TAB Mentoring:
A Framework To Teach Digital A11y Basics
Betty Troy
Gerardo Rodriguez
User Experience Researchers
Yahoo Inclusive Design Team
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CSUN 2024
Slides QR Code:
Slides Link: https://bit.ly/TAB-Mentoring
Overview:
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Why?
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Complex and Hard to Read!
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Overwhelming
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What is WCAG?
WCAG = Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
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Sample: SC Understanding doc
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Intent
Content should be written as clearly and simply as possible. The intent of this Success Criterion is:
This Success Criterion helps people with reading disabilities while also allowing authors to publish difficult or complex Web content. Text difficulty is described in terms of the level of education required to read the text. Education levels are defined according to the International Standard Classification of Education [[UNESCO]], which was created to allow international comparison among systems of education.
Difficult or complex text may be appropriate for most members of the intended audience (that is, most of the people for whom the content has been created). But there are people with disabilities, including reading disabilities, even among highly educated users with specialized knowledge of the subject matter. It may be possible to accommodate these users by making the text more readable. If the text cannot be made more readable, then supplemental content is needed. Supplemental content is required when text demands reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level—that is, more than nine years of school. Such text presents severe obstacles to people with reading disabilities and is considered difficult even for people without disabilities who have completed upper secondary education.
😵💫
Learning about Accessibility basics - not that simple
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Designers and Developers
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What if?
Create a place:
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Testing and tips on
Accessibility
Basics
Mini Mentoring Program
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Bite-sized lessons / Ready to learn / Digest / Grow
6 week program
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Week 0
Choose topics together
Mentor on the chosen topics
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
A11y Buddy
“You can only start from where you are.
As a mentor, I’ll meet you there.”
-Betty Troy
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Mentors
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Betty Troy
Biomedical Engineer (VA Palo Alto) in Rehabilitation Engineering Field
User Centered Design
Design Thinking
RR & D for people with many different disabilities
Web Design, UX, & Freelance Accessibility Auditor
Evaluated 80 popular products
Accessibility Specialist
TPM/User Experience Research
Master’s Dissertation
Ergonomics of manual wheelchair users in the office environment
Areas of Interest
Cognitive Disabilities
Ageing
Low Vision
Mobile/Wearables
AI
Gerardo Rodriguez
Universal Design IT Consultant at CSU-Northridge
Developed accessible components with the central web development team
Accessibility Consultant
Audits on third-party products used by campus
Freelance Accessibility Expert
Provided accessibility training to developers and oversaw accessibility audits
Master’s Dissertation
Short text classification providing accessibility fix suggestions based on end-user feedback
Areas of Interest
Web development
Cognitive Disabilities
Limited motor skills
Low Vision
Mentoring Sessions Are Based on Mentee’s Interests
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Example Topics
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| |
Typical Session - example
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Topic: Heading Structure
Using h1-h6 to identify headings
About this Technique
This technique is Sufficient to meet 1.3.1: Info and Relationships.
Applicability
HTML
This technique relates to 1.3.1: Info and Relationships (Sufficient when used with Making information and relationships conveyed through presentation programmatically determinable using the following techniques: ).
Description
The objective of this technique is to use HTML heading markup to provide semantic code for headings in the content. Heading markup will allow assistive technologies to present the heading status of text to a user.
TAB History and Now
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2022
Created program
Each Quarter Mentored:
1 Dev and
1 Designer
Total 8 Mentees in 2022
2023
Each Quarter Mentored:
1 Dev
OR
1 Designer
+1 New Mentor in Q3 2023
Total 6 mentees in 2023
(9 A11y Buddies)
2024
Each Quarter Mentor:
1 Dev
OR
1 Designer
Will have mentored a total 8 mentees in 2024
(will have 17 A11y Buddies)
Learnings - TAB Mentoring
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Clarity - Define clearly
Simplicity - Small bites
Practice - “Try This” section
They know what they want to learn about
3 Principles
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Principle 1 - Simple
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Principle 2 - Individualized
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Principle 3 - Safe Space
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TAB Graduates
→ A11y Buddies Community
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A11y Buddy’s Responsibilities
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Friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, encouraging
Mentor’s Continued Responsibilities
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After mentee completes the TAB program:
The
“One Thing”
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A11y Buddies - “One Thing”s
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Examples:
A11y Buddies - Development of “One Thing”s
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Sharing Rounds (example):
A11y Buddies - Quotes
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“It was great… to create a custom program that felt useful to me.”
“There are no ‘dumb’ questions. This was a great program to help build a great foundation, or to level up your skills.”
“I love the sharing sessions where each of the A11y Buddies get to share their new learnings and good/bad examples of our ‘One Thing’.”
“I especially like the part where my mentor shares case studies of how other products are doing things.”
“I’m even more interested in accessibility than before,...”
What A11y Buddies have accomplished (so far)
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Created an iOS Accessibility Design Guide; one for Android in progress
Share learnings with other team members
Provide basic guidance to teams on color contrast
Identify and suggest solutions on basic screen reader focus order issues
Identify missing text alternatives and suggest solutions
TAB Program Benefits Culture
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Continue to TAB
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Mentee
A11y Buddy
Grow their “One Thing”
Share/Teach A11y/Inspire
Mentor
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TAB Mentoring Framework
Each Mentor
Q1 Mentee
Q2 Mentee
Q3 Mentee
Q4 Mentee
A11y Buddies <Develop “One Thing”s>
Team
Team
Team
Team
Principles:
Tips
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Some Favorite Resources
Little by little,
a little becomes a lot.
-Tanzanian Proverb
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Thank You
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Contact
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Slides QR Code:
Link to slides: https://bit.ly/TAB-Mentoring