AODA & Accessibility: it’s more than just alt tagsPodCamp Toronto, Feb 25, 2017

Daniel Puiatti@dpuiatti

http://tiny.cc/dpuiatti

Mark Farmer@markus64markfarmer.net

Today• What is accessibility?• What is AODA?• The many faces of AODA:

• Web• PDF• Video

• What can you do to prepare yourself?

Disclaimer• Today’s presentation represents our admittedly

imperfect understanding of accessibility and AODA.• We advise you not to rely on this imperfect

understanding, but to use it as a starting point for educating yourself and finding out more fully about AODA, its requirements and implications.

• Remember: AODA is a legal requirement. It’s an act of law in Ontario. Educate yourself.

• We’re neither AODA nor accessibility experts: we’re two guys who did the best we could to try to figure things out and educate ourselves.

The “toot your own horn” slide• Bilingual, English & French• 140+ web pages• 3,100+ PDF pages• 100+ minutes of video

Quick survey• What does AODA stand for?• The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act• What’s your expertise level with accessibility?

• None.• Beginner.• Intermediate.• Expert.

• Anyone do accessibility or AODA for a living?

The gov is not enough

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

(complexity, yes)

Divergence

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkwonsh/

The art & the science

IMAGINE THIS

Most information is visual

Visual ≠ effective• Not everyone can process information

visually• Common methods ≠ effective

methods

One in seven• About 1.85 million people in Ontario

have a disability • Estimate that approximately half a

million Canadians live with significant vision loss• We need to reconsider how to communicate

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act•Introduced in 2005•Sets out a process for developing and enforcing accessibility standards

•Accessibility standards are laws that government, businesses, non-profits and public sector organizations must follow

Information and communications standard•Aims to remove barriers to information for people with disabilities

•Is based on World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

•Three levels A, AA, AAA• Beginning Jan 1, 2014: new public websites, significantly refreshed

websites and any web content posted after January 1, 2012 must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A

• Beginning January 1, 2021: all public websites and web content posted after January 1, 2012 must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA other than criteria 1.2.4 (live captions) and 1.2.5 (pre-recorded audio descriptions)

What does accessible information look like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGRWeKeh9NE

The web• Navigation• Responsivity• Consistency• Contrast

Navigation

Navigation

Navigation

Responsive design

Consistency

Text contrast

Text contrast• Minimum 4.5:1 ratio for small text.• Minimum 3:1 ratio for large text.• Free online tools

We all need a little checkup

PDF remediation

Start at the source•Your three steps to success:

•First, start with your source document

•Second, start with your source document

•Third, start with your source document

Reading order

Alternate text

Video

Video• Speaking about YouTube specifically

Some of the concerns for video

• Captioning• Text contrast• Described audio• Strobing

Described video• We’ve been advised

by one expert that isn’t required for AODA, but is still a best practice

• (That’s one expert’s opinion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT5AsjzgIC4

Strobing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c6XHWn9qqE

Captions vs. subtitles

Open

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRzo4lvqwlw• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWM4ygXisbQ

Closed

Caption file

CONCLUSION

Where do we go from here?• Government:

• https://www.ontario.ca/page/how-make-websites-accessible • https://www.ontario.ca/page/accessibility-laws

• W3C: • www.w3.org• https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php• https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/• https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/Overview.html#contents• https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/conformance.html• https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/

• Service provider: • accessontario.com

• Best practices / reference:• http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/drupal-aoda-compliance-reference.pdf• http://www.access-for-all.ch/ch/pdf-werkstatt/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html

• Tools:• http://wave.webaim.org/• https://validator.w3.org/

THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?

Daniel Puiatti@dpuiatti

Mark Farmer@markus64markfarmer.net

linkedin.com/in/markfarmer64/