A Holistic Approach To Web Accessibility

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A Holistic Approach To Web Accessibility
About The Speaker Brian Kelly is a Web adviser
to UK cultural heritage and Higher and Further
Education communities. He has attended several
W3C 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.

• Brian Kelly
• UKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk
UKOLN is supported by
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Web Accessibility
Background

• 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
• W3C 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
W3C World Wide Web Consortium, is the body
responsible for overseeing development of Web
standards
WAI W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative, is the
body responsible for overseeing development of an
accessible Web
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Where Are We Now?
Background

• 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
DRC Disability Rights Commission is an
independent body established in 2000 to stop
discrimination promote equality of opportunity
for the disabled
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Accessibility Survey
Challenges

• 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 lthttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/work
shops/webmaster-2004/talks/phipps-kelly/survey/gt
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 Web site!
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What Can We Conclude?
Challenges

• 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
WCAG Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have
been developed by WAI to help Web developers to
create accessible Web content
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WAI WCAG AA and AAA
Challenges

• In order to achieve WAI WCAG AA compliance
• Avoid deprecated features (e.g. FONT)
• Use W3C technologies when available and
  appropriate (no Flash, MS Word or PowerPoint)
• .. use the latest versions of W3C 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"

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Concerns Over WAI WCAG
Challenges

• Guidelines Too Theoretical
• Some WCAG guidelines appear theoretical
• WCAG seeks to promote W3C 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 W3C
• WAI has succeeded in raising awareness of
  accessibility and commercial sector has
  responded (cf. accessibility in OS, proprietary
  formats, )

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Standards Or Guidelines
Challenges

• 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

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WAI WCAG Flaws
Challenges

• Logical Flaws
• On 1 Aug 2002 when XHTML 1.0 released WAI AA
  pages became A (unless immediately upgraded)
• W3C Web Site
• W3C Web site is not fully AA compliant

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W3C View Of A Web User
Challenges
Acknowledgements to Lawrie Phipps, TechDis for
these slides
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The Student Experience
Challenges
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So what should that mean?
Challenges

• 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!

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TechDis/UKOLNs Holistic Approach
Solutions

• Our approach is based on recognising
• External pressures e.g. funders, auditors,
• Local technical infrastructure issues
• Wider technical developments
• Learning teachingissues
• Usability accessibility issues
• Focusing on the users needs

Remember legislation expects organisations to
take "reasonable measures"
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Applying This Approach (1)
Solutions

• Flash Game
• Flash game developed for use in Libraries
• Its not accessible Ill 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 cant (e.g. visually
  impaired) or wont (dont like it) use the game.
  What about a bouncy castle, building blocks,

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Applying This Approach (2)
Solutions

• 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 lthttp//www.tate.org.uk/imap/gt and
  lthttp//www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54256,0
  0.htmlgt

"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 home and decide
whether to visit or not."
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Conclusions
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
  ignored!