Accessibility for Impaired Users 1 Devin S Olson

Accessibility for Impaired Users 1 Devin S. Olson

narcissism – Devin Olson l l 2 Developing software for over 25 years (have actually coded using punch cards and used paper tape). Lotus Notes since R 3. Anheuser-Busch Certified Beer Master

l l l Devin Olson is happily married and lives with his wife & children in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Devin Olson has been developing software since the days of punch cards and paper tape, and began playing with Lotus Notes in 1995. He holds numerous admin, development, and networking certifications. Devin is a home brewer, loves the outdoors, cool cars, and rock & roll. Devin was born in Salt Lake City, UT, and grew up in Phoenix, AZ. He joined the US Marine Corps while still in High School. After his enlistment, he attended college at Arizona State University. Devin Olson has worked as a welder, cook, bartender, pipe-fitter, electronics technician, clerk, busboy, bail bondsman, engineer, mason's aid, truck driver, broker, projectionist, stage hand, lighting technician, steel climber, helpdesk technician, mechanic, manager, and software developer, . Devin has toured through most of the US on a motorcycle. Collects guitars (though he can't play), and has studied Kenpo, Shotokan, and Muay Thai Kickboxing. For some weird reason that he can't quite figure out, Devin Olson really enjoys writing about himself in third person and seeing his name in bold font. Perhaps he should consider therapy. asw 3

Where I live 4

Accessibility for Impaired Users: Inspiration for this Session Once upon a time… 5

How this session came to be US DOI BLM NTC l Section 508? l No information l Read a Book l Lotusphere 2006 l 6

Lotusphere 2012 OGS Michael J. Fox 7 Dr. Jeffrey Burns

Agenda Impaired Users – Who are they? l What are the legal, moral, & ethical issues? l What should you consider? l Where to Start? l Baby Steps: Understand, Convince, Kill, & alt. l 8

Impaired Users – Who are they? § Visual § Partial or Total Vision Loss § Degenerative Vision § Partial or Total Color Blindness § Born Blind or Later Vision Loss § Auditory § Partial or Total Deafness § Degenerative Hearing § Specific Frequency Loss § Born Blind or Later Hearing Loss § Motor Skills § Partial or Total Motor Skill Loss § Missing, Damaged, Deformed Appendages § Born Impaired, Injured, or Degenerative Disease § Cognitive and Learning Disability § Cognitive: concentrate, formulate ideas, reason, remember § read (dyslexia), math (dyscalcula), or write (dysgraphia) Impairment can span multiple categories 9

World Internet Use: 2001 to 2011 *IWS Statistics, December 2011 10 361 Million to nearly 2. 3 Billion –in 10 years!

Internet % Growth: 2001 to 2011 *IWS Statistics, December 2011 11 Over 500% Worldwide Growth

Impaired Users - Who are they? - Visually Impaired Users 285 million people worldwide l 39 million totally blind, 246 million partially impaired. l 90% of the world's visually impaired live in developing countries. l World Health Organization 12 Fact Sheet #282, October 2011

Impaired Users - Who are they? - Auditory Impaired Users In 2004, 275 million people globally had moderate-to-profound hearing loss. l 80% of these impaired users live in low - and middle-income countries. l World Health Organization 13 Fact Sheet #300, February 2012

Impaired Users - Who are they? - Motor Skill Impaired Users l l l 10 million with ET (Essential Tremor) syndrome. 6. 3 million people have Parkinson’s worldwide, 1. 2 million in Europe. 33 million with some level of paralytic disability International Essential Tremor Foundation European Parkinson’s Disease Association American Academy of Family Physicians 14

Impaired Users - Who are they? - Cognitive and Learning Disability l l 15 450 million people worldwide suffer from some form of mental disorder or brain condition. Estimated between 1% and 3% of population have a mild, moderate, or severe and profound learning disability World Health Organization Study 2001

Disabled Computer Users by Age In North American and Europe, 31% of all disabled persons aged 55 and above use the internet on a regular basis. 16 Disability Research Information Page; Canadian Council on Social Development (General Social Survey - 2000)

Impaired Users - Who are they? l Your friends. l Your family. l Your co-workers. l Your customers. 17 People you care about.

Existing Law in Europe l l 2006 Riga Ministerial Declaration l 18 Guidelines, Recommendations, and Declarations Not Law

Existing Law in Ireland l l Equal Status Act 2004: Defines Required Accommodation for the Disabled l 19 Employment Equality Act 1998: Disability as grounds for Discrimination Disability Act 2005: Explicitly Identifies electronic communication and access.

What is Section 508? l l 20 President Clinton signed law August 7, 1998. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U. S. C. requires that all electronic technology developed or provided by any Federal Agency be accessible to people who are disabled.

Legal disclaimer - I am NOT a lawyer The following information is the sole OPINION of Devin S. Olson, and does not represent the opinions, beliefs, political motivations, or official policies of either his employer or IBM in any way. This information is meant to be informative in nature only; it is NOT official legal advice. Consult with your attorney. 21

“I don’t work for the government, this doesn’t apply to me!” Section 508: how it applies to you Section 508 does not apply to State and Local governments. l Section 508 does not apply to companies using federal funds. l Section 508 does not apply to Private Sector. l 22 However. .

Section 508 defines a standard for accessibility Related Legislation: Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, Titles 1 and 4 23 ADA leans heavily upon Section 508

Sound of Inevitability l ADA does apply to State and Local governments. l ADA does apply to companies using federal funds. l ADA does apply to Private Sector. 24 ADA leans heavily upon Section 508

Coming to European Union "I will propose an accessibility act in 2012. I know that I can count on the European Parliament to support this crucial issue. " European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding, addressing a special meeting of the Disability Intergroup in the European Parliament, 13 JAN 2012 25

EU Authority & Predictions l l EC is planning on working with PARTNER nations, not just MEMBER nations. l 26 Lisbon Treaty provides legal basis US ADA 1998 explicitly cited as an example.

“Letter of the Law” vs. Doing what is RIGHT Juggling your priorities l l 27 Your legal department should provide advice regarding your legal responsibilities. Impaired Users represent a large pool of untapped potential customers.

Remember Wheaton’s Rule l Generates l Building good will. an inaccessible application is just plain rude. 28

W 3 C Design Principles Perceivable. You should ensure that all content can be presented in forms that can be perceived by everyone. Operable. You should ensure that the interface elements in the content are operable by everyone. Robust. You should use technologies that maximize the ability of your content to work with current and future web browsers, assistive technologies, and other programs. Navigable. You should facilitate content orientation and navigation. Understandable. You should make it as easy as possible for people to understand your content and controls. 29

Where to Start? l Understand the Technology l Convince the Boss l Kill the Flash l The alt attribute 30

Baby Step 1 - Understand the Technology l l l 31 l Screen Readers (JAWS from Freedom Scientific). Refreshable Braille displays. Adaptive & voice browsers. Text only browsers. Browsers made specifically for people with disabilities (IBM Home Page Reader) IOS – Apple Gets It

Baby Step 2 - Convince the Boss 32 Designing for accessibility requires a different point of view from that of most development projects. Adding support to most existing apps is time consuming work. Even though Domino is extremely conducive to this; it will cost time & money to do right. “Skunkworks projects” won’t work; to succeed, you must have management buy in. in

Baby Step 3 - Kill the Flash l l l l 33 Flash navigation looks cool. Flash navigation is very robust. Most Flash navigation is either incredibly frustrating or absolutely unusable to Impaired users. Frustrated users rarely come back to your site. What to do? Remove the Flash entirely! (Steve Jobs was right) Provide an easily accessible & prominent alternative navigation method.

Baby Step 4 - the alt attribute Defines “alternative text” for an image. l Also referred to as the “text-equivalent”. l Most browsers ignore it, unless the image cannot be found. l Screen Readers (such as JAWS) read it. l You should use it for every image you include on every page you design. l 34

Think about the End User Who, specifically, are the potential users of your application? l Think of PERSONS, not people. l What are their needs? l What can you do to make your site more accessible to these PERSONS? l 35

Dive Into Accessibility: 30 days to a more accessible web site by Mark Pilgrim. http: //diveintoaccessibility. info 36

Development Tips Examples 37

Development Tips l l l 38 Use Color Safely Link Decoration Tables, Layouts, Captions, Headers & Summaries Spacer Images and the return of the alt attribute. Font Sizes: Pixels vs. Percents vs. Relative. Real Links vs. Java. Script "Links“ (XPages BAD)

Development Tips l l l 39 Adding Keyboard Shortcuts: the accesskey attribute. Form elements and the label tag. (Xpages GOOD) STOP Opening new windows. Adding a search box to your site. Identify your language. Adding page titles

HELP MUST BE FULLY ACCESSIBLE Final Point: Designing Help l NO images, unless absolutely necessary. l NO Java. Script l NO Java Applets l NO (or very minimal) CSS 40

Additional Resources l l l 41 Building Accessible Websites, Joe Clark ISBN: 073571150 X Designing with Web Standards, Jeffrey Zeldman ISBN: 0735712018 diveintoaccessibility. org Mark Pilgrim's accessibility tips. webxact. watchfire. com Website Accessibility Testing Tool. www-306. ibm. com/able IBM Accessibility Center http: //www. vischeck. com color blindness simulator

Additional Resources - continued l l l 42 www-3. ibm. com/able/solution_offerings/hpr. html IBM Home Page Reader www. w 3. org/WAI W 3 C WAI Page www. section 508. gov Section 508 resource page. www. freedomscientific. com Freedom Scientific assistive and adaptive technology. Distributor of JAWS screen reader software. wellstyled. com/tools/colorscheme 2/index-en. html Color Scheme Generator www. afb. org American Foundation for the Blind

Final Thought “ 48 percent of of the Web is in its universality. The power persons with disabilities say the Internet has improved their lives, compared to 27 Access by everyone, regardless of disability, percent of other populations. is an essential aspect. ” - Michigan State University report on Web Accessibility Tim Berners-Lee, W 3 C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web “There is nothing that you can do on the i. Phone or i. Pad that I can’t do. . ” Stevie Wonder 43