Making Content Accessible

Transcription

1 Making Content Accessible Beyond the Obvious Sreya Dutta Abhishek Majumder Senior Manager, Documentation Senior Technical Writer Oracle 8-Dec

2 Program Agenda Users with Disabilities - Inclusivity History of Standards and International Guidelines Delivering Accessible Help 2

3 Terms Assistive Technology Software such as screen reader that transmits information on the screen via speech or Braille. Mobile devices use special gestures. JAWS - Job Access With Speech NVDA - NonVisual Desktop Access Braille Display - A refreshable Braille device that reads what s on the screen and pushes up a series of pins to display Braille in real-time. WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines International guidelines that are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the W3C. US Section 508 Accessibility standards in the US broader than web content guideline. Screen magnifier - ZoomText, MAGic, and Zoom on ios are a few examples of this software you can check out. 3

4 Accessibility Making user interfaces: Perceivable Operable Understandable by people with a wide range of abilities. 4

5 Global Impact of Disabilities Myth of the Minority 5% People in the US, UK and Canada suffer from hearing or general vision difficulties due to age. 8% Males in the US suffer from some form of color blindness, compared to 0.5% of females. Working age adults have a severe dexterity issues and can t use a mouse. 7% 20% People in the US have Reading difficulties including dyslexia. 5

6 Everyone Uses Software! 6

7 Understanding Disabilities Full and effective participation and inclusion in society 7

8 How do people without disabilities use software? Physical movement and touch Voice Sight Sound 8

9 Inclusivity of People with Disabilities Color Blind Problem: Can t differentiate certain colors Solution: Provide additional visual cues Hearing Impaired Problem: Audio only, background noise Solution: Captions and transcripts, amplification, sign language Low Vision Problem: Content size, Low contrast, field of view Solution: HTML output, high contrast Physically Impaired Problem: Input devices, insufficient time Solution: Voice dictation, eye-tohead tracking software, ergonomic keyboard Blind Problem: Non-text content, mouse-only actions, object shape and color Solution: Text and keyboard input Cognitively Impaired Problem: Complexity, inconsistency, distractions Solution: Simplicity, consistency and predictability, error handling 9

10 Color Blind Users Problems Cannot differentiate certain colors Solutions Additional visual cues, minimalism, patterns, good color contrast (4.5:1) Certain types of color blind users can t see red error messages It is absolutely OK to use color!! You just cannot rely on color exclusively 10

11 Low Vision User - Field of View with Magnifier 11

12 Hearing Impaired: Provide Helpful Video Captions 12

13 Cognitively Impaired - Consistent Identification Elements with the same functionality must be identified consistently. Status: Status: On track Completed In progress Finished 13

14 Info and Relationships Issue for All Users! Caption Column Headers Celebrities of the world. Name Role Phone Row Headers Tom Hanks Actor Sandra Bullock Actress Amitabh Bachchan Program Manager PV Sindhu Badminton player Balaji Prasad Software Engineer

15 Physically Impaired Eye Tracking Software In the movie The Theory of Everything, Stephen Hawking helped to bring eye tracking technology to life for viewers. Hawking communicates using an eye tracker after losing the ability to talk and write, thus allowing him to make significant contributions to society. 15

16 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG 2.0 Levels Web developers and writers must satisfy these requirements: A AA AAA Non-text Content: Provide textual equivalent for all non-text content (e.g. images) : If audio or video exists, alternatives must be provided (captions, transcripts, audio description) Use of Color: Do not use color as the only visual way to convey information 16

17 Evolution of Accessibility Standards 17

18 Evolution of Accessibility Standards Charitable Model (1950) Taking care of people with disabilities Social Model (1960s) - Moving Towards Inclusion Philosophy of taking care of each other Independent Living Model ( s) Independent unassisted access Human Rights Model ( s) Inclusion Including people with variety of disabilities 18

19 History of Standards WCAG 1.0 Revised US Section Jan, Updated US Section US Section 508 WCAG

20 Section 508 and WCAG Revised Section 508 WCAG 2.0 AA (38 criteria) WCAG 2.0 AA (38 criteria) Original Section

21 Delivering Accessible Help Practical Tips and Tricks 21

22 Challenges in Writing for Accessibility Large teams across geographies with different writing styles Different perspectives and awareness about accessibility among writers Standardizing guidelines across different tools and writing styles Existing tools to test accessibility conformance and their shortcomings 22

23 Accessibility Checks in Authoring Process Checklists using simple language Adapt writing style to include guidelines Identify objects: graphics and tables Standards Authoring Automatically check issues at source during authoring Accessible Content Ensure publishing tool creates accessible output (HTML) including appropriate tagging and markup Publishing Output Perform qualitative and quantitative testing Use tools such as Excel macros to test output 23

24 Common Content Issues Issue Guideline Violated Resolution Missing or incorrect graphic alternate text Incorrect color contrast in graphics Readability of formulas Font size too small and can t be magnified Mouse-only actions without keyboard steps Non-text content must have alt text Ensure min color contrast - 4.5: Don t use images of text Add meaningful graphic alternate texts Edit graphic to ensure foreground or text color has high contrast to background Formulas in HTML can be read by screenreaders avoid creating a graphic Resize text to 200% Ensure the output can be zoomed into with no quality degradation Access all functions from keyboard Provide alternative keyboard steps unless UI doesn t provide alternative Order of content not meaningful Meaningful order Ensure order makes sense 24

25 Example: Impact of Accessibility Standards on Help Before After The following figure shows an example flow of a project resource request status progress for a confirmed assignment of a New Resource request type. In this figure, a resource request begins in Draft status. If you cancel the request, the status changes to Canceled and there are no further actions. If you submit the request, the status changes to Open. You can either confirm the resource, withdraw the request, or cancel the request. If you withdraw the request, the status changes to Draft. If you cancel the request, the status changes to Canceled. If you confirm the resource, the status changes to Proposed for Confirmed Assignment. You can take one of the following actions when the request is in Proposed for Confirmed Assignment status: Approve resource. The request status will change to Fulfilled by Confirmed Assignment, and there is no further action. Reject resource. The status returns to Open. 25

26 Example: Accessible Application to Accessible Help Before: Describe keyboard actions in addition to mouse Hover over the donut graph to view further details such as the actual spent amount, monthly spending details, and the elapsed time. After: Focus on function of UI rather than describing UI Hover over the donut graph of the award project card or use the Tab key to view additional financial details. 26

27 Wrapping Up Recognize all users will eventually have some issues due to aging or life s events, and so on. Be sensitive to the context and history of why the standards came about. Appreciate how a combination of technology and software will only make applications more user-friendly in addition to being accessible. Identify how basic tools automation and guidelines can help us deliver accessible content. 27

28 Additional Resources WCAG 2.0: 5%2C111 Accessibility guidelines for united nations websites: ICTA Global International Commission on Technology and Accessibility: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) Overview: Design for Color Blindness: 28

29 Thank You! 29