Building Accessible RIAs with Silverlight
Chris AuldDirector Strategy & Innovation
Reed ShaffnerTechnical Product Manager
20 Minutes. Let’s Go!How far can we get in 20 minutes?
Why This MattersThe Carrot and The Stick
What we’ve builtAccessible Silverlight Reference Application
How we did itKey takeaways for you to do the same
How to find out more5 Links to create accessible RIAsVisit our site, play with the bits!
www.buttercupreader.net
So what is Accessibility?
In short, it’s different things to different people
VisualDexterit
yHearing
Language
Learning Difficulti
es
The Carrot…Huge benefits
• Aging workforce means greater need for these solutions• Hundreds of millions of users with disabilities worldwide • Allows an entire population to experience new information
Section 508 Refresh
Section 255 Telecom
U.S. State Accessibility
United Nations G3ict (Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT)
EC – Mandate 376
i2010 Initiative
Member States Accessibility
Japan JIS-
X8341
Australia: Disability
Discrimination Act
6
UK: Disability
Discrimination Act (DDA)
OAS / L.A. / S.A Country Policies
…and The StickEnormous downside
New Zealand Government Web
Standards
Need recognized in 1988 because of shortcomings
in Swedish Library Talking Books and Braille
In 1996 the DAISY Consortium is formed to
create and promote a new digital talking book standard
Today, DAISY is an ANSI/NISO standard that’s use is
mandated by law in many areas (e.g. text books K-12 in
the U.S)
• DAISY = Digital Accessible Information SYstem • Standard for producing accessible and navigable multimedia documents. In current practice, these documents are Digital Talking Books, digital text books, or a combination of synchronized audio and text books.
• Using the DAISY Standard, content creators, such as a library serving people who are blind or visually impaired or a book publisher can produce accessible and navigable books to meet a variety of reading needs.
What’s this DAISY Thing?or you’ve gone all Flowery on me, how come?
What We’ve Built
demo
How We Did It?How we achieved accessibility in Silverlight
Examples of Accessibility DriversAudio representationUI ScaleContrast and ColorKeyboard navigationAlternative input devices
Assistive TechnologyProgrammatically telling the world about you
Screen ReadersUI Automation
Self VoicingSAPI Interop
Media Playback via SilverlightPlay embedded DAISY Audio Content
UIAutomation and Screen ReadersUIA in 30 seconds…The accessibility API provided in Silverlight
UI Automation masks differences in frameworkUIA exposes every piece of UI to client apps
<Button x:Name="openBookButton" AutomationProperties.Name="Open Book" AutomationProperties.HelpText="Open a Daisy book from your local computer"AutomationProperties.AcceleratorKey="O"...<Button>
Self VoicingUnleash the COM Interop Demon Within
Text to Speech in the BrowserCalling SAPIHas security implications
Media Playback with SilverlightA Simple Way to Speak Your UI
Use the MediaElement to play UI audio promptsGive a user an easy, non visual, way to discoverMedia Element does NOT support variable speed
Contrast, Color, Navigation, ScaleWe’re getting rushed nowContrast and Color
Got to be visible…… but not too visibleDetect OS Settings
NavigationKeyboard shortcuts for everythingMinimal modifier keysConsistency is key
Scaling the UIZoom in is importantSilverlight gives luxurious zooming
if(SystemParameters.HighContrast) ContrastScheme = ContrastLevel.BlackTextOnWhite;
Color/Contrast Example
8% of males cannot distinguish between red and green in the U.S. alone
Alternative Input DevicesLife beyond the keyboard and mouse
Sip & Puff Head Tracking SwitchesBraille OutputSpeechAnd more…
Phenomenally Useful Resourcesaccessible Silverlight with 5 resources
Buttercup Readerwww.buttercupreader.net
MSDN UIAwww.msdn.com/accessibility
W3C WCAG 2.0http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
[email protected]@intergen.co.nz {@cauld}
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