Universal Design for Digital Document Creation and Publication

Universal Design for Digital Document Creation and Publication Dónal Rice Senior Design Advisor, ICT Camden Court Hotel, 29 December 2012

Who we are and what we do Universal Design aims: to maximize the number of people who can readily use a product, building or service which may be achieved by: (i) designing products, services and environments that are readily usable by most users without any modification, (ii) by making products or services adaptable to different users (adapting user interfaces), and (iii) by having standardized interfaces to be compatible with special products for persons with disabilities. (Standards: ISO, CEN, NSAI)

Centre For Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) Standards – Stimulate research – Participate in Standardisation work nationally and internationally – Provide advice to stakeholders – Encourage compliance Education and Professional Development – Incorporate UD content into design curriculum – Guidance on Universal Design for teaching, examinations and accreditation Awareness – Maintain a best practice database (website) – Promote awareness and understanding

Universal Design Buildings Guidelines Environment Shared Spaces, Shared Surfaces and Home Zones Research and Recommendations for Ireland

National Standard: Universal Design for Energy Suppliers 2012 This standard provides all Irish Energy Suppliers with practical methods to improve how they communicate with their 1. 6 million customers. New toolkit in development.

Size Data for Universal Design in Ireland (Anthropometry Research, Penn State, USA)

Information Communication Technologies 1)National Universal Design Guidelines for Digital TV Equipment and Services 2) Research and National guidelines on the Lived experience of people using public sector websites 3)Trialing Universal Design Assessment Tool for assessing use/nonuse of Technology by Older People

WHAT IS UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR THE WEB

Legislation and policy - Ireland • Disability Act 2005 – Electronic communications to be accessible, as far as practicable – Code of Practice: Compliance with WCAG 2. 0 (AA) • NDA Monitoring: 2008 – About half have had their website audited for accessibility – WCAG 2. 0 - AA or AAA level (32. 5% at Level AA and 17. 0% at Level AAA). • Equality Acts, Education for Persons with Special Needs education Acts

Legislation and policy - Ireland • “Opportunities for users to provide feedback should be integrated into the design of new electronic systems to facilitate suggestions from those that use the systems with a view to ensuring continuous improvement. ” – “e. Government 2012 – 2015” Action no. 14

United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities • Universal Design: – Governments are: “to undertake or promote research and development of universally designed goods, services, equipment and facilities…” • Early Stage Accessibility Definitions: – “Promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications technologies and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost” (Art. 9)

European Level – current developments • Digital Agenda for Europe – Web Accessibility Directive • Disability Action Plan – European Accessibility Act

How? - Public procurement • Standardisation – Mandate 376

DOCUMENT WORKFLOW AND CREATION: PART 1

Welcome and Agenda • • • 9. 15 – 9. 35: Peter Mc. Kevitt (Chairperson, NDA), Dónal Rice 9. 35 -10. 45: Document workflow and creation 1 “A Universal Design process for document creation” - Dónal Rice / Alan Dalton (Access Officer and Accessibility Development Advisor) “Creating accessible source document in MS Word” – Andrew Macadam (Microsoft) “Importance of workflow” – Charlie Pike (The Paciello Group) 10. 45 -11. 00: Questions and answers 11. 00 – 11. 15: Coffee 11. 15 – 12. 15 : Document workflow and creation 2 “Supporting and checking the accessibility in the document conversion process” - Kiran Kaja (Adobe) Panel discussion: “Working with contractors – asking for (and getting) what you want” – Dara Stokes (Catalysto), Charlie Pike (TPG), Kiran Kaja (Adobe) 12. 15– 12. 45: Keynote presentation: “Inclusive Publishing in the Educational Environment. ” – Bernhard Heinser (DAISY consortium) 12. 45 -1. 00: Closing remarks

Main questions and topics • What are accessible documents and publications? • Any benefits to (accessible) electronic publication? • How can you create them? • How can your organisation increase the quantity and quality of its documents and publications?

DISCLAIMER • Not only about accessibility for blind people • Not technology specific • We don’t have all the answers • Not about: – – – – Web design Web accessibility WCAG 2. 0, ATAG 2. 0 Newsletters Writing for the web Online forms Apps

PUBLICATION PROCESS

What are accessible documents and publications? • Advice/information to the public (schemes, leaflet) • Newsletters • Forms (download, print, fill, return) • Instructions forms • Reports (research, corporate) • Applications (e. g. Planning) • Maps • Anything else?

1. Source document 2. Intermediary formats 3. Publication format

Benefits of the web “Servicing queries via the website requires no staff time as it's self-service, compared with: 4 minutes over the phone 11 minutes face to face 15 minutes by email” • - Public sector web manager

What formats? • • • Shorter content that is a core part of the website should usually be provided as a webpage in HTML For all documents, a summary should be provided in HTML, plus a note of the document format and file size. Use pre-set formats such as headings, bullets etc in your source document (e. g. MS Word) to format and structure your document. This structure will be carried over into other formats such as PDF and HTML, making it more navigable and accessible. Ensure accessibility is considered when creating and publishing content in document formats such as MS Word or PDF. This goes for documents created internally as well as documents created by external researchers or print design companies. Where a document is not accessible, clearly state how someone may request this document in an accessible format.

Considerations • Your audience – General public – People more likely to benefit from accessible formats • Your internal process – Content created • In-house • Syndicated • Contracted out

Considerations 2: existing praqctices • Existing policies – Style guide – Corporate identity guidelines – Publication processes – how much control do yuo have • Distributed authoring environment • Centralised authoring environment

New guidance from Centre for Excellence in Universal Design UNIVERSAL DESIGN GUIDANCE FOR ONLINE PUBLIC SERVICES

Who are your customers?

New research – out soon • What are the experiences of Irish people in using Irish websites? • What are the design features and practices that most enable/hinder people from achieving specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction regardless of their age, size, ability or disability?

Key findings • Just less than half the people surveyed (48%) do not use the 11 most commonly used public sector websites evaluated in the study. • In spite of this apparently low figure, a majority of people (80%) who use these websites reported no problem in their use. • However when questioned in more detail and observed in using these websites, the level of difficulty would appear to be greater that what people first report.

Key findings 2 • Main obstacles include the ‘finadability’ and ‘readability’ of information • Public sector web managers face significant challenges in providing content and services online that are both comprehensive, and easy to read and use. • Disparity between how public sector bodies perceive the level of accessibility of their websites and what this and other studies found to be the actual case. – This may be as a result of web accessibility being considered a ‘once off’ activity rather than a matter of ongoing quality assurance. • There would appear to be significant cost benefits to the public sector by interacting with citizens online versus other channels such as over the phone, in person, via email etc.

Who are your customers – NDA research • 48% of people surveyed (n=1200) do not use any of the 10 most commonly used public sector websites • Of those that do, 80% reported no difficulty • Persons with disabilities, who do use public sector websites, are 3 times more likely to encounter a difficulty

Universal Design Guidance for Online Public Services

Section 6: Links and microcontent Links are a defining characteristic of the web and have a major impact on usability. Good links: – – – Are two to five words long Occur naturally in the sentence Describe the target that they link to Invite the user to do something with a call to action Are not “click here” Are simple and direct rather than clever or smart

Getting to the document Examples of linking text and text surrounding it Poor Better The latest press releases are in the News Check out our latest press releases section of this website The annual report can be downloaded Download the annual report (PDF, 530 KB) The rules document is at Read the rules of the scheme http: //www. mysite. ie/schemes/rules. htm • Links that present a “fork in the road” away from the current page are probably best shown inline. Example: “You can read case studies of these projects or watch the introductory video” • Links to background or supporting information can be shown separately

Universal Design for Digital Document Creation and Publication Alan Dalton Access Officer, Access Development Officer Camden Court Hotel, 29 December 2012

Making documents accessible: what we do and how we do it

Our process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Write clear content Use Microsoft Word for structuring Use Microsoft Word to convert to PDF Use YAWC to convert to HTML Publish Word, PDF, and HTML (usually)

Issues • Habits • People think they can write clearly • People think they can use Word properly • Urgency: sometimes time is limited • Most people don’t know HTML • Most people don’t know WCAG.

Make sure the author writes clearly

Key resources 1 • www. universaldesign. ie/ict/web / – Web guidance for

Key resources 2: • www. accessibility. ie • Universal Design for Energy Suppliers