Accessibility Summit 2013

I had the opportunity to participate in the 2013 Accessibility Summit (online) on September 10 and 11, 2013. Although the focus was on web accessibility, accessibility on mobile devices was also covered. It was a great learning opportunity (without having to travel). It was also wonderful to connect with individuals who I have known for years as well as make some new acquaintances.  Sessions ran from 9 am until 4 pm both days. All sessions were done using Adobe Connect. These are some of my notes and insights from this event. They are distilled from 237 pages of notes and screen captures of the slide decks provided by the speakers. Some of the key insights from all the sessions include the following:
First, our students are getting fairly cutting edge foundational materials in the CMWEB 150 class. I was amazed at the number of reference sites and videos mentioned during the two days that were the very same ones I direct students to in the CMWBE 150 class on accessibility.
Second, the pace of change is incredible once you have an established foundation. I realize I definitely need to update course materials to cover multiple weeks on accessible mobile devices. For those who don’t know iOS is way ahead of Android in this regard. At a minimum, I need to spend a week on each platform.
Third, we are on the cusp of accessibility being rapidly included in mainstream development efforts. If you think in terms of change and adoption of technology, we are at the inflection point where adoption is no longer limited to the innovators and early adopters. This means students taking our CMWEB 150 class are well positioned to leverage the knowledge and skills they are honing in future jobs.

Given the above insights, I also wanted to delve a bit deeper into the various sessions. I present them in the order they happened.

• Accessibility prioritization: What should I fix first by Glenda Sims. I liked the approach Glenda took using a race metaphor to describe how one should approach accessibility improvements on an existing website. This starts with a race driver walking the track to see what they will encounter at higher speeds. They focus on the potential obstacles and prioritize them. In a similar manner, when working with an existing website, it is important to review and prioritize those areas which can have the greatest impact. I also liked Glenda’s observation that often we don’t have WGAC (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) but BCAG (Bob’s Content Accessibility Guidelines) of SCAG (Susie’s…). Her observation that often guidelines are passed through a personal filter is spot on. That being said, it is important to identify those items which have greatest impact on visitors to the site as well as those which have greatest risk of litigation (and fix those areas first). Other factors which can help with prioritization include the effort to remediate coupled with where that particular item (widget or page) is in the product life cycle. If something is about to be retired, less effort typically needs to be expanded. I also liked Glenda’s question – would you be embarrassed if you had to explain your argument to a judge? Her assertion to focus first on templates and reusable modules (like include files) including key user paths and pages and critical issues will be the best approach. A number of useful tools were also discussed (and several additional ones were added by participants). I plan to investigate these relatively soon.
• Accessibility is a design problem by Whitney Quesenbery. Whitney began with this definition of disability – “the outcome of the interaction between a person with an impairment and the environment and attitudinal barriers they may face.” Instead of focusing on medical issues, the focus is placed on the interaction so one can make the experience better for even more people. I appreciated her principles for accessible design. People first, clear purpose, solid structure, easy interaction, helpful wayfinding, clean presentation, plain language, accessible media, and universal usability. I also learned that 43% of adults in US read at a basic or below basic level; only 13% read at a proficient level. This is why it helps to provide information in multiple forms (such as visual [with alternate text] with a title and clear summary and a data table for those who need more details). She made a great point in that the content of the alternate text depends on the context. It is important to create flow and delight for everyone who uses your web pages.
• Accessible DOM scripting with ARIA by Leonie Watson. Leonie began with an overview of necessary terminology so everyone understood the difference between controls (a single point of interaction such as a radio button) and widgets (a composite set of elements such as a slider or tabbed interface). She focused on the WCAG 2.0 principles (for example, items must be perceivable, they must be operable, they must be understandable). I liked her approach to thinking in terms of an accessibility stack. Layers in this stack include: the assistive technology, the accessibility API, accessible rich internet applications [ARIA], and the document object model [DOM]. She provided a number of specific code examples of what works and what doesn’t regarding accessibility. I have plans to share many of her examples in the appropriate classes I teach. For example, it is important not to over ride semantic elements. In this case, <p role=”button”>Button Text</p> should be replaced with <span role=”button”>Button Text</span> (if one needed to code for a button in this manner). I hadn’t thought of giving widgets a single tab stop, but it makes sense. Unfortunately, many tabbed interface widgets will need to rely on JavaScript to handle keyboard interactions when your focus is inside the widget. This can lead to a lot more coding. You can use ARIA to handle the child focus.
• Usability and accessibility CSS gotchas by Dennis Lembree. Dennis focused on a number of potential issues regarding accessibility and CSS. These include losing the link outline, hiding content and hiding content with transitions (which a lot of sites are doing these days as opposed to using alternative approaches like JavaScript), dealing with CSS-generated content, using CSS sprites, text sizing, and text links. One example in CSS using outline:none; on a page demonstrated to me that not having the visual cues meant I didn’t even realize there were links on the page example he demonstrated. This really happens on pages like CNN.com and Bloomberg.com. He mentioned it is best to use discretion when hiding content for screen readers. One approach is to position skip navigation links offscreen, but a preferred industry best practice is now to use clipping and code them with a 1 square pixel location. For example: clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); An alternate approach I found interesting was using CSS transitions to hide the content. Dennis mentioned that a number of people are doing this. For example height:0; transition: 1s all; visibility:hidden; Dennis also recommended 14px minimum height for all body copy. He demonstrated a page which had 16px height for all copy. Many users do not know how to enlarge text in the browser. Consider that 314 million people worldwide live with some form of visual impairment. One should also have ample line height (1.2 – 1.5) along with medium line length (no more than 65 characters), avoiding centering or justifying text, and providing sufficient color contrast.
• Implementing usable keyboard interactions by Jared Smith. I didn’t realize that keyboard accessibility is different when a screen reader is running. Screen readers intercept keyboard keys by default. Only tab, shift-tab, and enter are reliably passed through to the web application. Jared recommended using CSS to control positioning, having the navigational order follow the visual flow, be careful with a content first approach, and designing the reading/ navigation order early in the process. He provided an excellent example of using CSS to enhance visibility. He also recommended using both HTML5 and ARIA roles for now (since browser support varies). For example <main role=”main”>. Jared also reviewed many of the issues associated with modal dialogs. This may cause the screen reader to enter “freak out” mode. This means the currently focused element has disappeared or is significantly modified. The screen reader then works up the DOM chain and may end up at the <body> element. I liked the site he created to cover this – Should I Use a Carousel. If you follow tht link, he presents a number of issues associated with their use and screen readers.
• You’re doing it wrong by Matt May. Rather than focus on technical aspects, Matt focused on the psychology of presenting accessibility issues to others. He stressed that part is our own fault. For example, saying a website is not accessible means??? To whom? For what? With what hardware/ software? With what impact? If you took your car to a mechanic, you wouldn’t just tell them it is broken and leave it for them to fix. Instead, you would provide details to help diagnose and fix the problem. Matt focused on becoming more of an advocate. For example, use a form of this sentence – “This is a problem and this is how it affects people and you can solve it and if you don’t, these are the consequences.” Note that complaining and venting is not a step in this process.
• Talkback & magnification accessibility in Android 4.2+ by Paul Adam. Talkback is an accessibility service available in the Google PlayStore. It adds spoken, audible and vibration feedback to your device. Paul provided a number of examples and screen captures of this application. For example, I did not know that the keyboard is not magnified when the rest of the page is magnified. He also provided a number of resources from Google to assist with using and developing for this app. Paul mentioned that the iOS world is significantly more advanced than what is available for Android devices, but that Android is starting to improve. I also learned that Firefox has the greatest accessibility of all mobile browsers. He also mentioned that you should consider buying your phone or tablet directly through the PlayStore (from Google). If you don’t, most carriers add a custom user interface which often breaks the accessibility experience.
• Planning accessibility management by Sharron Rush. Sharron began by mentioning a site is accessible if people with disabilities can acquire the  same information, participate in the same activities, and be active producers as well as consumers of content. “Good design is accessible design.” She provided a series of steps to IT accessibility. These include listening to your stakeholders, recruiting an executive sponsor and identifying where we are going. She also reviewed approaches to developing and implementing a policy. In addition to using enterprise testing tools, it is important to have a manual review as well.
• The mindfulness of accessibility by Elle Waters. Elle provided a number of useful insights through stories of personal experiences. If you think something is accessible, do it 10 more times. We often stop after 3 or 4 tests, but many people with disabilities must perform a given task many more times. I learned that 13% of the US population is presently 65 or older. Of those, 22% speak English as a second language and 37% have a severe disability. She also mentioned the coming “silver tsunami.” There will be 72 million Americans over 65 in 2030. That is one in 5 Americans. She also focused on cultural differences and how they relate to accessibility. Different cultures focus on collectivism or individualism. Some have a preference for avoiding uncertainty while others have a high tolerance for ambiguity. Some cultures have a long term orientation while others only focus on the short term. She used the McDonalds website as an example of these cultural differences. She compared the versions seen in India, Pakistan, Germany and the US. She provided a lot to think about in terms of these cultural aspects on accessibility.  Is it important? From 2000 to 2008, Internet growth in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia exceeded 1030%, 1175%, and 360% respectively. One needs to understand cultures when we communicate accessible designs. By 2050, there are expected to be 120 million people with dementia.  The largest growth of those afflicted will be in low and middle income countries. She mentioned the global village construction set. This is an effort to determine what it would take to build a civilization (if everything was standardized). Can it be done with 50 tools (all open source and closed loop manufactured – so they can be used to build copies). This is pretty impressive and the list of tools includes 3D printers and 3D scanners among many other items. She then took this concept and applied it to accessible design. This included headings, fonts and so forth. I found this to be a very interesting exercise.
• Accessibility on a budget by Sharron Rush. Sharron focused on people, policy, planning, and process. She reviewed a number of videos detailing how people with disabilities use the web. I was intrigued to observe that many are the same videos I ask students in my CMWEB 150 class to watch. She covered the importance of planning for accessibility and the importance to get buy in from all levels of the organization. She referenced a number of free training resources. She also mentioned the Accessible Internet Rally (AIR) held each year which includes a contest with prizes (participants will build an accessible site for an organization).
• Accessible video in the enterprise by John Foliot. John began by providing a brief history of video on the web with some observations. For example, users will often abandon a streaming video if it takes longer than 2 seconds to begin to load/ play. He reviewed protocols such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)  and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol). He also reviewed encoding considerations. Sadly, even today, one must have at least 2 versions of any video (WebM – open source and H.264 – proprietary such as MP4) to cover all browser possibilities today. No standard has yet emerged across all devices/ browsers. He also covered security considerations (since JavaScript must be used in many instances, there are potentials for cross site scripting attacks and other malicious approaches). He reviewed closed captions, open captions and their formats. I had not realized there are 30 different time stamp formats (and many are proprietary). That being said, there are may open source tools which will perform conversion from one format to another.He also reviewed transcripts. He also reviewed new approaches such as the A11YMetadata project. A11Y stands for accessibility for those who didn’t know. There are 13 letters in the word accessibility. So begin with A follow with 11 letters and end with Y. Ok, pop quiz, what is I18N? Internationalization. He also mentioned the descriptive video exchange project.
• Change is not a four letter word by Kimberly Blessing. This was the final presentation at the summit. Kimberly reviewed how change takes place over time. Today we are at 25% of the web community understanding accessibility and being able to implement it. This is right at the inflection point when things typically “take off.” We need to recognize that change equals fear for many. We can adapt to the change before us and can help others adapt also. It is important to understand your audience. Why is accessibility important to them? Connect your story with others. She provided a number of useful stories to connect how we are all agents of change.

Wow, thanks for reading this far. It was a great conference with a lot of useful information. I am curious as to your thoughts. I look forward to your comments.

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