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The Gamification of Accessibility. Greg Kraus University IT Accessibility Coordinator NC State University. Gamification. Gamification [n]: the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. Accessibility is Not a Game. It’s a human right It’s should just be part of their job
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The Gamification of Accessibility Greg Kraus University IT Accessibility Coordinator NC State University
Gamification • Gamification [n]: the use of game design elements in non-game contexts
Accessibility is Not a Game • It’s a human right • It’s should just be part of their job • People might get addicted to the game
I Never Set Out To Make A Game • Guiding Principles • It takes practice to become an accessible Web developer • I am competing in a marketplace for people's attention
Aristotle • “If you want to become a major league baseball player, you cannot simply wake up one day and declare your self a baseball player, capable of hitting a curve ball. You must become habituated in the ways of being a baseball player through a lifetime of practice.”
How to Learn To Be a Major League Baseball Player • Start easy • Gradually build skill over time • Learn to see patterns and know how to react • Reactions become intuitive and natural • Practice
Competing in a Marketplace of Demands • Prioritizations • “Keeping the lights on” • Production services to run and maintain • Security and Compliance • This impacts everyone, not just “those people” • As important as you think you are, you’re not seen that way by campus
Gaming Principles • A good game… • Lets everyone play, regardless of skill level • Lets you improve skills over time • Gives you instant feedback
Make a Game Everyone Can Play 4 5 7 11 6 1 8 10 9 2 3
Accessibility is Not Fun • But… • Solving a problem is fun • Seeing how you have improved and grown is fun • Admit it … winning is fun
Prioritization • 4 = fatal error, user cannot interact at all with the element • 3 = significant error, user can only partially recover or it causes a significant hardship • 2 = significant error, but user can usually mostly, if not fully recover • 1 = minor annoyance • 0 = usually can ignore
Level 4 • Missing alternative text • Unlabeled form element • No keyboard event for an equivalent mouse event
Level 3 • A form control has more than one label • Page auto refreshes • No skip to main content link
Level 2 • Spacer image does not have an alt attribute • Pages have unique titles and don’t say “Untitled Document”
Level 1 • Invalid code • Heading levels are skipped • No titles for frames
Level 0 • Using absolute font sizes* • No alternative content for iframes
Demonstrate System • http://accessibility.oit.ncsu.edu/accessibility-scan/
When Do People Use The System? • Available 24/7 year round • Contests • NC State 2013 World Usability Day Website Challenge (October-November) • NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day Website Challenge (April-May)
The Sales Pitch “You have 28,000 accessibility errors across 8000 pages.Your site ranks 371 out of 385. You are in the bottom 10% of all categories. Can you fix these in the next 2 weeks? Oh, and you’ve had these problems for the past 2 years.”
The Results • Corrected 27,500 errors • 40 out of 385 • Top 5% in all categories “I’m co-opting your employees for my own agenda”
What We’ve Done So Far • 413 Sites • 110,000 Pages • 1,050,000 Weighted Accessibility Errors Corrected
Being a Good Gamemaster • You can always make your game better • More frequent scanning • Historical rankings • Graphical and contextual view (WAVE)
Tools and Resources Developed • Web Accessibility Handbook • go.ncsu.edu/accessibility-handbook • Readability Bookmarklet • go.ncsu.edu/readability • Color Contrast Analyzer for Chrome • go.ncsu.edu/color-contrast-chrome
Behind the Scenes • Server • cPanel (Apache and MySQL) • Data storage • Assign site ownership • Google Drive • Spreadsheet lists all public sites to be scanned 1/2 4 3 1 • SortSite • Runs on old Win 7 box • Scripted through desktop scripting app • Checks for new requests every 20 seconds • User Interface • PHP/MySQL • WAVE • Runs on extra Macmini with MAMP
Key Elements That Make This Work • Anonymity, to a degree • Doing part of the work for them • Setting up the scanner? • Doing the scan for them? • Giving guidance on what is important • Giving immediate feedback on how to fix it
The Limits of Gaming • Automated scans only get you so far • Cannot test for everything
Automated Tests are Only So Good The ALT text of this image mentions a color, which isn't useful for blind users. alt="N.C. Sen. Daniel Blue Jr. (left) and N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis were among those paying tribute to former N.C. Speaker of the House Harold Brubaker (center)."
Future Developments • Receive bonus points for performing manual checks • Get points for both • Testing if the onscreen focus is always visible • Fixing the onscreen focus problem if it exists • Artificial intelligence techniques • Determine if you have an appropriate number of headings