Perceivable

As a minimum requirement for accessibility people need to be able to perceive – that is see, hear or touch web content. Information that cannot reach the brain is inaccessible. There are four guidelines under this principle:

• Text alternatives – known as ‘alt’ text. All non-text content such as images must be provided with alt text. This text can be converted into different formats such as audio or Braille as required. The alt text should be meaningful, descriptive and reflect the purpose of the image. If the image does not convey meaning and is purely for decoration, you can specify an empty or null text for screen readers to avoid unnecessary clutter.
• Time based media - Time based means it runs over time like audio or video, rather than static content such as images and text. Audio content requires an alternative description for users with hearing impairments. This could be in the form of captions synchronized with the media. Video content that contains more than just dialogue, such as an action sequence would need an alternative text transcript or audio description so those with visual impairments can understand and make sense of the change in events. A text transcript is the minimum required for multimedia content to be made accessible.
• Adaptable – People with disabilities often need to change the way the information is presented to them, so it is easier to perceive and understand. E.g A dyslexic user may want to have the page read out to them via text or might want to change the colours and text size so that it is easier to read and understand. Web pages should be coded semantically using headers, lists and paragraphs to add a logical, non-visual structure to the page.
• Distinguishable – It’s important not to rely on colour alone to convey information. For instance, don’t rely on colour as the only way to distinguish segments in a pie chart, don’t start audio or video on a page automatically unless you provide a way of turning it off. Screen reader users may find it difficult to hear the speech output of their software if audio or video is playing at the same time.

Operable

Users should be able to find, navigate through and interact with web content such as forms and menus using a range of input methods and assistive technologies. There are four guidelines under this principle:

• Keyboard Accessible - Some people with mobility impairments and some people who use screen readers only use a keyboard to navigate a website. Keyboard users typically tab through a web page to interact with links, jump to the next question on a form and interaction with other controls. Websites that are not accessible with a keyboard only results in users getting stuck at a particular point on the site and cannot navigate back or forward. They then have to close the page and start again, this is very frustrating. This is often found with flash content such as a media player.
• Enough time - Some users will require longer than others to perform tasks on a website so it is important to give users enough time or adjust the flexibility of time required for tasks. For example, extending or doubling the duration of timeout.Content that moves or auto updates can cause problems for those who read stationary text slowly, or anyone who has trouble tracking moving objects. Blinking or scrolling content that lasts longer than five seconds should include the ability to pause, stop or be hidden by the user.
• Seizures - It is important that websites do not contain any features that flash or flicker more frequently than 3 times a second to avoid the risk of causing seizures for those with photosensitive epilepsy. PEAT, an online photosensitive epilepsy analysis tool can be used to test flashing or content that flickers.
• Navigable – Users should be able to easily navigate around a web page. Users should also be able to bypass or skip large blocks of content with the help of skip links. The focus order of links as you tab through a page should be logical and not jump around the page. Visual should be used to identify the current tab position. Screen readers often have problems with hyperlinks that do not make sense by them selves. At a minimum it should be possible to work out from the context of the link where it will take you. There for avoid using link phrases such as ‘click here’ or ‘more’, instead make them more descriptive.

Understandable

All web content should make sense and its behavior should be predictable. In addition any feedback provided about errors should be clear and helpful. There are three guidelines under this principle:

• Readable – Ensure the site is readable and understood and ensure it is coded using the right HTML language, such as English, French or Spanish. The language can be set for the whole page or part of a page, for example when a quote is used from another language. Screen Readers rely on the correct code language being used so they can use the correct speech engine to read out.
• Predictable – Ensuring pages are predictable helps users with visual disabilities, cognitive and motor impairments. When navigating through web pages it reduces the chance that a change of context will occur unexpectedly and cause confusion. Ensure elements are in the same place on each page and place elements where users would expect to see them – for instance your logo should be top left on every page and the search top right. Don’t allow changes to happen when tabbing of focusing on elements such as submitting data on a form submit button when the user tabs onto the submit button. Another example is when a form refreshes without warning. This is confusing for a screen reader user as they are sent back to the start of the page. Warning users of change will mean they will be less disorientated.
• Input Assistance – People with disabilities may be more likely to make mistakes when inputting information and at the same time it can be harder for them to detect an error. It is important to provide accessible input assistance such as error messages to avoid and then help them correct mistakes. Form errors, ideally should be marked with strong red text and ideally a hazard or warning symbol. Form fields should provide clear labels, cues and instructions providing enough guidance so users know what to do. If mistakes are made provide clear, helpful instruction on how to correct them as the nature of the error may not be obvious to people with visual or learning disabilities.

Robust

People use different operating systems, browsers and versions of browsers yet despite these different technologies they call expect the web to work. There is one guideline to this principle:

• Compatible – To maximize compatibility use good quality code that adheres to web standards such as the WC3, HTML and XHTML standards. Ensure that the code is checked against validation tools, errors are fixed and ensure multimedia movies such as Flash have descriptive labels associated with them.

Things init

• Chorizo
• Cherry tomatoes
• New potatoes
• Sherry
• Red pepper
• Garlic
• White onion
• Paprika
• Chopped parsley
• Rice and bread to serve

What you gotta do to make it

1) Cut and par-boil potatoes then fry until they begin to color

2) Add the onion and fry until soft

3) Add the chorizo, garlic and red pepper and cook until chorizo begins to color

4) Add the sherry, tomatoes and paprika and reduce sherry by half

5) Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with rice and crusty bread

Who’s recipe is it?

Good Housekeeping – One Pot

Things init

• Chorizo
• Baby Potatoes
• White Onion
• Garlic
• Paprika
• Seasoning
• Parsley

What you gotta do to make it

1) Cut the potatoes into small cubes and boil for 15min or until soft

2) Fry the onion on low heat until soft and not brown

3) Add the chorizo, garlic and paprika and cook until golden

4) Add the potatoes and cook until they begin to brown

5) Crack a couple of eggs over and cook in the oven until eggs are cooked

6) Sprinkle with parsley

Who’s recipe is it

Jamie Oliver

The British Standard BS 8878 is not another WCAG (Website Content Accessibility Guideline) but recommends that the WCAG 2.0 is used in the creation of websites or web product.

BS 8878 is about putting the user centred approach, now recognised as the key of creating a successful website, at the heart of accessibility.

The British Standard BS 8878 provides a framework for organisation to ensure their web products are accessible. This framework includes creating policies and procedures and involving disabled people in developing and testing.

BS 8878 provides a 16 step process for creating accessible web products which are covered under six stages:

Stage 1: Requirements Gathering

The requirements gathering stage involves conducting the right research and thinking before launching into the development of the web product, such as defining the purpose of the web product and its users while targeting their needs.

Stage 2: Strategic Decision

The strategic decision stage involves strategic decision making based on the findings in the requirements gathering stage, such as what degrees of user experience you want to web product to meet and what browser, OS (Operating System) and AT (Assistive Technology) you want to support.

Stage 3: Production

The production process involves choosing the development technologies you will use to build your web product and select the appropriate accessibility guidelines.

Stage 4: Accessibility Insurance (Testing Plan)

This stage requires you to create and implement an accessibility testing plan. An accessibility test plan may often take the form of a flow chart, starting with identifying the route a user will take within your web product, the challenges they may face and resolving those challenges. Disabled or abled users can be included for live testing during the test plan process.

Stage 5: Communication

In the communication stage you create an accessibility statement for the web product to communicate what you have done to make the website more accessible.

Stage 6: Maintenance and Review

Lastly, the maintenance and review stage involves making continuous accessibility improvements based on user feedback and technological changes.

Further Information

Further information on BS 8878 can be found here:

http://www.hassellinclusion.com/bs8878/#content

• Legal
• Commercial
• Social/Ethical

Legal

The Equality Act 2010 makes fair treatment of disabled people a legal requirement. In October 2010 the Equality Act replaced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) in England, Wales and Scotland. The DDA only remains in Northern Ireland. Both laws place certain duties on providers of websites, intranets and extranets.

Under this legislation all websites must be accessible and disabled users should not be put at a “substantial disadvantage” compared to non-disabled users.

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is based on the principle that all people, irrespective of race, age, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation or transgender status should be provided with equality of opportunity.

The Equality Act 2010 includes the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which puts additional responsibilities on public bodies to address equality. The PSED combines the Disability Equality Duty (DED) with previous duties on race, gender and additional duties on age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and transgender status.

It means public sector organisations need to consider the particular needs of these groups when planning and delivering services, including web services.

Organisations that own websites that have poor accessibility or usability could be in breach of the law.

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

The first part of the PSED was introduced in April 2011. The PSED and DED before it, requires that public sector organisations to be proactive in ensuring that the needs of disabled people are addressed.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Equality and Human Rights Commission to over the role of the former Disability Rights Commission. As the regulator of the Equality Act, the Human Rights Commission has the power to take action against website owners who do not comply with the law and will also support legal complaints from individuals.

Individuals can take legal action against inaccessible websites without the support of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

It is important to know that conforming to accessibility guidelines such as WCAG2.0 or W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines such as the A, AA or AAA does not make a website legally compliant.

No relevant UK law including the Equality Act 2010, Public Sector Equality Duty or the DDA makes reference to the WCAG or any other web guidelines. Only a UK law can decide whether a website complies with the law or not. The key factor is whether disabled users can use a particular website without unreasonable difficulty. Time, inconvenience and effort are all relative factors of unreasonable difficulty.

Business benefits of Accessibility

Disabled people use the web at least as often as the average person for services that are not easily available through conventional means. Making your site accessible opens it up to a wider audience. This wider audience may include others such as older people or “silver surfers” and those whose first language is not English.

Research has shown that organisations quickly see a return on investment and also tangible benefits from have an accessible website. For example, Legal & General made an estimated saving of around £200,000 that is 66% a year on website maintenance as speed and effort required to update their website was reduced from around five days to half a day per job.

Finally…

The BS 8878 is the British Standard for web accessibility launched in 2010. It provides a framework for organisations to ensure their web products are accessible. More information on the BS 8878 can be found here.

Web Accessibility means making an online product, service, technology or environment usable by everyone regardless of who they are or how they access the web.

Common accessibility issues:

• Distinguishing onscreen text
• Access to multimedia content
• Using the keyboard to interact with pages
• Distracting movement
• Inaccessible navigation elements
• Inaccessible documents

POUR Principles of Accessibility

• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

Disabilities take many forms of:

The following are all relevant to web accessibility in different ways:

• Visual impairments
• Hearing impairments
• Mobility impairments
• Cognitive disabilities
• Learning disabilities

As a result, many disabled people need to use Assistive Tecnology (AT) to access computers and the web. For example, blind web users may use screen reader software such as Jaws, N-V-D-A and SuperNova.

Misconceptions associated with Accessibility

• Bland and dull. Websites that are accessible does not mean bland and not engaging – accessibility does not restrict design or creativity
• Costly. Accessible websites are not costly. They can actually save you money as accessible sites are coded more efficiently saving bandwidth and lowering maintenance costs
• Minority issue. Some people believe accessibility is a minority and only a few people with disabilities access the web. However, this ignores both the high volume of people with web access needs and the enabling power of the internet for disabled people. For instance, people with movement disabilities rely on the web to order their shopping online.

More Information on Accessibility issues

Information on Web Accessibility is available through WCAG2.0. The guidelines have been produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These guidelines provide advise on issues such as alternative text, accessible multimedia, structuring content, making content distinguishable, keyboard accessibility, movement, navigation, providing error feedback and accessible interfaces.

Experts

Experts are those users that will configure the product before using it. Even with new products expert users will explore all features and spend time finding out how everything works before using them. If you’re creating a camera, these users will explore all photo effects and movie modes before taking a single photo. It turns out there are relatively few experts users in our world.

Problems with expert users

Expert users are enthusiasts, very vocal and very opinionated. They will try and do everything possible to improve the product, however their views and judgement are often skewed, as they don’t experience the problems that mainstream users have. More often than not expert users are inside stakeholders so it is difficult to argue with their view.

Willing Adopters

Willing adopters are users that have experience with other similar products and would consider switching to a new product if the features improved their ability to complete tasks required to do their job.

Willing adopters do however have quite a low tolerance so the new features must be understandable and easily accessible.

There are fewer willing adopters in the world than expert users.

Mainstreamers

Mainstreamers make up 90% of the user base. They don’t use technology for its own sake; they use it because they have to do get a job done.

Mainstream users want to be able to get from A-B with little effort and thought as possible. They are a group of individuals who tend to learn the key features and never seek to learn or discover more a product has to offer.

Design for the mainstreamers

If you try and design for the expert users your product will become too complex for the mainstreamers to use. Expert users want all the bells and whistles within a product and this will often lead to frustration for the mainstreamer, as they cannot do the one thing they want to do with the product.

If you want simplicity, design for the mainstreamers.

On Apple’s iPod launch, MacRumours once wrote: “I still can’t believe this, all this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 Player!”?

Another commentator wrote: “All I can say is, as an Apple fan, I am sad”.

In the above example all Apple experts wanted and expected a flying car with flashing lights, where as Apple’s mainstreamers just wanted an MP3 Player that worked.

Today Apple has sold over 240,000,000 iPods and no flying cars with flashing lights.

Ingredients

• Long grain rice
• Medallion beef
• Red pepper
• Celery
• Chorizo
• White onion
• Garlic
• Tomato purée
• Chilli powder
• Ground ginger
• Ground black pepper

For next time…

Celery
Cut into 1cm strips not 5cm strips.

Pepper
Same as above, red pepper needs to be smaller. Add green pepper may also work.

St Paul’s School

illyissimo

Do Lectures

Steven Caver

Sasquatch

Spigot Design

Cacao

40 Horse

Leica

Sparkbox

Below are some links to where you can keep track of the Apple event:

1. Gizmodo iPad 3 Live Blogging: As the event progresses, iPad liveblog and posts will be updated constantly throughout the day here.

2. SlashGear Live Blog: SlashGear will be live blogging the event here.

3. The Verge iPad 3 Live Blogging: The Verge will be live blogging Apple’s announcement of the next iPad here.

4. Engadget Live Blog: You can get live updates of the Apple iPad event in the live blog page provided by Engadget.

5. GDGT Live: GDGT will be providing live Apple iPad 3 event coverage here.

6. ArsTechnica Live: You can visit this site for live updates of the Apple iPad event.

7. TechnoBuffalo iPad 3 Live Blog: You can also bookmark this site for live blog coverage of the Apple media event.

8. UberGizmo iPad 3 Live Blog: This Web site allows users to turn on auto updating every 30 seconds, or disable the auto updating.

9. Macworld Live: Macworld will be offering live coverage of whatever the Apple announces in the event.

10. CNET Live Blog: CNET will get you live news from Apple’s special event.