don't ignore your special users by rahul verma
TRANSCRIPT
TM Rahul Verma So/ware Tes2ng Entrepreneur
www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Accessibility is not a favour. It’s business.
Don’t Ignore Your
Special Users
Who am I?
Rahul Verma (Founder: Test Mile, Talent Reboot, AutoCognite)
I’m not an Accessibility expert.
Nevertheless, I’m here to share my perspective
about it, with focus on Visual disabilities.
In my work, I primarily focus on performance,
security and test automation research.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
This was supposed to be a “general” Accessibility presenta2on.
Some Concepts. Compliance names.
Some Tool Demos.
Well, that’s what I thought.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
However…
The process of going through the experience of preparing for this
talk changed me.
And my perception about Accessibility.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.TalentReboot.com
DISCLAIMER I’m not going to be politically correct. I firmly feel that words like ‘differently abled’ are mostly used to temporarily please people with disabilities, without undertaking responsibility and working towards change. From my experience in dealing with close friends who are visually impaired, they are way more courageous than we think. They don’t need sweet words. They want to be taken seriously. This is also substantiated by organizations like NCBI (reference article “Assisting the Blind and Visually Impaired” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705868/ )
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
.
When blind men assess an elephant, they are not the problem. Elephant is the problem.
An irresponsible analogy
The blind men and elephant analogy
Is like a book library
With No/poor shelving No/poor librarian
No/poor Ramp
And then blaming disabled users For not using the library.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Either the elephant should inform about itself.
Or there should be facilities around the Elephant that a blind person can use.
That’s accessibility.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
If the facili2es are good enough So that government allows Elephant rides for the blind:
You are compliant.
That doesn’t mean that blind people Would enjoy the ride.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
If the interface is engineered with Genuine care for the blind:
You would most likely be compliant.
Blind people Would see the difference of
enjoying the best ride in the city especially designed for them.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
You made them feel genuinely special. They love you.
You make more money.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
So, you see.
While Compliance ensures business existence.
Care and genuine Empathy would ensure business growth,
with compliance as a by-product.
So, I’d focus on the latter in this talk. © 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
All of us have a billionnaire Blind friend.
Goes by the name Google.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Now Imagine.
A panel of filthy rich people Discussing on the subject of Poverty.
Not fair. Isn’t it?
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Most of us are filthy rich.
Although we never considered richness in those gifts.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
As this is not a motivational talk..
And as we are going to talk now
about technicalities of Accessibility…
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Please allow me to take your Riches away for some time
(That’s metaphorical, Watson!)
Let’s go to your favourite website in…
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
These were just 15-20 minutes.
For some, that’s how life is.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
There are many other disabilties
Apart from Total loss of vision.
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Where do I go next?
• WCAG 2.0: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ • WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative): https://
www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/Overview • Read whatever you can get on UX, Information
Architecture, Simplicity • Try out Wave, NoCoffee and other tools for
testing. • Try out screen readers like NVDA
(nvaccess.org for Windows), Apple VoiceOver (Built-in for Mac and iOS).
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Thank You.
[email protected] @rahul_verma +91-‐99022-‐83387
© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ
Picture Credits h-p://edtech2.boisestate.edu/kristagreear/images/accessibilityicons.png h-p://media.salon.com/2014/01/wealthy_man.jpg h-p://aBtudes4innovaDon.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2014/01/richguy.jpg h-p://previews.123rf.com/images/spn01/spn011001/spn01100100080/6292783-‐Poverty-‐Stock-‐Photo-‐poverty-‐hand.jpg h-p://altoday.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2015/10/Poverty-‐homeless-‐poor.jpg I’ve tried to keep a track of all images used. Please let me know if your link reference is not there, so that I can include the same.