Accessibility:
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Accessibility

THE RELEVANCE OF ACCESSIBILITY

Introduction

Providing accessibility means removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in substantial life activities, including the use of services, products, and information. We see and use a multitude of access-related technologies in everyday life, many of which we may not recognize as disability related when we encounter them. The bell that chimes when an elevator is about to arrive, for example, was designed with blind people in mind (Edwards, Edwards, and Mynatt, 1992). The curb cut ramps common on street corners in the United States were introduced for wheelchair users (Vanderheiden, 1983). Accessibility is by definition a category of usability: software that is not accessible to a particular user is not usable by that person. As with any usability measure, accessibility is necessarily defined relative to user task requirements and needs. For example, a telephone booth is accessible (e.g., usable) to a blind person, but may not be accessible to a person using a wheelchair. Graphical user interfaces are not very accessible to blind users, but relatively accessible to deaf users.

Vanderheiden (1991) makes a distinction between "direct" access and access through add-on assistive technologies. He describes direct access as "adaptations to product designs that can significantly increase their accessibility...". A major advantage of this approach is that large numbers of users with mild to moderate disabilities can use systems without any modification. Examples of direct access include software keyboard enhancements included with X Windows, OS/2, and the Macintosh.

Assistive access means that system infrastructure allows add-on assistive software to transparently provide specialized input and output capabilities. For example, screen readers allow blind users to navigate through applications, determine the state of controls, and read text via text to speech conversion. On-screen keyboards replace physical keyboards, and head-mounted pointers replace mice. These are only a few of the assistive technologies users may add on to their systems.

We claim that in order to truly serve users with disabilities, accessibility must mean more than simply providing "direct" access through assistive technologies bundled with system software, and more than providing the capability to add such assistive technologies. It also must mean designing application user interfaces that are easier to use for users with disabilities as well as users "with out" disabilities by taking their needs into account when system and application software is designed.
-excerpt from "Advances in Human-Computer Interaction" Volume 5, Jakob Nielsen, Editor, Copyright 1995

What is a Disability?

Disability is a broad term that includes motor and sensory limitations as well as those resulting from chronic illness. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an individual with a disability is a person who:

  1. has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;

  2. has a record of such an impairment; or

  3. is regarded as having such an impairment

Legal Requirements and Access

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Accessibility LogoElectronic curbcuts

  • Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act - 1996 the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in almost 62 years requires manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and providers of telecommunications services to ensure that such equipment and services are accessible to and useable by persons with disabilities, if readily achievable.
    Telecommunications Act

  • International Web Accessibility Guidelines
    http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI

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What is Assistive Technology?
The Federal definition of Assistive technology means any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of children with disabilities. (Federal Register, August 19, 1991, p. 41272).

Assistive Technology Act of 1998
http://section508.gov/docs/AT1998.html


Who Uses Assistive Technology?
According to the U.S. Access Board, nearly 50 million people in the United States have some kind of functional limitation or disability. Approximately 15% of those people -- 7.75 million -- can't use a computer without some form of assistive technology, such as screen readers (which translate what's on the screen into Braille, voice output or audible cues), audio or text-only browsers, or alternative keyboards.

Who is "the User?"

  • Does "the user" include a programmer who broke her arm and needed speech recognition to continue her productivity on the computer?

  • Does the "the user" include an instructor who may use a wheelchair and needs access to an adaptable teaching station in order to be accommodated in the teaching environment?

  • Does the "the user" include a student who contracted retinitis pigmentosa and although once able to use screen enlargement software is now learning to use a screen reader to "hear" the graphical user interface on her computer screen.

  • Does the "the user" include the student who dived off a cliff at the local swimming hole, into a shallow pool of water, experienced a spinal cord injury and needs to have an adjustable table for a class?

  • Does the "the user" include a student who has severe carpal tunnel syndrome and needs speech recognition to program for her C++ class?

  • Does the "the user" include the student with dyslexia who can comprehend and write material with the aid of text to voice software?

  • Does the "the user" include the employee with a prosthetic forearm that requires work adaptations in order to perform specific job functions?

These users and many others have told us that their needs are not being met by current computer systems. Users with physical disabilities complain about applications that cannot be controlled from the keyboard. Users with low vision describe software that does not allow them to adjust the color to make text legible. Blind users complain about documentation that is not accessible because it is not available on paper in braille or on the computer as plain text (which is required for screen reading applications).

Access problems are not confined to users who have a "classic" disability. As they age, users who would claim they have no disability find that screens become more difficult to read and sounds become more difficult to hear. Users who break an arm, sprain a wrist, lose a contact lens, require bifocals, or develop repetitive stress injuries suddenly find that computer systems do not take their needs into account.

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Sometimes the solutions lie with the developer who has a disability.

Things that are a nuisance to you visually are an absolute showstopper for someone who's blind.
-T.V. Raman, Ph.D.
Auditory User Interface Developer

Blind since birth - a story

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How do product developers help us with accessibility?

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What is Web Site accessibility?

The Web excels as a medium in which accessibility can be addressed. On the Web, a computer can automatically and cost-effectively represent the same information in a variety of ways according to the needs of users. Within the neutral forum of W3C, industry leaders, disability representatives, and others convened to develop accessibility solutions that are reasonable, practical, and effective. Web sites designed using very simple tools naturally tend to be accessible. Even sophisticated sites, designed with major effort, can be kept accessible with only a small proportion of that effort.
-Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.

According to the U.S. Access Board it's estimated that 8% of people who use the World Wide Web have disabilities. But as the page layouts on Web sites grow more complex, they pose challenges to these users.

Other examples:

  • Pages that rely heavily on users clicking a mouse are difficult for people with mobility impairments to navigate unless the browser provides keyboard alternatives;

  • Text laden web pages with small font, no discernible reading sections with appropriate headings or titles can be a barrier for persons with reading difficulties;

  • Frames, columns and tables can't be easily interpreted by screen readers, which read lines of text from left to right;

  • Designers forget to include alternate text versions of images, image maps or images of text, rendering the information or even the site itself inaccessible to anyone who's visually impaired, surfing the Net with in a text-only mode, or using a text-based browser;

  • Audio clips are inaccessible to hearing-impaired users unless the site also provides transcripts;

Research
Home Computers, Distance Education and Students with Disabilities
· A study of the distance learning interests and home based computing resources of students with disabilities in the California community colleges.

· These findings suggest that perhaps 25% of students with disabilities enrolled in the California community colleges (12,000 - 15,000 students) have Internet access from their homes. August 1999 http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/dlfindings.htm


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QUICK TIPS TO MAKE ACCESSIBLE WEB SITES
For Complete Guidelines & Checklist: www.w3.org/WAI

  • Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.

  • Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.

  • Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.

  • Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here."

  • Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.

  • Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.

  • Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.

  • Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.

  • Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
    (c) W3C (MIT, INRIA, Keio) 2001/01

Check your work and Validate. For a collection of Evaluation, Repair, and Transform Tools used by Web content developers and users to make the Web more accessible.

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For more information: see Santa Barbara City College web standards http://www.sbcc.net/home/fs/training/webstandards/
These standards are designed to assist SBCC faculty and staff in the creation of official SBCC web sites.



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