A Holistic Approach To Web Accessibility Brian Kelly

A Holistic Approach To Web Accessibility Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Email B. Kelly@ukoln. ac. uk About The Speaker Brian Kelly is a Web adviser to UK cultural heritage and Higher and Further Education communities. He has attended several W 3 C WAI meeting, has published surveys of the accessibility of UK University entry points and organised a panel session with Judy Brewer, head of WAI at WWW 2003 conference. UKOLN is supported by: A centre of expertise in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk

Background Web Accessibility Areas of agreement: • Accessibility of digital resources greatly benefits many users and potential users • Organisations (especially publicly-funded bodies) should seek to maximise the accessibility of their services • W 3 C WAI has been tremendously successful in: • Raising awareness of accessibility issues for digital resources • Developing various guidelines for helping Web developers, software developers, etc. But we face some challenges … Acronyms 2 WAI: W 3 C’s World Wide Web Accessibility Web Consortium, Initiative, is the is body the body responsible for A centre of expertise in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk for overseeing development of Web of anstandards accessible Web

Background Where Are We Now? Current status on Web accessibility: • Widespread awareness within public sector Web communities • Widespread support for implementation • Sharing of approaches, discussions, etc. But: • • Implementation challenges Lack of clarity of what exactly we should do Still ambiguities (cf DRC report) Have things changes since WAI WCAG 1. 0 released in 1999? Acronyms 3 DRC: Disability Rights Commission is an independent body established in A centre expertise in digital information management 2000 to of stop discrimination & promote equality of opportunity www. ukoln. ac. uk for the disabled

Challenges Accessibility Survey of UK University home pages carried out in August 2002 and repeated in June 2004 Used Bobby – so only objective criteria measured Findings 2002 2004 WAI AA compliant 3 7 WAI A compliant 70 93 See <http: //www. ukoln. ac. uk/web-focus/events/ workshops/webmaster-2004/talks/phipps-kelly/survey/> Reminder: this is probably an over-estimate of compliance. Problems which can only be spotted with manual detection can reduce these figures. Also note that this is just the home page – not the entire A centre of Web expertisesite! in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk 4

Challenges What Can We Conclude? What can we conclude from the lack of WAI WCAG AAA compliance and small percentage of AA compliance: • The higher education community doesn't care about Web accessibility • WCAG AAA and AA compliance is difficult to achieve (even on a single, high profile page) • There are other issues to consider Acronyms 5 WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have been developed by WAI centre. Web of expertise in digital to information www. ukoln. ac. uk to. A help developers create management accessible Web content

Challenges WAI WCAG AA and AAA In order to achieve WAI WCAG AA compliance: • Avoid deprecated features (e. g. FONT) • Use W 3 C technologies when available and appropriate (no Flash, MS Word or Power. Point) • . . use the latest versions [of W 3 C formats] • Create documents that validate to published formal grammars (i. e. HTML must be valid) In order to achieve WAI WCAG AAA compliance: • Provide information so that users may receive documents according to their preferences (i. e. markup language) • Specify document collections with the LINK element and "rel" and "rev" A centre of expertise in digital information management 6 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Challenges Concerns Over WAI WCAG Guidelines Too Theoretical • Some WCAG guidelines appear theoretical • WCAG seeks to promote W 3 C standards (including new ones) in addition to addressing mainstream accessibility issues • Overall WAI approach is dependent on content, authoring tools and user agent guidelines – the latter two are outside the remit of Web authors Developments Outside Of W 3 C • WAI has succeeded in raising awareness of accessibility – and commercial sector has responded (cf. accessibility in OS, proprietary formats, …) A centre of expertise in digital information management 7 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Challenges Standards Or Guidelines Are WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: • Pragmatic and much needed guidelines which can help authors to make Web pages more accessible • To be interpreted and applied sensibly or: • Mandatory standards which must be implemented in order to (a) claim WAI compliance and (b) abide with legislation • No room for interpretation Use GIF images or FONT tags? Use HTML 4. 0? HTML validation errors? WAI A is best you can achieve! 11. 1 Use W 3 C technologies when they are available and appropriate for a Atask and use the latest versions when supported. [Priority 2] centre of expertise in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk 8

Challenges WAI WCAG Flaws Logical Flaws • On 1 Aug 2002 when XHTML 1. 0 released WAI AA pages became A (unless immediately upgraded) W 3 C Web Site • W 3 C Web site is not fully AA compliant DRC Web Site • DRC Web site is not AA compliant, despite AAA logo on home page • DRC report is still not available in HTML format A centre of expertise in digital information management 9 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Challenges 10 W 3 C View Of A Web User A centre of expertise in information Acknowledgements todigital Lawrie Phipps, management Tech. Dis for these slides www. ukoln. ac. uk

Challenges The Student Experience A centre of expertise in digital information management 11 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Challenges So what should that mean? • Pragmatism is the key • Education & culture are holistic experiences (it not just about the Web) • Develop a policy, meet the standards, but above all, consider all users! A centre of expertise in digital information management 12 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Solutions 13 Tech. Dis/UKOLN’s Holistic Approach Our approach is based on recognising: • External pressures e. g. funders, auditors, … • Local technical infrastructure issues • Wider technical developments • Learning & teaching issues • Usability & accessibility issues • Focusing on the user’s needs Remember legislation expects organisations tocentre take "reasonable measures" A of expertise in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk

Solutions Applying This Approach (1) Flash Game • Flash game developed for use in Libraries • “It’s not accessible – I’ll have to remove it or I may be sued” • “What is it used for? ” • “To keep kids entertained while parents select books. They seem to like it” • “So keep it. But make sure you have an equivalent amusement for children who can’t (e. g. visually impaired) or won’t (don’t like it) use the game. What about a bouncy castle, building blocks, …” A centre of expertise in digital information management 14 www. ukoln. ac. uk

Solutions Applying This Approach (2) Visual Images For Blind & Visually Impaired • Tate Gallery wishes to allow visually impaired to appreciate work of Picasso & Matisse • Conventional approach (based on universal design) would be to provide ALT tags and LONGDESC textual descriptions of images • i-Map project made use of: • Approach based on needs of visually impaired • PDF files of raised images Flash animation • See <http: //www. tate. org. uk/imap/> <http: //www. wired. com/news/culture/ 0, 1284, 54256, 00. html> and "For the first time I am able to access pictures without a sighted person, " said Isabella Murdoch, who used I-Map's text-only function to explore the site. "It allows me the freedom of choice to find out about a work of art at homemanagement and decide whether to visit orwww. ukoln. ac. uk not. " A centre of expertise in digital information 15

Conclusions 16 Conclusions To conclude • WAI have done a great job • But full implementation of WAI guidelines can be difficult and may not be justified (remember WAI WCAG is only version 1. 0) • Within cultural heritage & educational sectors a holistic approach which seeks to provide equivalent cultural/educational experiences may prove valuable • This approach may be controversial in certain circles • Within the museums sector the approach may well reflect mainstream practices (cf. using a real world surrogate for a digital resource with a digital surrogate or a real world cultural object) • This approach does not mean accessibility can be A centre of expertise in digital information management www. ukoln. ac. uk ignored!