maguire a Blind Australian made a complaint that the (SOCOG) site was inaccessible In August 2000 the Human rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) ruled in his favour based on the Australian DDA (1992) SOCOG argued it would be too expensive and take to long to fix - expert witnesses called refuted this SOCOG ignored the ruling and where fined $20,000 Case sets the precedent for any future legal cases worldwide

14 Legal case Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Part 3 of the Act came into effect October 1995 Places a legal duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people can use the service A website is a service as defined under the Act DDA Code of Practice published by DRC in 2002 makes the duty explicit Very few service providers are exempt No case law to date, though RNIB initiated two cases in 2003 (both settled)

15 Legal cases in other countries Australia 2000: Olympics.com Disability Discrimination Act USA 2007: Target.com Americans with Disabilities Act Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

16 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines WAI produces 3 sets of accessibility guidelines: 1. Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) When implemented in harmony the web becomes accessible Accessibility 2.0 WAI has produce a Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications

17 Benefits of WCAG is designed to build on 1.0 More testable, clearer requirements More supporting documentation and examples Updatable techniques Support of non-w3c technology Applicable to both current and future technologies

18 Differences between 1.0 and 2.0 WCAG 1.0 Guidelines Checkpoints (Priority A, AA and AAA) Techniques WCAG Principles: POUR 12 Guidelines Success Criteria (Level A, AA and AAA) Sufficient Techniques Advisory techniques Common Failures

19 Conformance claims These are optional and apply to web pages or sets of web pages. If used they must include: 1. The date of the claim 2. The guidelines title, version and URI "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 at {URI}" 3. The conformance level satisfied: (Level A, AA or AAA) 4. A description of the URIs that the claim is being made for 5. A list of accessibility-supported technologies that includes all of the technologies relied upon and their versions

20 Disability Rights Commission Formal Investigation into Web Accessibility 2004 Investigation of 1,000 UK websites 81% failed basic accessibility criteria Awareness of accessibility high Goodwill towards disabled people high Creation of best practice guidance for site commissioners recommended Download free report from

21 Publicly Available Specification 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites Commissioned by DRC, published by BSI Julie Howell, Technical Author (RNIB) Re-drafted by industry steering group (8) Reviewed by industry review panel (120) Available FREE In the absence of UK county court case law PAS 78 is your best guide to creating websites that meet your legal duty to disabled customers under the DDA