Slides URL• https://accessibility.osu.edu/cse3901

Introductions

• Peter BossleyDeputy ADA Coordinator

• Corey HinshawSenior Accessibility SME

• Office of Institutional Equity

What is digital accessibility?

Accessibility as universal design

“Accessibility is usability under a magnifying glass.”

- Léonie Watson, Senior Accessibility Engineer, The Paciello Group

Accessible interfaces provide a UX that effectively and elegantly accommodates as wide a swath of people as possible, regardless of ability or mode of access.

Opportunities

As accessibility efforts in higher education and government shift the technology industry’s focus to this topic, many opportunities for you to enhance your career are presenting themselves

https://www.a11yjobs.com/

Beyond simple compliance• Technical standards (like WCAG 2.0) are

designed to assist in making the virtual world accessible to people with disabilities

• There can be a big difference between strict compliance with technical standards and a (virtually) welcoming experience

• We encourage you to look toward welcoming experiences, not minimum compliance to standards

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines• WCAG is developed and maintained by the

World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility working group to assist web developers and content authors in making their content more accessible and usable to people with disabilities. Currently at version 2.1, it has become the most widely accepted standard for web accessibility compliance world-wide. WCAG 2.0 AA became the U.S. federal government standard in Section 508 in January 2018.

Goal of WCAG• The goal of WCAG is to promote functional

accessibility, not just technical accessibility. While technical accessibility determines whether a resource is coded to an accepted accessibility standard, to be functionally accessible means that any person can use the resource effectively to perform an available task. Coding to an accepted standard is often a means of approaching functional accessibility, but achieving functional accessibility means that resources are easy to use and content is clear and unambiguous for all users, regardless of ability.

What these mean in practice• The following slides present a basic overview

of the major types of disabilities and the functional requirements people with these types of disabilities most commonly have for web-based content. The considerations presented here are not intended to be an exhaustive list for each disability type, but are a good starting place for design considerations.

Creating a virtually welcoming environmentDeaf or hard of hearing

• Accurate, synchronized closed or open captions for time-based audio or video presentations with speaker identification

• Accurate transcripts for pre-recorded audio• Captions or interpretation of live events• Text or visual alternatives to audio queues

Creating a virtually welcoming environmentblind or low vision

• Logical tab/focus order

• Semantic structures e.g. lists, headings, used appropriately

• All UI must be screen reader accessible.

• sufficient color contrast be used to distinguish text from background and other elements e.g. keyboard focus indicators

• color alone not be used to convey meaning

• Audio description for video content

Creating a virtually welcoming environmentmobility impairment

• logical tab/focus order

• All UI must be operable via keyboard or keyboard-simulation technology

• Visual focus indication must be sufficient

Creating a virtually welcoming environmentCognitive disabilities

• Similar elements e.g. navigation, menus, buttons, search boxes, etc. throughout a site or application should be presented and behave consistently

• Avoid unpredictable UI patterns – especially interactive controls

Screen reader demonstration

• Demonstrate common screen reader accessibility problems

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Simple semantic example

<h1> Places I have visited </h1><h2> China </h2>

<ul><li> Beijing </li><li> Shanghai </li>

</ul><h2> United States </h2>

<h3> Ohio </h3><ul>

<li> Columbus </li><li> Cleveland </li>

</ul>

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Helpful Tools and Resources

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview

• WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1

• AInspector Sidebar

• TPG Color Contrast Analyzer

• Digital Accessibility Skills Trainings

Recap

• Accessibility is simply usability for people with disabilities

• Consider how people experience the web when building online content

• Create welcoming environment for everyone, aim higher than simple compliance

Questions

• Peter Bossley• bossley.5@osu.edu

(614) 688-3028• @PeterBossley Twitter• LinkedIn

• Corey Hinshaw• hinshaw.25@osu.edu

(614) 292-2986