• 140 likes • 271 Views
digital media access group. Accessible Accessibility David Sloan, Peter Gregor, Murray Rowan, Paul Booth University of Dundee, Scotland. Accessible Accessibility. The importance of web accessibility The need for a new accessibility evaluation methodology – which is accessible to non experts
E N D
digital media access group Accessible Accessibility David Sloan, Peter Gregor, Murray Rowan, Paul Booth University of Dundee, Scotland http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Accessible Accessibility • The importance of web accessibility • The need for a new accessibility evaluation methodology – which is accessible to non experts • The methodology developed • The methodology in practice • Future improvements http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
The Importance of Accessibility • Legal Requirements • UK’s Disability Discrimination legislation • Americans with Disabilities legislation • Changing browsing technology • More people accessing the web... • …yet e-commerce ventures spectacularly failing http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Existing profile of Web accessibility • Could be improved! • Lack of knowledge amongst designers • “Urban myths” still persist • Connection between accessible design and usable design requires promotion • Current information has its drawbacks http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Current Accessibility Evaluation Resources • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines • Bobby • W3C HTML Validator, HTML Tidy • Other accessibility tools: • The WAVE • Check your Page • InSight • Web accessibility resources: • AWARE Center, Alertbox, DISinHE http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
The need for a “meta-method” Drawbacks of current accessibility evaluation methods: • Can only uncover some problems • Excessively technical • Overly prescriptive http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Background to our research • Applied Computing at the University of Dundee – heavily involved in disability/technology research • Including Disability and Information Systems in Higher Education (DISinHE) • Summer 1999 – asked to carry out accessibility audits of 15 web sites in UK Higher Education Sector • How to carry out this project? Develop a meta-method for assessing accessibility http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Our Methodology (1) • “Initial Impressions” of the subject site • Bobby evaluation • Further evaluation of a selection of representative pages • W3C HTML validation • Testing against Web content Accessibility Guidelines http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Our Methodology (2) • General Inspection of the site • Detailed Exploration • Viewing with various browsers and assistive technologies • Usability valuations • Heuristic Evaluation • User testing (sighted/blind groups of users) http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Output • A comprehensive audit containing • Detailed, prioritised (and clear!) recommendations for raising accessibility levels • Findings of the various stages of the audit • Continuing support in implementing the recommendations http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Feedback • Questionnaires • Generally very positive • Revisiting of sites • Some sites, major accessibility barriers addressed immediately • Others incorporated accessibility features during redesign • Some have done nothing at all… http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Points for Improvement • Timing of audits • Need to coincide with site redesign projects • Presentation of recommendations • Better liaison with site administrators • Identifying purpose of site • User groups, likely tasks • Current Constraints http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
The next steps • Incorporating the methodology into an auditing tool • Automatic evaluations • Prompts for manual evaluation • Automatically generated recommendations and recovery plan • Study the results – how do people react to the audits… • …and can we make them more effective? http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/
Summary • Current accessibility evaluation tools have positive features and drawbacks • So pool them together into a meta-method • Result – a methodology which uncovers accessibility and usability problems • …and may be possible to use to create a semi-automatic evaluation tool http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/dmag/