A centre of expertise in digital information management Web Accessibility: Theory Or Practice? A...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Web Accessibility: Theory Or Practice?A User-Focussed Approach To Web Accessibility Guidelines

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]

UKOLN is supported by:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/e-access06/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/e-access06/

About This TalkThis brief talk reviews some of the limitations of conventional approaches to addressing Web accessibility and outlines a user-centred approach which provides a context for use of WAI guidelines.

About This TalkThis brief talk reviews some of the limitations of conventional approaches to addressing Web accessibility and outlines a user-centred approach which provides a context for use of WAI guidelines.

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)


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About Me

Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus• Web adviser to UK's higher & further education

community and cultural heritage sector• Works for UKOLN – a national centre of expertise

in digital information management• Based at the University of Bath

Interests:• Emerging Web technologies e.g. Web 2.0• Use of open standards• Best practices• Accessibility

Particular interest in engaging with council sector to help maximise Web's potential for museums, library & archives

Particular interest in engaging with council sector to help maximise Web's potential for museums, library & archives


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Initial Web Accessibility Work

During late 1990s and early 2000s:• Joint work with TechDis in advising HE/FE sector

on best practices for Web accessibility• Initially promotion of WAI WCAG guidelines• Surveys of 160+ UK HEI home pages carried out

in Aug/Sept 2002 (repeated in 2004)• Results showed low levels of compliance (and this

without any manual testing). Manual testing shows that pages reported as accessible may be inaccessible.

Implications:• UK Universities don't care about Web accessibility• UK Universities don't know about Web accessibility• The guidelines may be flawed

Implications:• UK Universities don't care about Web accessibility• UK Universities don't know about Web accessibility• The guidelines may be flawed

Similar findings obtained in other surveys


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W4A 2005: Reprise

At W4A 2005 conference we presented “Forcing Standardization or Accommodating Diversity…”:

• The practical difficulties of using a “standard” to encapsulate design requirements to accommodate a diverse set of needs under a diverse set of circumstances

• The achievements and limitations of WCAG in supporting this

• The resultant difficulties (and absurdities) from legislation and policy – that makes inappropriate reference to WCAG

• Using the example of the e-learning sector we pointed the way to a more holistic view of Web accessibility

We received many positive comments on the ideas we presented


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Limitations of the WAI Model

WAI approach has shortcomings:• WAI model relies on conformant Web sites,

conformant authoring tools, conformant user agents• …and conformant users!• WCAG guidelines have flaws ("must use W3C

formats; must use latest versions; …")• Has a Web-only view of the world:

What about other IT solutions? What about blended (real world) solutions?

• Has a belief in a single universal solution: But isn't accessibility a very complex issue Is it reasonable to expect an ideal solution to

be developed at the first attempt?


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Wider Concerns Over WCAG

Joe Clark's "To Hell With WCAG 2.0" Blog posting has led to much discussion on the (technical) merits of the WCAG approach to Web accessibility and limitations of WCAG 2.0

Joe Clark's "To Hell With WCAG 2.0" Blog posting has led to much discussion on the (technical) merits of the WCAG approach to Web accessibility and limitations of WCAG 2.0

http://alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2/http://alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2/


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The Importance of Context

• We argue Web accessibility is about supporting users achieve real world goals

• From Beyer & Holzblatt (1998) – the more you know about your target audience the more you can design to support them

• So the goal of “universal accessibility” has changed to supporting a defined set of users in the best possible way…

• How can we use WCAG to achieve this?


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Holistic Approach

Follow-up work awarded prize for Best Research Paper at ALT-C 2005 E-learning conference

Follow-up work awarded prize for Best Research Paper at ALT-C 2005 E-learning conference

This approach reflects emphasis in UK on blended learning (rather than e-learning)

Kelly, Phipps & Swift developed a blended approach to e-learning accessibility

This approach:• Focusses on the needs

of the learner• Requires accessible

learning outcomes, not necessarily e-learning resources


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Accessibility in ContextExternal factors: Institutional issues (funds, expertise, policies, security…)

External factors: Legal issues; cultural factors; …

Purpose Sector Funding Resources

Context

Accessibility/Usability Privacy

Policies

…

Finance

External Self-assessment Penalties Learning

Compliance

Digital Library Programme

Broken

Standards

Research

…

This approach embraces relativism and context

rather than the current absolute approach

Accessibility guidelines should be usable in wider context

Accessibility guidelines should be usable in wider context

A framework has been developed which places accessibility & usability within a wider context:

• The context• A range of

policies• A compliance

regime


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Articulating the Approach

The "Tangram Metaphor" developed to avoid checklist / automated approach:

• W3C model has limitations• Jigsaw model implies

single solution• Tangram model seeks to

avoid such problems

This approach:• Encourages developers

to think about a diversity of solutions

• Focus on 'pleasure' it provides to user

This approach:• Encourages developers

to think about a diversity of solutions

• Focus on 'pleasure' it provides to user


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Tangram ModelModel allows us to:

• Focuses on end solution rather than individual components

• Provided solutions tailored for end user

• Doesn't limit scope (can you do better than WAI AAA?)

• Make use of automated checking – but ensures emphasis is on user satisfaction

Guidelines/standards for/from:

• WAI• Usability• Organisational• Dyslexic • Learning difficulties• Legal• Management

(resources, …)• Interoperability• Accessibility metadata• Mobile Web• …


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Tangram Model & Testability

"WCAG 2.0 success criteria are written as testable statements …" (nb. automated & human testing )

Issues:• What about WCAG principles that don't have defined success

criteria (e.g. "content must be understandable")?• What about 'baselines' – context only known locally• What about differing models or / definitions of 'accessibility'?

Note vendors of accessibility testing services will market WCAG tools e.g. see posting on BSI PAS 78

Tangram model can be used within WCAG• Distinguish between testable (ALT tags)

and subjective (content understandable)• Supports baselines

Baseline 1

Testable


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Does This Work For You?

Danger:• WAI guidelines become an excuse not to do

anything; to fail to respond to users needs (Podcasting, Skype, Blogs, …)

Scenarios:• Podcasting or Skyping talks at conferences:

Great: I was ill & couldn't make it Bad: No transcripts so breaks WCAG

• Blogs & Wikis for your users: Great: Giving users a voice Bad: Tools may produce bad HTML & no

semantic markup


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Conclusions

To conclude:• WAI has provided a valuable starting point• Need to develop a richer underlying model • Need for Web accessibility to be placed in

wider content• Contextual approach & tangram metaphor

aim to help inform such developments• Should the WAI approach be more open

about contextualisation or should this be applied externally?

• There's a need to an evidence-based approach and less ideology


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Topics For Discussion

Topic 1: The key focus for accessibility should be the user.

Topic 2: Accessibility guidelines should be treated as guidelines, and not as infallible rules.

Topic 3: Automated testing is fundamentally flawed as an approach to checking accessibility.

Topic 4: Usability is as important as accessibility - and we mustn't ignore interoperability issues.

Topic 5: Web 2.0 technologies can provide valuable user services.


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Questions

Questions are welcome

Note resources cited in the talk are bookmarked in the del.icio.us social bookmarking service using the tag ''e-access06"

Note resources cited in the talk are bookmarked in the del.icio.us social bookmarking service using the tag ''e-access06"

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