Lessons Learned in Coding Accessible Apps with Frameworks

Lessons LearnedCoding Accessible Apps with Frameworks

Kate [email protected] 571-281-2626Slides @ http://www.slideshare.net/kwalser

Creative Commons – Some Rights Reserved

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» Usability & accessibility specialist

» Member of TEITAC, or Section 508 / Section 255 refresh committee

» Principal consultant at CX Insights, the user experience division of Tritus Technologies, Inc.

» Originally from upstate NY, now call Fairfax, VA (near DC) home

Kate Walser

[email protected]


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Agenda

Time Duration Topic10:15 – 10:25 10 minutes Introductions, Objectives

10:25 – 10:35 10 minutes Apps & frameworks in action

10:35 – 10:45 15 minutes GROUP EXERCISESpot the A11y Gems

10:45 – 11:05 20 minutes What we learned

11:05 – 11:20 15 minutes Strategy

11:20 – 11:35 15 minutes GROUP EXERCISEYour site

11:35 – 11:45 10 minutes Discussion, Wrap-up

http://www.slideshare.net/kwalser


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» In the early days of software and web apps, software licensing was a given if you were not building your own from-scratch applications.

VINTAGE

Commercial softwareImage credit: “Commercial Software Licensing Costs,” by maisonbissonFlickr Creative Commons


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» As the market crashed in the late 1990s and early 2000s and the recession hit, agencies and businesses were finding ways to cut costs.

CHALLENGEFinancial Times & Costly Software

Image credit: “Piggy Banks with savings chart,” by managementwritingsolutionsFlickr Creative Commons


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TRENDINGFrameworks & Open Source

Logos and trademarks courtesy of Oracle, Microsoft, Drupal, and WordPress.

All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.


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TRENDINGAgile


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THE PROMISE

Powerful, Quicker to build apps


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THE SIDE EFFECTBlack box accessibility

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» Apps & Frameworks in Action


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» WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, SharePoint and other content management tools let organizations build websites quickly and manage content easily. The built-in options out of box for most of them include the ability to tag content with headings, used by assistive technologies.

» Content owners can also insert media, and in some better designed tools like WordPress, add alternative text.

Content ManagementPublish, Edit, Approve


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With drop-down and complex menus, it can be hard to find option you need. Menu doesn’t stay open to let users use ctrl+f to find nav.

NavigationDrop-downs, Megamenus, Mobile menus


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» You can also quickly stand up forms to collect information such as Contact Us, newsletter subscription, registration, or application information using Drupal’s Ctools and various frameworks and plug-ins, like Contact Form 7.

» Many offer support to let you include required indicators, date picker widgets, and informative text near the fields to help users know what format is needed.

FormsCues, Formats, Feedback


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Dynamic AreasAutocompletes, Data-dependent forms, Pop-ups, Surveys, Chat


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Maps & Geo-locationsNear you, Mapped search results


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Search & QueriesTables, Filter, Show X rows, Pagerlinks

Example: https://datatables.net/

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GROUP EXERCISE #1 – 10:35 – 10:45

» Look at your site (or a site)» Content, articles» Any interactive sliders, carousels, media» Search and search results» Contact, registration, application forms

» How would you describe the items to a user who couldn’t see the screen?

» If you had to tell Siri what to do, what would you say?

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» Lessons Learned

Photo credit: “Caution Falling Hardware,” fdecomite


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FOR FRAMEWORKS

Accessible content’s easy(er)…

» Content headings» Alt attributes» Labels for basic fields» Table headings» Skip to main content


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WHEN USING FRAMEWORKSAccessible interactions fell short

» Keyboard and speech recognition had less support

» Accessible rich Internet application (ARIA) support varied


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» Websites with pop-ups for tooltips, navigation menus, and modals and dialogs weren’t always reachable by keyboard.

DEMO

Pop-ups weren’t reachable


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LESSONS LEARNED

Pop-ups weren’t reachable» Add keyboard alternative

for click and hover events– Level 1 menu links sometimes

removed href that provides keyboard support

– Hover sometimes used as trigger» Improve focus outline» Set focus when open

dialogshttps://www.playosmo.com/en/


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DEMO

Field label, help, access issues

Example: https://kwalser.wufoo.com/forms/applicant/

https://kwalser.wufoo.com/forms/applicant/




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LESSONS LEARNED

Field label, help issues

» Adjust out of box required field settings– Change * to Required– Add required attribute to field

» Assign field descriptions to fields

» Adjust code for custom items– Forms in dialogs– Character counts


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DEMO

Validation messages needed focus

Note: These Oracle Apex example link may require a username and password. https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/wwv_flow.accept https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=4000:4500:3378385214844::NO:::

https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/wwv_flow.accept%20https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=4000:4500:3378385214844::NO:::

https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/wwv_flow.accept%20https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=4000:4500:3378385214844::NO:::


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LESSONS LEARNED

Validation messages needed focus

» Improve status messages– Move focus to success / error

messages after validation– Include links to fields with

problems» Associate error message

with field via ARIA

Example: http://assets.cms.gov/resources/framework/3.4.1/Pages/#formvalidator


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DEMO

Search results needed tweaks

Example: http://www.211texas.org/search/

http://www.211texas.org/search/


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LESSONS LEARNED

Search results needed tweaks

» Change filter option labels to “Filter” to avoid Search hot command collision in speech recognition

» Set focus back to logical spot when pager links used– Previous, page #, and next caused page refresh, focus set to top

rather than search results (or pager links)

» Associate text and map results for location-aware searches (e.g., Near you) to improve map a11y

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A better strategy» Planning A11y into Frameworks


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1. List all major features» Navigation

– Drop-downs, Jump links, Into / out of dialogs and auto-complete

» Search, faceted drill-down– Results, Filtering, Pagination / pager

links, Table headings» Sliders, carousels, galleries,

tabs» Content sharing options,

plugins» Maps and data charts


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2. Describe interactions & test criteria, then find exemplar site

» If click triggers action, keyboard will also

» If hover triggers action, keyboard alternative

» If error returned, list specific errors in status message with link to field, show error near field, and assign to field explicitly


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3. Pick tools with large communities

» Drupal» WordPress» jQuery» Bootstrap» AngularJS» …


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WordPress Accessibility Site» WordPress’s accessibility site

includes resources for creating accessible plugins and themes.


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Drupal Groups Site» Drupal Group’s site lists modules and

themes that have pledge to be accessible and those that the community wishes would take the pledge.

Drupal has made a pledge to accessibility, to make both its core framework accessible and challenge module and theme developers to take an accessibility pledge. This means they will “try” to make their products accessible.

Accessibility pledge modules/themes


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Check usage stats if available


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4. Look for tips forums, API


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5. Apply accessibility frameworks


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» Knowbility Developer Resources– Includes links to browser add-ons and favelets –

http://www.knowbility.org/v/air-dev-resources/AIR-Austin/34/» Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services

– Assets.cms.gov – Accessibility framework– Medicare.gov – Accessible website

» Browser add-ons– Check Chrome, Firefox, IE plugins, extensions

Useful a11y resources


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» WCAG» Assets.CMS.gov» WebAIM.org» Playbook.CIO.gov» WhiteHouse.gov

Exemplar Sites

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Summary» Biggest challenges with framework accessibility are

the rich, interactive elements» Describing how those should work in advance and

finding examples helps.

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ContactKate [email protected] • @kwalser • +1 (571) 281-2626

Lessons Learned in Coding Accessible Apps with Frameworks

Technology

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