Universal Web Design for a Diverse Audience

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Universal Web Design for a Diverse Audience

• Dr. Antoinette Miller, Dr. Jere Boudell, Jean
  Jacques Medastin, Lou Brackett, Dr. Elaine
  Manglitz

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Objectives

• Increase awareness of barriers that students with
  disabilities and others face as they navigate our
  web sites
• Provide practical tools and offer solutions
• Inspire enthusiasm in making the web a place for
  communicating with diverse audiences in
  increasingly accessible and usable ways

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Agenda

• Key definitions and overview of project
• Examples of common barriers
• Sample faculty web site templates
• Universal Design
• Whats the big deal
• National Context
• Sample templates and before and after
  discussion
• Use of template with new faculty member
• Summary and questions
• Resources

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Key Definitions

• Accessibility making a site available and usable
  to the largest range of people possible including
  individuals with disabilities by removing
  potential barriers to access
• Usability the ability to retrieve, understand,
  and navigate information and interact in an
  effective manner
• Assistive Technology tools used by people with
  disabilities to help them improve access to their
  environments trackballs, screenreaders,
  magnification software, etc.

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Major Categories of Disability Types

• The major categories of disability types are
• Visual
• blindness, low vision, color-blindness
• Hearing
• deafness
• Motor
• inability to use a mouse, slow response time,
  limited fine motor control
• Cognitive
• learning disabilities, distractibility, inability
  to remember or focus on large amounts of
  information

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Additional concerns

• Lifespan issues
• http//www.gos.org/sightings/sightings.html
• People using slower Internet connections
• Access to Internet on alternative devices (PDAs,
  cell phones, etc.)
• People who dont speak or understand English
  fluently

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Using only color to convey a message
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Color contrasts
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Universal usability

• Fusing universal design and usability
• Universal design Anticipate needs and integrate
  accessible elements into design
• Usability Ease of use
• Universal usability Ease of use for all

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Access by design

• ?

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Access by design

• ?

DEFINITIONS
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not accommodation

• ?

DEFINITIONS
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Guidelines

• Universal designPrinciples of Universal
  DesignCenter for Universal DesignNorth Carolina
  State University
• UsabilityJakob Neilson, useit.comSteve Krug,
  Dont Make Me Think
• Universal usabilitySarah Horton, Access by Design

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Equitable Use

• The design is useful and marketable to people
  with diverse abilities
• Provide the same means of use for all users
  identical whenever possible equivalent when not
• Principles of Universal Design

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Same or equivalent means of use for all users

• ?

EQUITABLE USE
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as opposed to alternate access

• ?

EQUITABLE USE
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Whats the big deal?

• Prospective students who cant register
• Students who cant get course content or complete
  assignments
• Instructors who cant engage in forums or chats
  with students
• Staff who cant process financial records

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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• 90 of public institutions offer distance
  education

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• 90 of public institutions offer distance
  education
• 15 offered complete degree/certification
  programs

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• 90 of public institutions offer distance
  education
• 15 offered complete degree/certification
  programs
• Internet courses
• 90 offered asynchronous courses
• 43 offered synchronous courses

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• Web is used for more things than ever before in
  higher education. . .

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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• Web is used for more things than ever before in
  higher education . . .
• Admission
• Registration payment
• Financial aid, housing, meal plans
• Employment
• Social aspects of campus (e.g., news, club
  announcements)
• Entertainment

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National Context

• Changing the nature of education
• Web is used for more things than ever before in
  higher education . . .
• Courses
• Assignments
• Research

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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses
• 18 followed accessibility guidelines to major
  extent

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses
• 18 followed accessibility guidelines to major
  extent
• 28 to moderate extent

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses
• 18 followed accessibility guidelines to major
  extent
• 28 to moderate extent
• 18 to minor extent

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses
• 18 followed accessibility guidelines to major
  extent
• 28 to moderate extent
• 18 to minor extent
• 3 did not follow guidelines

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Reported use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 95 used websites for courses
• 18 followed accessibility guidelines to major
  extent
• 28 to moderate extent
• 18 to minor extent
• 3 did not follow guidelines
• 33 didnt know if they followed guidelines

Source U.S. Department of Education NCES Report
July 2003
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National Context

• Actual use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education

Source WebAIM 2004
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National Context

• Actual use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 5-year national data set shows about 1 in 4 main
  institutional pages

Source WebAIM 2004
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National Context

• Actual use of accessible Web content in
  postsecondary education
• 5-year national data set shows about 1 in 4 main
  institutional pages
• 3 of pages at deeper levels

Source WebAIM 2004
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Overview of project funded by Disability Business
and Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC)

• Objectives
• To develop faculty web sites and materials
  accessible to a wide range of students
• To develop the capacity of project faculty to
  function as resources within departments
• To develop accessible templates to be used by
  faculty members when designing their web sites
• To develop instructional modules to be posted on
  web or available on a CD

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Results of faculty web site assessments

• Major issues
• Images ( lack of alt-tags)
• Color/contrast
• Tables
• Size of page
• Images used to convey information

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Accessible templates

• http//cims.clayton.edu/jmedastin/WebTemplates/def
  ault.asp

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Before and After Example

• http//a-s.clayton.edu/miller/accessibility.htm

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Summary and Discussion

• Questions
• Feedback

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Resources

• http//www.webaim.org
• http//cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/presentations/
• http//www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility
• Web standards
• Web site evaluation tools