Making accessibility accessible
Published by on July 10th, 2007
I recently attended a Geek Dinner with Julie Howell, Director of Accessibility for online agency Fortune Cookie. Accessibility is something most web developers are aware of but generally merely skim the surface of when creating websites.
Like so many web developers I have only given Accessibility - the need to ensure that everyone can easily access a website’s content - the bare necessary consideration when creating a site. This is partly due to the kind of content and audience I have been creating sites for, but also due to avoiding the minefield of accessibility guidelines, and the distinct difficulty in testing for accessibility requirements. Julie’s presentation certainly gave me additional motivation to consider accessibility in the future, but also highlighted the difficulty in understanding and testing.
The answer to increasing the awareness of accessibility issues is simple: get the software tool manufacturers such as Adobe to ensure that their web products generate fully accessible code and encourage developers to create accessible content. Making this happen, however, is not quite straightforward. Julie regularly meets with and lobbies companies like Adobe in order to keep an awareness level as high as possible. Their answer is often that although they understand the issues, they are not being asked for the features from their actual user base. So it’s the developers who need to be motivated to push the software companies en masse.
Here we come up against another challenge: unless they have explicit requirements from the client, developers tend to brush accessibility needs aside. One important reason for this as I see it is the difficulty in testing mentioned earlier. If we could test to ensure the level of accessibility of our sites, then we would inevitably start to fully understand the limitations of our tools and inevitably push the software houses to get their acts together. But where would you go to find a selection of individuals with disabilities - and the tools to help overcome them - to test your site?
How about creating a network pool of users who are happy to take part in some testing. I am sure that there are plenty of internet users with disabilities would would enthusiastically apply some time and effort - even unpaid if necessary - to help improve the general state of accessibility. If testes are within easy reach of developers then developers will have a broader appreciation of the issues, that I am certain. Can’t be too tough to organise as a group effort - any takers?
3 Responses to “Making accessibility accessible”
July 11th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
I’ll take - but am not sure whether from a tester POV or in an organising role. I used to be a programmer, QA and usability (not the same as accessability as I am sure you know) tester - both software and websites.
I actually have on my list to chat to Julie again - she said she could put me in touch with some other people with respect to this kind of agency/venture.
You know me a little and so know a little about how the MS gets me but I would love to be involved with something like this (and be able to make some money, maybe!) on a pretty part-time (or what a non-MSer would call part time) basis.
So. What I am saying, is, do you want to be part of it and help me/us organise? ;-p
July 12th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
I’d love to make a contribution. Work and project commitments limit level of involvement but I’m sure I can offer some value.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Hello all,
thanks for coming to that evening. There are some events at which I speak where I know I learn more from the people I’m talking to than they learn from me - and this was definitely one of them. One of the reasons for my move from the voluntary sector to the private sector was to get a better understanding of the real issues that prevent or promote greater inclusion of disabled people online, and hearing your views - both on the night and online - has certainly helped me develop my appreciate of what it’s like for designers at the ‘coal face’.
I think there is very strong support for a company or social enterprise of disabled beta testers. It’s my great regret that this hasn’t taken shape as yet. I’d hoped that when PAS 78 launched - and I said as much at its launch - that disabled people would recognise this as a business opportunity. I really, really hope that will happen.
Every developer who bemoans the lack of access to disabled user testers is right to complain about it. I think the time for waiting for this to happen is done and it’s time to be more proactive. I’m going to have a chat with a few people offline who I think are part of the way there. No promises (not enough hours in my day to do the things I need to do already) but I’ll certainly explore the matter in a bit more depth and see what might be possible. Like you all, I’m hungry for change - sitting about bemoaning the state of things has never been my thing.