Accessibility Update

1
Accessibility Update

• Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D. (ejp10_at_psu.edu)
• Information Technology Services

2
Outline

• Current Situation
• Training Opportunities
• Issues for multiple audiences

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What is accessibility?

• Ensuring access to online materials for disabled
• Visual impairments
• Hearing impairments
• Mobility impairments (hands)
• Cognitive impairments (largest population)
• Audience
• students/staff/instructors/visitors

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Goal Universal Design

• Universal Design
• Designing for the largest audience possible
  regardless of disability or ability
• UMN Duluth Web Glossary
• Universal Access
• regardless of disability, location, device or
  speed of connection to the Internet

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Accessibility at Penn State

• National Federation of the Blind
• Problems identified with
• ANGEL, eLion, Elecrtonic Reserves, Clickers
• Captions Required (AD 25)
• Marketing Videos (mandated Feb 1)
• Official Websites Accessible (AD 54)
• Course Materials?

6
Notable Guidelines

• WCAG
• W3C Consortium
• Version 1.0 and 2.0
• 2.0 most recent and includes Web 2.0 sites
• 3 Levels (level 1 minimal)
• Section 508
• U.S. Government under revision to more closely
  match WCAG
• ARIA For Web 2.0

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Training Opportunities

• Web Developer Lunch
• http//breeze.psu.edu/webdeveloperlunch
• Tue April 19 Dreamweaver, TABLES, FORMS in Web
• Tue May 17 Accessible Javascript
• Lynda.com Accessibility Course
• Login via ITS Training
• http//accessibility.psu.edu

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Key Resources

• Penn State
• http//accessibility.psu.edu/ (Penn State Hub)
• iCITA (Illinois)
• http//fae.cita.uiuc.edu (FAE Evaluator)
• http//firefox.cita.uiuc.edu (Firefox Plugin)
• WebAIM
• http//www.webaim.org (WebAIM)
• http//wave.webaim.org (Visual Evaluator)

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Audience vs. Guidelines

• Different types of disabilitiesbut needs remain
  the same across tech
• A video is a video no matter the technology and
  will need captions
• Accessibility needs to evolve with new tech
• Theres no spec for Twitter, but we can guess
  potential problems
• Accessibility benefits everyone
• Everyone will be temporarily disabled

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Severe Visual Impairment

• Requires a screen reader to read Web content
  aloud
• Multimedia, images need to be describedNot all
  descriptions need to be hidden
• Program elements/menus/form fields need to
  identify themselves properly
• Hidden Audience
• Text-based mobile device, missing plugin, images
  disabled, or broken image link

11
Two Sites, Images Disabled
12
ALT Tagger in ANGEL
Enter information Alternative Text field when
uploading images
13
Testing ALT Tags

• Disable Images
• Manually in browser preferences
• Firefox Accessibility Extension (adds
  accessibility toolbar)https//addons.mozilla.org
  /en-US/firefox/addon/5809
• WAVE Testing Web Site (shows ALT
  tags)http//wave.webaim.org/

14
New Apps Screen Reader Gotcha

• Not all apps and plugins include information for
  screen reader
• Old iTunes MP3 music files were accessible, but
  navigation in iTunes was not
• Some users encounter difficulty creating a login!
  (esp Flash based interface)
• Web Forms Need to signal new informationSee
  WAI-ARIA for how to code. JavaScript CAN be
  accessible so can Flash

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Online Forms/Menus

• Forms must identify field to screen reader
• If HTML, then use LABEL tag to match field with
  label
• Menus must announce options

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Hearing Impaired

• You cannot hear content
• Captions, captions, captions (or transcript)
• Some users more fluent in sign language
• Hidden Users
• Forgot headphone in lab
• Audio cuts out
• Cant find one of 5 volume controls
• Poor audio quality (even for normal hearing)

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Captions Reveal Information
Caption shows how to spell Cole Campleses name.
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About Captions

• About ½ students in Phil 12 used caption option
  in videos
• External text files can be created for
• Quicktime
• Flash Video
• Video Audio Podcast on iTunes
• YouTube
• Streamed Video
• iTunes

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Captioning Tools

• Movie Captioner (Mac Only)
• http//www.synchrimedia.com/
• Installed in the CLC Computing Labs
• Windows Solutions
• MAGPie (Free from http//ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/m
  agpie/)
• Others for Windows and Mac

20
Movie Captioner Tool (PSU)
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Find Me Some Captions!

• The hardest part is the transcript. Can you
• Write a script first
• Order a transcript/script from a TV show
• Buy the DVD (which often has English subtitles)
• Pay for a transcriber? NOT a high end skill
• Speech recognition an option, but proof text.
• Live captioning does require a specialist

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Other Tools

• Speech Recognition (Imperfect)
• Requires training for each speaker (5 min)
• Relies on audio quality
• Good for frequent podcasters/lecture capture
• Captions should be checked manually
• Commercial Providers
• 75-150 per hour of video
• Many based on speech recognition instead of
  typists

23
Low Vision Users

• May zoom browser 200 or more
• Good color contrast (light vs dark)
• Fonts should be extra legible on Web usually
  serif
• Avoid 6-8 point text. 12 pt should be minimum for
  main content. 9/10 OK for small text.
• Text zooms better than images Use CSS instead
  of images for decorative text
• Hidden Audience
• iPhone users
• Older users

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At 300 Zoom
Which part of content is an image? Equation.
This is an image because it was best
option available (and yes, it has an ALT tag).
25
A Little Hard on the Eyes
Light gray field labels
Tiny Text (7/8 pt)
Can you see the text?
An entire page in a cursive font?
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Check Color Contrast

• Default interface should have good contrast.
  ANGEL goodOther tools?
• Tests
• http//juicystudio.com/services/luminositycontrast
  ratio.php OR
• http//webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
• AAA All Good (Full Speed Ahead)
• AA Large Text Only (18 pix/14 pix bold)
• Fail Avoid (There is no A)

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Two Blue Color Schemes

• Minor adjustments can change a borderline scheme
  to a good one and preserve designer intent

AA Level Only Pale blue CDF link text 058
AAA Level Pale blue F3F6FF link text 049
(bold)
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Motion Impaired

• Keyboard always easier than mouse
• Enable keyboard tabbing on forms
• Develop text-based alternative (esp. drop down
  menus)
• Keyboard shortcuts
• BIG click targets avoid disappearing controls
• Hidden Audience
• Carpal tunnel, broken wrist, essential tremor,
• New to mouse, iPhone, track pad
• Screen reader users prefer keyboard as well

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Controls for Animation
Keyboard S Start/Slow, F Fast, space
pause. Lets view animation
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Speaking of Flash

• Have you
• Stopped animations/music by default and given
  play controls
• Checked color contrast? Used legible fonts?
• Checked usability?
• Made form labels/icons announce themselves?
• Including the play/pause buttons?
• Described animation/images for screen readers?
• Allowed for captioned videos?
• Recommendation Dont build 100 Flash navigation
  site

31
Beware Drop Down Menus

• Problems
• Hard for motion impaired users, especially if
  they disappear
• Hard for screen reader users unless properly
  coded (usually via CSS)
• Hard for cognitively impaired usersunless entire
  site menu displayed
• Solution
• Text-based alternate (e.g. Site Map, clickable
  main menus)

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Cognitive Disabilities

• Interface should be simple and consistent
• Use same language throughout site/tool
• Use language audience will understand
• Restrict icons to the basics (e.g. arrow icon) or
  label all icons
• Provide Global View (all options at once)
• Dont hide information too quickly
• Let user start/stop animation audio

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Hidden Audience

• Everyone appreciates usability
• Customers often have simpler mental models than
  developers
• Use Whale instead of Cetacean
• Use Impressionism instead of 19th Century
  French
• Does everyone know what a browser is?
• Avoid Icon Trap

What are these icons?
Icons labels better
34
Color Deficient users

• Primarily Red/Green (10 men)
• Design so information viewable in black and white
  (or grayscale)
• Underline your text links
• Supplement color coding with shape
• Red X and Green v
• Hidden Audience
• People with a black and white printer

ANGEL Quiz Scores X v
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Red/Blue for Warnings

• Use a shade of blue instead of green for
  warnings. Blue tends to preserve itself the best.

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Testing Color Deficiency

• Photoshop CS4
• Protonopia Deuteronopia filters
• Under View Proof Setup menu
• View page in grayscale (change monitor settings)
• Online Color Blindness Testers
• http//www.iamcal.com/toys/colors/
• http//www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

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Testing New Tech

• Can the screen reader access information?
• Uploads
• Are captions supported for audio/video uploads?
• Are ALT tags supported for image uploads?
• Default format
• Legible text? Good color contrast?
• Proper Headers?
• WYSIWYG editor generating accessible HTML?