SELLING YOUR CLIENTS ON ACCESSIBILITY
Dec 1, 2022
SELLING YOUR CLIENTS ON ACCESSIBILITY
Selling through education
Ensuring our websites are accessible should be an integral part of every website build process. It not only benefits users living with disabilities but generally improves the site experience for all users, not to mention it's simply the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, these reasons alone are sometimes not enough. Since accessibility requires an investment of time, and thus money, many clients may think that this investment simply isn't worth it for them.
ACCESSIBILITY
Dec 1, 2022
HI THERE!
Ryan �Bracey
Director, �Web Development & User Experience
SECTIONS
Overview
Accessibility in Practice
Measuring Success Criteria
Wrapping Up
SECTION 1
Overview
Accessibility, or a11y, is essential to making sure every user visiting your site can access it’s content.
“If you want people to access your content, then you want people with disabilities to access your content. Finito.”
René Jaun �Swiss Accessibility Consultant, Activist & Evangelist
What do you think we mean when we say a website should be accessible?
What do we mean when we say a website should be accessible?
OVERVIEW / INTRODUCTION TO ACCESSIBILITY
Literally, that everybody should be able to access your website.
We do this by ensuring:
OVERVIEW / INTRODUCTION TO ACCESSIBILITY
Breaking assumptions
A ‘typical’ user experiences the internet by using a point and click interface, like a mouse or touchpad.
We often think of ourselves as the ‘typical’ user, but when we do this we’re making a lot of assumptions about our users.
We assume users are equal in:
OVERVIEW / INTRODUCTION TO ACCESSIBILITY
Avoiding exclusion
When it comes to people, there is no such thing as ‘typical’.
If we assume that all users can see and use technology in the same way we do, we end up creating something that is easy to use for some, but difficult or impossible for everyone else.
SO, WHEN WE SAY ACCESSIBLE…
We’re talking about users that fall outside of that ‘typical’ range. These users access or experience things differently from that of a ‘typical’ user.
More often than not, this is referring to users who are experiencing some type of impairment or disability.
“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”
Tim Berners-Lee �W3C Director & �inventor of the World Wide Web
SECTION 1
Overview
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or ADA, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
So far in 2022, over two thousand federal digital accessibility lawsuits have been filed under the ADA.
OVERVIEW / AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
The ADA as it applies to the web
Department of Justice
The Department of Justice has have long held that the ADA applies to websites and other digital services. In March of 2022, they published a set of guidelines describing how state and local governments as well as businesses can ensure their websites are accessible.
In court
Since web accessibility is not explicitly mentioned in any federal law, courts are left to interpret the ADA.
OVERVIEW / AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
Title III of the ADA
Title III of the ADA forbids public accommodations from discriminating against disabled Americans.
This mention of public accommodations is very important as plaintiffs argue that a website counts as a public accommodation. Unfortunately, there is no definition of public accommodation within the ADA, leaving this definition up to the courts who are somewhat divided.
OVERVIEW / AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
A precedent for web accessibility
In October, 2019, the Supreme Court declined to resolve a circuit split as to whether websites are covered by the ADA. The Court turned down an appeal from Domino's Pizza and let stand a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which held that the Americans With Disabilities Act protects access not just to brick-and-mortar public accommodations, but also to the websites and apps of those businesses.
This has set a precedent used by many courts across the country but has not really done anything to address the ambiguity of the ADA’s applications to web accessibility.
“Ryan, I’m confused”
You right now, probably
OVERVIEW / AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
Extending the ADA definition to explicitly cover websites
Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act
Introduced to congress in October of 2022 by Sen. Tammy Duckworth. If this bill passes it would build upon the ADA and set out clear regulations for digital accessibility requirements.
SECTION 1
Overview
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, is a standard for web content accessibility
“Technology doesn’t make accessibility hard. People who don’t care do.”
Sheri Byrne-Haber
CPACC
OVERVIEW / WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)
What is WCAG?
Web content is defined as:
A set of guidelines, maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which cover a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible.
OVERVIEW / WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)
How do I use WCAG?
WCAG provides a set of referenceable technical standards organized into 4 main principles (perceivable, operable, understandable and robust). Each of these principles contains a set of 12-13 guidelines, each with testable success criteria. The success criteria is further broken down into 3 levels (A, AA, AAA). (We’ll get into the specifics a little later).
Ensuring your web content meets the outlined success criteria is just the first step in assuring creation of accessible websites.
OVERVIEW / WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)
Is WCAG a legal requirement?
For federal agencies, yes.
In 2017, section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was revised to require that all federal agencies and contractors must comply with WCAG.
For private businesses, kind of.
Under the ADA websites are required to be accessible, however non-compliance with WCAG is not a violation of the ADA. Though many states and courts uphold that WCAG compliance provides reasonable accessibility. So while not required, it does cover the bases.
SECTION 2
Accessibility in Practice
61 million adults in the United States — or 26% of adults — live with a disability of some form. While some disabilities are visible, many others are not, such as color blindness.
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / CATEGORIES OF USER IMPAIRMENT
Re-defining disability
Disability is no longer looked at as just a personal condition that defines a person’s health. It is much more accurate to view a disability as a universal experience stemming from mismatches in human interaction.
To address these mismatches we need to consider the categories and temporalities of impairment.
Categories
Temporalities
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / CATEGORIES OF USER IMPAIRMENT
Consider
Each one of these people is experiencing the same motor impairment within a different temporality.
One arm
Arm injury
New parent
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / CATEGORIES OF USER IMPAIRMENT
More people benefit
By being mindful of the full range of temporality in which a person can experience an impairment we are able to scale our solutions to create something that benefits a much larger audience.
In the US, 26,000 people a year suffer from loss of upper extremities. When we include people with temporary and situational impairments, that number is greater than 21M.
One arm
Arm injury
New parent
26K
13M
8M
Color Blind
Near Sighted
Lives next to a train track
SECTION 2
Accessibility in Practice
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Robust
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are organized by four main principles, called the POUR principles, which state that content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / THE POUR PRINCIPALS
Perceivable
What this means
Users can identify content and interface components even without the use of all of their senses.
For example
Provide text alternatives for any non decorative images.
A t-rex eating french fries in the rain
Alt text
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / THE POUR PRINCIPALS
Operable
What this means
Users can use interface components to navigate the content.
For example
Ensuring all content is accessible via keyboard navigation.
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / THE POUR PRINCIPALS
Understandable
What this means
Users can comprehend the content and the interface.
For example
Writing content at an 8th- to 9th-grade reading level.
ACCESSIBILITY IN PRACTICE / THE POUR PRINCIPALS
Robust
What this means
Content is compatible with different browsers and assistive technologies.
For example
Ensuring all markup is valid so that it can be reliably interpreted.
SECTION 3
Measuring Success Criteria
There is no way to fully automate accessibility. It’s a moving target.
“Accessible website design is a long-term commitment, not a one-time project.”
Bureau of Internet Accessibility
MEASURING SUCCESS CRITERIA / HITTING THE MARK
Hitting the mark
SECTION 3
Measuring Success Criteria
MEASURING SUCCESS CRITERIA / GIVING 110%
Giving 110%
SECTION 3
Measuring Success Criteria
MEASURING SUCCESS CRITERIA / GOING THE EXTRA MILE
Going the extra mile
There’s no such thing as perfect accessibility.
SECTION 4
Wrapping Up
WRAPPING UP / BENEFITS OF AN ACCESSIBLE WEBSITE
Benefits of an accessible website
SECTION 4
Wrapping Up
WRAPPING UP / RESOURCES
Artist Christine Sun Kim Rewrites Closed Captions
Kristy Viers
Voiceover on Mobile
René Jaun: How a blind person navigates pdf
To better understand how different people experience the web
WRAPPING UP / RESOURCES
Mismatch
by Kat Holmes
Accessibility resources collected by Stark
WordPress Accessibility Meetup
For continued learning
WRAPPING UP / RESOURCES
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
Checklists and standards
Checklist based on WCAG
Articles, resources, and documentation that support WCAG
WCAG Quick References
Microsoft’s Inclusive Design Standards
THANKS FOR LISTENING
Any �questions?