2005: Accessibility: which site production standards and testing methods will give maximum return on...

04/08/2023 08/04/2023 [email protected]

What standards do you need to meet for your site to be accessible?

Which methods will give maximum ROI?

Dr Jonathan HassellAccessibility Editor, Digital Curriculum

BBC New Media

Presentation toBSI Accessibility conference

7/7/05 v0.19

Giles ColborneDirector,cxpartnersPresident,UK UPA

04/08/2023 [email protected] 207/07/05 [email protected] 2© BBC 2005

What we’ll be talking about• Accessibility and “reasonableness”• Common approach (stereotyped) vs. our suggested approach (UCD)• Standards:

– Is there an accepted Industry Standard? – Other standards/guidelines and codes of practice– Rolling your own

• Testing:– Test it and put a badge on it– automated vs. manual testing– self-check v audit– acceditation– accessible v usable

• User-Centred Design– ISO Standards for measuring usability & UCD process– Testing methods – cost vs. benefits

• Case studies– Case study – testing wireframes– Case study – tables (guidelines vs. results of testing)


Accessibility and “reasonableness”• DDA:

– 1999: aim to prevent discrimination against disabled people for 'goods and services‘

– code of practice (2002) clarification to specifically include websites, within the provision of 'goods and services'

– DDA requires “reasonable” steps to ensure websites are accessible to a disabled audience

• So what is “reasonable”?– depends on the size of your site, budget for site, size of organisation…– need to be clear who the site is for, and how you are going to support

different groups of users to use the site… – some accessibility features are more expensive than others…– ROI: make sure the money you spend actually makes a difference

• But for legal guidance… see talk on Accessibility & The Law


Common approach (stereotyped)…• you get your technical people to read some

guidelines• they decide what they can do and do it• they test it with an automated accessibility

checker• they put a badge on the site to let people know

they checked it (so it must be accessible)• you breathe a sigh of relief that you’re not going

to be sued (you hope)


Purpose of accessibility• Always keep in mind…

• the purpose of accessibility is to make things easier for all of your (client’s) audience – start and end with them in mind…

• the internet can be a great enabler for disabled people if you use it right


Our suggested approach (UCD)…• you work out who is going to use the site• you get (reps of) your users in to capture their requirements• you form a policy based on which of those requirements your site

can reasonably support• you produce the site against standards/guidelines• but you also get those users to test the site

– preferably iteratively, as you go• so when it goes live, you’re sure it’s accessible to those users you

have decided you can support– and, as a side-effect, you breathe a sigh of relief that you’re not going to

be sued


Background: accessibility is a partnership to make a website

accessible, you need all of the following to work together:- Website creators- Assistive technology creators

(e.g. Freedom Scientific, ReadPlease)

- Operating system creators (e.g. Microsoft, Apple)

- Disability assessment agencies (e.g. AbilityNet, RNIB)

- Browser creators (e.g. Microsoft, Opera)

- comms via W3C-WAI…


Standards:Is there an accepted industry standard?

• legal answer = no• but in practice…

– see W3C’s WAI guidelines:• WCAG – technical guidelines for site

developers– v1… v2

• ATAG – guidelines for creation of site maintenance tools (incl. CMSs)

• UAAG – guidelines for browser, OS, assistive technology manufacturers


Standards:other standards, guidelines, codes of practice

• International…(W3C)• vs National…

– PAS 78: Guide to good practice in designing accessible websites

• vs Organisational (roll your own)…– e.g. BBC’s @ http://bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/accessibility– Cabinet Office’s Guidelines for UK government websites– IBM’s @ http://www-306.ibm.com/able/guidelines/

– can be useful but be careful when doing this…

http://bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/accessibility

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/

http://e-government.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/



http://www-306.ibm.com/able/guidelines/


How to change the culture of your production teams / clients – awareness, motivation

• Start with your staff…

• Make it personal:– get an external

agency to do a survey of your site’s accessibility, including video-taping of real users using the site

– See the Accessibility Study of bbc.co.uk for inspiration (available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbci/websites.shtml)

then go to your clients…

• Make it real:– send all your staff on an

Accessibility Awareness course

– provide background & motivation for staff & clients (DDA etc.)

– provide experience of assistive technologies

– show the videos of real users having problems using the site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbci/websites.shtml




How to channel buy-in into producing a better site – standards & guidelines

• create/identify accessibility standards & guidelines for your sites– good start: WAI or the BBC Accessibility Standards (from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/websites.shtml)– make sure your standards support your / your clients’ audiences and production

processes – get your staff to create them– be pragmatic - for each standard consider…

• is it “reasonable”?• benefit: does it actually help disabled audiences?

– does it hinder other audiences?• cost: what aspects of production does it affect?

• communicate them well to staff• provide a group/someone who can answer specific accessibility questions

as they crop up in practice• whenever possible, encode the standards in your production tools, so that

staff cannot get things wrong

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/websites.shtml


Testing: check it and put a badge on it

• DIY - check your conformance yourself and award yourself a badge…

• Use an automated site validation tool and use the badge it awards you…


Testing: Automated vs. manual testing…

• automated tools can be useful• BUT…• listen to real people, rather than

automated tools/checklists“These tools are like spell-checkers; you wouldn’t send out

a spell-checked document that wasn’t manually proof-read as well”


Testing: Self-check vs. audit

• are you really experienced enough to do it?

• would you be able to tell the difference between:– a problem which is a limitation of a

screenreader, or– a problem which is your site’s problem…

• get in an expert…


Testing: what accreditation could you get from the experts?

• currently no UK government recognised accreditation (quality mark) scheme for website accessibility

• What you can apply for now:– See it Right mark (between WCAG A and AA)

• Forthcoming:– EuroAccessibility Consortium (

http://www.euroaccessibility.org/)– supportEAM (http://support-eam.org/)

http://www.euroaccessibility.org/

http://support-eam.org/


Testing: user-testing - accessible vs. usable

• test with disabled users– many options:

recruit & adminster yourself => ask a lab to do it for you

• a site can be “accessible” but impossible to use– which is no use to anyone (incl. your non-disabled users)

• use user/accessibility testing to pick up your usability problems too– include disabled users in your wider user-testing panel rather

than just do accessibility testing

• and make sure you plan in time to act on the results…


Even better… UCD

ISO 9421-12: Measuring usability

Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

Identify key tasks

Identify key disabled audiences

How well can your disabled users complete tasks on your web site?


Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

How often can disabled users complete each task?- Task completion rate

How well can they complete each task?- Degree of completion- Error rates


Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

How much effort does it take to complete each task?- Number of keystrokes / clicks- Time taken- Pauses


Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

Is user satisfied with the experience- What is an appropriate experience?- Different for education, banking, buying CDs, entertainment- Does the experience fit with your brand values?- Perceived efficiency- Perceived effectiveness


Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

Different systems need a different balance of these elementsWeb sites are often self-serviceEffectiveness and satisfaction dominate measures of web site usability


Effectiveness

Efficiency

Satisfaction

But for disabled users, efficiency becomes a massive problem

Improving accessibility can be about improving efficiency for disabled users


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Effectiveness Efficiency Satisfaction

Measures are only meaningful when you compare them

So measure at least twice

For instance- Proposed site versus competitors- Proposed site versus current site

Usability testing methods

Quality of data

Cost

User testing

User reviews / interviews

Remote testing

Expert walkthroughHeuristics

Automated testing

Testing with assistive technologies

ISO 13407: The user centred design process

Specifycontextof use

Specify goals

Produce prototyp

es

Test solutions with users

Success!

Plan user

centred design

activities

Can you really test wireframes?

Test drive | Brochure | Downloads Acme

Feature 2

Feature 3

Feature 1

Performance

Interior

Exterior

Menu for exterior features - link to other zones

Drag the mouse to spin the car.Labels zoom forward and backClick on label to explore featureClick on action nav to order brochure

Image of car

360 spin

AcmeCar jingle

None

Can you really test wireframes

Test drive | Brochure | Downloads AcmeCar

Feature 2

Feature 3

Feature 1

Performance

Interior

Call to actionLogo

Content

Main navInteriorExteriorPerformance

Sub navFeature 1Feature 2Feature 3

Main nav

Sub nav (features)

Call to action

Main content

Logo


Case study: user-testing vs. slave to guidelines…

• e.g. tables…– WAI level 1 requires HTML

labelling of all table cells– but…

• user-testing reveals this doesn’t produce “better tables” for screenreader browsing

• this requires knowledge of special table-browsing mode in JAWS

– tables are actually more usable for screenreader users if they are “linear”

• which is WAI level 2– example: BBC weather site

• before… and after


Other useful additions to your site

provide accessibility information/help:– include information on:

• browser/OS settings • assistive technologies

– or link to…• BBC & AbilityNet’s forthcoming My

Web My Way (http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/)

ask for accessibility feedback:– to further inform your

understanding of how people really use your website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/


Thanks for listeningAny questions…

?Contacts:

[email protected] [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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2005: Accessibility: which site production standards and testing methods will give maximum return on...

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