Transcript Smart Cards: Accessible to all

Smart Cards: Accessible to all
Jon Fell, partner
24 January 2005
Introduction
• National Smartcard Project
• Accessibility Considerations
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Web Accessibility Standards
National Smartcard Project
Key themes:
• Inclusive
• Social exclusion
• Access anytime, anywhere
• Consistency of user-interface experience
• The multi-application environment
• Cross-agency working
Provision of services:
• Mandatory
• Voluntary
Accessibility
• What is accessibility?
• Unhindered access to a service
• Making your services accessible to the disabled
• What is the legal landscape?
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Codes of Practice
• Rights of Access, Goods, Facilities, Services and Premises 2002
• Disability Rights Commission
• www.drc.gov.uk
General Design Considerations
• Card
• Interface - identify special needs (preferences, alternative method of ID)
• Physical design - tactile identifiers (notch, shape, embossing etc.)
• Reader
• Interface – screens, standardisation, size and clarity of display.
• Physical design – key pads, card contact, auditory feedback
• Physical location – disabled users, privacy.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Aims to end discrimination faced by disabled people
• Gives disabled people rights in relation to:
• Employment
• Access to goods and services
• Buying or renting land or property
What constitutes “Disability”?
A disabled person is someone with “a physical or mental impairment
which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to
carry out normal day to day activities”
• “Impairment”
• sensory, learning, mental
• substantial affect on
• Mobility, dexterity, co-ordination, speech, hearing, eyesight, memory,
understanding
• “Substantial”
• more than minor or trivial
• “long-term”
• at least 12 months
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
A provider of services
• Must not treat a disabled person less favourably because
they are disabled
• Must make reasonable adjustments
“where a provider of services has a practice, policy or procedure
which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled
persons to make use of a service which he provides…to other
members of the public, it is his duty to take such steps as it is
reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for him to have
to take in order to change that practice, policy or procedure so
that it no longer has that effect”
What is a reasonable adjustment?
• No definition of “reasonable” in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Code gives some guidance:
•
•
•
•
Would taking particular steps effectively overcome the problem?
Is it practicable to take such steps?
How disruptive will the adjustment be?
Is the cost reasonable bearing in mind the service provider’s financial
and other resources available to it and the availability of financial or
other assistance?
What standard is required for web sites?
•
No official standard
•
World Wide Web Consortium
•
•
•
•
Adopted as standard
Establishes 3 levels of
conformance
www.w3.org
Enforcement:
•
•
Disability Rights Commission
Individuals
• Maguire v Sydney OCOG (1999)
Disability Rights Commission Survey
•
1,000 web sites
•
81% websites fail to meet basic accessibility levels
•
Automated tools tell only part of the story
•
OS/browsers often include accessibility features
•
Assistive technology is too expensive
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines
3 Priorities
• Priority 1 (A) – Must satisfy this checkpoint otherwise one or more
groups will find it impossible to access the web site.
• Priority 2 (AA) – Should satisfy this checkpoint otherwise one or
more groups will find it difficult to access the web site.
• Priority 3 (AAA) – May address this checkpoint otherwise one or
more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access the web site.
Priority 1 Checkpoints
•
Text equivalent for non-text element
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use of alt tags
Information conveyed by colour to be available also without colour
Organise documents so that they can be read without style sheets
Avoid causing the screen to flicker
Dynamic equivalents content to be updated at same time as dynamic
content
Use clear simple language
Title each frame to facilitate frame identification
Provide auditory description of important information conveyed by a
visual track
Priority 2 Checkpoints
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ensure that there is sufficient contrast between foreground and
background combinations when viewed by someone with colour
deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen
Mark up quotations
Avoid content “blinking”
Clearly identify the target of each link
Do not create auto-refreshing pages
Do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
Divide large blocks of information into manageable groups where
natural and appropriate
Use navigation systems in a consistent manner
Priority 3 Checkpoints
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Specify the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym where it first
occurs
Identify primary language of the web site
Provide keyboard shortcuts to important links
Provide information so that users may receive documents according
to their preference
Use navigation bars to highlight and access content
Group related links and identify group
Supplement text with graphic or auditory presentations where they
facilitate comprehension
Provide summaries of any tables used
Fresh Flowers delivered
John Lewis Gift List – opens a new browser window
Conclusion
• Legal obligation not to discriminate
• More accessible = more useable
• Clear and simple
• Design card and infrastructure with accessibility in mind
Contact Details
Jon Fell
Pinsent Masons
e. jon.fell@pinsentmasons
t. 020 7490 6377