Accessibility mistakes

Most common accessibility mistakes from CryptZone
 

Accessibility in social media

Accessibility must be baked in...

"1) Accessibility needs to be ‘baked in,’ integrated into every department of a social media company (e.g., software engineering, product management, communication and marketing, usability, user experience, interaction design) rather than ‘layered on,’ added as an afterthought or in the middle of a product’s development;

2) Accessibility doesn’t end when a product or app is launched. Accessibility is from cradle-to-grave for any device, website, online service or app. Updates and user feedback is critical in maintaining and improving existing products as the environment constantly evolves (this case for example);

3) People with disabilities are innovative in finding workarounds and creative solutions on their own when using social media. Waiting for companies to improve their services and products may take a while and users with disabilities have a wealth of knowledge on how to improve accessibility for themselves and others; and

4) Accessibility is a civil and human right; the power and promise of social media is still out of reach for some people with disabilities who do not have the same ease-of-use and benefits as non-disabled users, shutting them out of opportunities and increasing inequality further."

Posted on modelviewculture

Reframing accesibility

Design for people -  not disabilities!

"We can reframe accessibility in terms of what we provide, not what other people lack. When we treat all of our users as whole people, regardless of their abilities, then we are able to approach accessibility as just another solvable—valuable—technical challenge to overcome."

"Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A big web design change is about to go through, and someone on your team has just discovered a bug that will cause problems with accessibility. One of the decision-makers in charge of the budget asks, “Well, how important is it? I mean, how many blind people do we have using the site, anyway?”

http://alistapart.com/article/reframing-accessibility-for-the-web

Anne Gibson February 03, 2015
Alistapart. 

 

A related blog post on the importance of language: 

I'm "not broken" ... "just a different kind of normal"...

http://www.bookwormblues.net/2014/09/10/i-am-not-broken-the-language-of-disability/

Progressive enhancement

"Progressive Enhancement consists of the following core principles:

• basic content should be accessible to all web browsers
• basic functionality should be accessible to all web browsers
• sparse, semantic markup contains all content
• enhanced layout is provided by externally linked CSS
• enhanced behavior is provided by unobtrusive, externally linked JavaScript
• end-user web browser preferences are respected

Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or greater bandwidth.

The strategy is an evolution of a previous web design strategy known as "graceful degradation", wherein designers would create Web pages for the latest browsers that would also work well in older versions of browser software. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

Hands are different.

Lovely illustration of hands from Science fiction.
Imagine designing an interface that would fit all of these!
 

Accessibility is a human right and inclusive design is our effort to get there.

Sandi Wassmer  described this difference 13 dec, 2011.

"Web accessibility is about human rights. Inclusive design is about making a product fit for purpose. Big difference. More so, Web Accessibility in its current guise seems determined to make every last bit of technology accessible to every human being on earth. It asserts rights on behalf of disabled people and puts these before regular folk and before technical innovation. So, what's happening is that regular folk and technical innovation have moved on swiftly without Accessibility. To quote Ian Pouncey, "Accessibility is for everyone. It's just that 80% of people get it for free". I agree with Ian wholeheartedly. However, what most people understand Accessibility to be is how it is defined by the W3C, which is that "Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web". But that's not all. What about Design? Design is about creating products and services that people can use and since websites and web applications are things that people use and interact with, things that change and adapt through this use and interaction, Inclusive Design and not just Access is what is desperately needed."


 Read more at action for blind people.

Unaccessible experience design

Spotify faced challenges when updateing their service to an improved look. Despite the great interface, people with reduced sight can no longer use the sevice.

Read more at aftonbladet news article (in Swedish):
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article18712503.ab

Accessibility is a democratic challenge, and media needs to be accessible. This was discussed during Mg2014, in Gothenburg. (Mediadagarna) (In Swedish):
 http://www.dyslexi.org/tidningen-las-skriv/medier-vem

There is already great competence availible to support accessibility. Begripsam, a project about cognitive accessibility, is funded by Arvsfonden. In this project, people with cognitive disabilties are paid to contribute with the their knowledge to international and swedish standards.  (In swedish).
 http://www.dyslexi.org/tidningen-las-skriv/vi-vill-ha-en-begripligare-varld-9772

Innovation and accessibility

I find it fascinating to think about how society can address grand challenges. One common approach appears to be to have a competition. 

In USA, challenge.gov is asking students or others to contribute to different challenges. It's conducted as a competition, and in some cases this also includes accessibility issues.

In Sweden we have a similar approach for accessibility: "Innovation for all" is a competiton where the Swedish Post and Telecom (PTS) authority fund projects that can produce innovations in the area of Accessibility in Information communicaation technology (ICT) and related areas.

We are currently funded by PTS and is contributing to Innovation for all. We are working on a service that will support webdesigners to understand accessibility challenges, and how to work with tools such as Web Content Accessability Guidelines (WCAG). PTS is supporting participants with various workshops to address business modelling and launch of services. Thay also have insight in the design process.

• On which levels are the solutions that students and others come up with with limited funding?
• How can we raise the effect that a certain solution gives?
• How can governments or other stakeholder successfully gather the right competence to solve grand challenges?
• How are ideas taken up on? Do they become working services?

Discrimination law

In Sweden, there is a proposal of a new law concerning discrimination. This is intented to  adress services that lack accessibility for people with a disability.

The discrimination law proposal

TV and accessibility

Swedish Television is working on various aspects of accessibility on their Play site. We hope that other organisations that communicate with video will follow. One day this will be standard. And there will be lots of use, also useful for people without disabilities.

The video is in swedish.

Myths are always refreshing!

uxmyths.com/

How do you navigate on the web and in real life?

Braillesign found at an exit on a train in Sweden

In real life, braille signs are not necessarily readable by seeing people. Why is it so? And how do blind people know to where to find the signs? How do they know when they not should look for a sign?

DIY: A braille printer made by lego...

And it is much cheaper than a regular braille printer....
 It is not fast, but it is a proof of concept.

"I waited almost 20 years to be able to take a picture,"

"I simply can't imagine anything more useful to me."

Design for all...

Design for all.
Aceessability.
People with special needs.

Who have special needs?Why)

A few more people than you think.

- The drunk teenager on the music festival .
(sound, vision, mental impairment)

- The person crossing the street while talking on the phone
(attention difficulties)

- The stressed running person at the airport.
(tunnel vision)

- A man with two shoppingbags in his hands and a stroller with a screaming child.
(physical impairment, attention difficulties)

- and many many more in a variety of situations.....