Transcript MS PowerPoint

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/mw-2007/professional-forum/
Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic
And User-Centred Approach To
Web Accessibility
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
Stephen Brown
De Montfort University
Leicester
Email
[email protected]
Email
[email protected]
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Aims Of Forum
The facilitators will encourage feedback on:
• The experiences the museum’s community has had in
seeking to provide accessible Web sites
• The strengths and weaknesses of the WAI guidelines
• The relationships between the accessibility, usability
and interoperability of Web sites
• The relevance of guidelines in a Web 2.0 environment
At the end of the professional forum you should have:
• Learnt about some of the limitations of the WAI
approach to Web accessibility
• Heard about the experiences of other participants
• Heard about and discussed the holistic approach to
Web accessibility
• Taken part in discussions on a roadmap for future work
in this area
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http://edit.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/kelly-brown/kelly-brown.html
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Contents
Web accessibility & Museum Web Sites:
• How do we try to address the issues?
• How well are we doing? What difficulties do we
experience?
What do we mean by Web accessibility?
• Compliance with (WAI) guidelines?
• Something else?
Contextualising Web accessibility:
• Based on the purpose of the service
• Based on your organisation context
• Based on wider contexts (e.g. cultural & legal)
What Next?
• A roadmap for further work
• Your feedback
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Web Accessibility & Museums
• How do you try to address the issue of
Web accessibility within your museum?
• How well are you doing? What difficulties
do you experience? How do you know?
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Review: WAI Approach
Background: W3C WAI & WCAG
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):
• Body responsible for coordinating development of
Web standards
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative):
• W3C group responsible for developing guidelines
which will ensure Web resources are widely
accessible
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines):
• One of three sets of WAI guidelines. WCAG
provides advice of accessibility on Web content
(e.g. HTML pages)
• Other two WAI guidelines cover accessible user
agents (UAAG) and accessible authoring tools
(ATAG)
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Review: WAI Approach
WAI Strengths
WAI work:
• Provides valuable guidelines for helping to
make Web sites more accessible
• Widely recognised
• Widely adopted
Support by various tools:
• WebXact (Bobby)
• Cynthia Says
• …
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Review: WAI Approach
The WAI Model
The WAI model for Web accessibility is
based on three components:
• Content
• Authoring Tools
• Browsers
Assumption: do three right  universal accessibility
But:
• We have no control over browsers & authoring tools
• The browsers and authoring tools aren't great
• The content guidelines are flawed
• What if users are happy with their existing browser?
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Review: WAI Approach
Interpretation of WAI WCAG
How do you interpret WAI WCAG (must use ALT tags for images;
HTML must be valid; must use style sheets for presentation; …):
• Mandatory, with following characteristics:
 Clearly defined rules
 Objective
 Checking mostly objective
 Penalties for non-compliance
 Similar to checking that HTML complies with the
standard
Which reflects your views most closely?
• Advisory, with following characteristics:
 Useful guidelines, to be interpreted in context
 It's about providing useful, usable resources
 It's contextual
 Checking mostly subjective
 It's similar to checking that a Web site is well-designed
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BK
Limitations
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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What do we mean by Web
accessibility?
Can we provide accessible Web services without a
clear understanding of what we mean by this?
Small group exercise:
• What do we mean by Web accessibility?
• Where does usability fit in? Where does
interoperability fit in?
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Usability & Interoperability
What about:
• Usability
• Interoperability
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/InternetHome.hcsp
Example:
• Long, application-specific URLs can cause
accessibility/usability and interoperability problems
Addition Problems:
• We’ve got WCAG AA (and checked with users)
 We don’t need to do anymore (it’s costly)
 We don’t need to address usability
The focus on priority levels can limit what’s done
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Context for Web Accessibility
Are there universal aspects to Web accessibility or
does Web accessibility determined by context of use?
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Context
Diversity – Content
WAI guidelines focus on informational Web sites:
• Here’s the train timetable – I want the information
and I want it now
• This is reasonable and desirable
But is this approach always
relevant to learning and cultural
contexts:
• Here’s something – you must
interpret it (and being wrong can
be part of the learning process)
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Universal Accessibility?
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Our Work
Holistic Approach
Q How do you make highly
interactive e-learning
services universally
accessibility (e.g. 3D
model of molecules)?
A If this would be
unreasonable, make the
learning outcomes
(rather than e-learning
resources) accessible.
Can we apply this approach
to cultural resources, with an emphasis on providing a
diversity of cultural experiences?
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See Developing A Holistic Approach For E-Learning
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Accessibility
by Kelly, Phipps & Swift
Our Work
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
userin digital information management
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Our Work
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
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Testable
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Baseline 1
An Emerging Roadmap
Accessibility Summit II held in Nov 2006 which
agreed:
• Need for a manifesto:
 Building on WAI’s foundations
 Developing a user-centric approach
 Developing a contextual model
 Developing an evidence-based approach
• A roadmap for future work:
 Engagement with disability communities
 Engagement with WAI
 Identifying areas of research
 Gathering case studies of best practices
…
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Building On This Work
Does the approach being developed in the UK
seem applicable in your context?
What else may be needed to enhance this
approach?
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What Next?
What should the next steps be in development
of approaches for Web accessibility in a
museum context?
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