Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Web accessibility:An overview

13 May 2010 | Trenton Moss

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

About WebcredibleUser experience consultancy

• Usability & accessibility testing

• User research & requirements gathering

• Information architecture

• User-centered design

• Usability & accessibility training

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Agenda• True or false?• Accessibility requirements:

– Blind– Partially sighted– Motor impaired– Cognitive impaired

• Benefits of accessibility• Embedding accessibility internally

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

True or false?

True or false?

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

1. Websites should provide audio versions of pages for blind users

2. Sites should use a large font size

3. You can use as many images as you like on web pages

4. Separate text-only versions are beneficial

5. Making websites accessible is a UK legal requirement

6. Accessibility is all about how the site is coded

7. Accessibility can improve usability for everyone

True or false?True False

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Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirements

Accessibility requirements

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirements

• Descriptive page title• Skip link(s)• Avoid accesskeys• Lists• Minimise noise• ALT text:

– Descriptive ALT text for informative images

– Null ALT text for decorative images• Headings (inc. invisible headings)• Descriptive links (front-loaded)

Blind users

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirements

• Resizable text• Visible font resizer• Text not embedded in images• Large headings• High contrast links• Different background colours used• Sufficient colour contrast

Partially sighted users

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirements

• Large link target• Focus state for links• Visible skip link

Motor impaired users

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirementsCognitive impaired users• What’s the best tool?

• Why is Google’s tool good?

• How many tools does the article mention?

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Accessibility requirementsCognitive impaired users• Descriptive headings• Front-load page content• 1 idea per paragraph & front-loaded• Lists used• Emboldened text• Descriptive link text• Left-aligned text• Clear & simple language

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Benefits of accessibility

Benefits of accessibility

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

BenefitsWhy you should care...• Increase in reach to:

– 8.6m registered disabled people (14%; source: DRC)– 2m people with a sight problem (4%; source: RNIB)– 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women with colour

blindness (9%; source: IEE)– 12m people aged 60+ (21%; source: National

Statistics)• Better SEO & usability• It’s the done thing• It’s the law!

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

BenefitsThe law• UK (DDA)• Australia (DDA)• USA (ADA)• EU legislature

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Testing for accessibility

Embedding accessibility internally

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Embedding accessibilityRange of activities• Find your knight in shining armour• Raise awareness & knowledge:

– Awareness seminars– Training– Accessibility guidelines

• Ongoing testing:– Expert review (Web Accessibility Toolbar)– Automated testing– Disabled user testing

Webcredible – user experience research & design 13 May 2009

Trenton MossDirector

trenton@webcredible.co.uk 020 7423 6324

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