This talk demonstrates the use of the BEST Talk Slide presentation.
Slide One: Introduction
This slide demonstrates the features and keyboard commands.
Press alt+h to reveal hidden resources
This content will be hidden in the final slide show and can be toggled with alt+h.
Links will be displayed in an unordered list and open in a new window.
W3C WebsiteBEST Accessibility Consulting
Keyboard Commands
Keyboard commands:
alt+1 through alt+9 - Display slide number 1-9 from the Table Of Content page.
On each slide page:
alt+h Hide and Unhide resource content.
alt+n Go to next slide
alt+p Go to the previous slide
alt+c Go to the Table of Contents
alt+s Change the stuyle sheet if multiple CSS files are available
Page Structure
Each <h1> element starts a new slide.
The first <h1>, in the input HTML file, is the main slide title and description.
The last <h1>, in the input HTML file, is the closing slide and will automatically load the trailer.html content.
Content between <Section> elements creates a subpage to the current slide. The following line after the <Section> tag will be used as the page name.
Content within the <Article> element will be added to a Tab List and the <dl> element will define the Tab List.
Note, the <Section> element is the default tag and can be modified in the config.ini file.
Note, the <article> and <dl> elements are the default tags and can be modified in the config.ini file.
A new window will be opened for content that has the text label playvideo: followed by the file name with the .mp4 extention.
For example:
playvideo: Mainstreaming-Accessibility-David-Best.mp4
Slide Two: Effective Communications
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere. Lee Iacocca, American automotive business legend
Communications: The aim of digital usability is to remove barriers for perceiving, understanding and navigating digital communication channels, and ensure that nobody is excluded.
The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
Design: Good design is a bridge spanning barriers between the delivery of information and the understanding of knowledge impacting life decisions. Delivery: How is the marketing message delivered? Information is primarily delivered via vision, hearing and/or tactile mediums. If the delivery method cannot reach the target audience, then the information cannot be perceived.
For example, we cannot detect the TV/Radio/cellular waves of information passing through us without a appropriately tuned electronic device.
Perceivability: Who can perceive the marketing message?
We are surrounded by information signals, but only those we perceive can we try to understand.
If you perceive a message, but it is in a language you do not know, then you cannot understand the information being delivered.
Understanding: How well does the targeted market understand the message?
Only when we understand the information can we gain knowledge and make use of the information through smart decisions.
Information that we do not understand is just noise, but meaningful information gives us agency, or the power to know how to act or respond.
Engagement: Careful, considerate design can be the bridge between accessibility and usability in creating an effective and memorable user experience.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), British playwright and Nobel Prize recipient
Multiple Representations: When communicating information it is necessary to use multiple representations to facilitate conceptual understanding within context. You might draw a picture for someone, verbally describe using words, or create a mathematical equation.
An important aspect in the process of learning, which can be defined as transforming information into knowledge, is the way the information is brought to the learner.
Multiple Expressions: Information is expressed in many different ways. Ideas are transformed into words, through the choice of those words, phrases, syntax, pace and intonation. An emotion or feeling might be manifested without words (tears expressing grief, or laughter expressing joy).
It might be communicated through music (a joyful or stoic expression) or painting (a look on a face indicating mood or emotion).
Multiple Engagements: Learners differ in the ways in which they can be engaged or motivated to learn. There are a variety of sources that can influence individual variation in affect including neurology, culture, personal relevance, subjectivity, and background knowledge, amongst other factors.
Designers must bridge the gap between accessibility and usability by removing user engagement barriers of vision, hearing and touch. adaptive technology can include features like responsive web design that adjusts a website's layout based on the user's device or preferences.
Videos: Communicating effectively with assistive technologies.
playvideo: Screen-Reader-Language-Perceivability.mp4
Slide Three: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. Helen Keller (1880-1968), American social activist, public speaker and author
Nihil de nobis, sine nobis - Nothing about us without us
This saying has its origins in Central European political traditions. It was the political motto that helped establish Poland's 1505 constitutional legislation when transferring governing authority from the monarch to the parliament. It subsequently became a byword for democratic norms.
In 2004, the United Nations used the phrase as the theme of International Day of Persons with Disabilities and also is associated with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In 2005, Ontario was the first Canadian Province to pass an accessibility law, and adopted this motto when passing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
Customer Service: The Customer Service Standard requires all organizations to identify barriers, and remove them, in order to provide customer service that is more accessible to people who have disabilities.
Every provider shall develop, implement and maintain policies governing its provision of goods, services or facilities, as the case may be, to persons with disabilities.
The goods, services or facilities must be provided in a manner that respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities.
If a person with a disability is accompanied by a guide dog or other service animal, the provider shall ensure that the person is permitted to enter the premises with the animal and to keep the animal with him or her, unless the animal is otherwise excluded by law from the premises.
Employment Standard: The purpose of the Employment Standard is to help make hiring and employee support practices more accessible.
Every employer shall notify its employees and the public about the availability of accommodation for applicants with disabilities in its recruitment processes.
Every employer shall inform its employees of its policies used to support its employees with disabilities, including, but not limited to, policies on the provision of job accommodations that take into account an employee's accessibility needs due to disability.
Information and Communications: The purpose of the Information and Communications standard is to help organizations make their information accessible to people with disabilities.
Every obligated organization that has processes for receiving and responding to feedback shall ensure that the processes are accessible to persons with disabilities by providing or arranging for the provision of accessible formats and communications supports, upon request.
Public Spaces And Buildings: The purpose of the Public Spaces and Buildings standard is to help organizations make new and redeveloped outdoor public areas and the building environment more accessible.
Transportation Standard: The purpose of the transportation standard is to make it easier for everyone to travel safely and confidently in the province.
All transportation service providers shall make available to the public current information on accessibility equipment and features of their vehicles, routes and services.
Transportation service providers shall conduct employee and volunteer accessibility training.
No transportation service provider shall charge a fare to a support person who is accompanying a person with a disability where the person with a disability has a need for a support person.
Every conventional transportation service provider shall ensure that there is clearly marked priority seating for persons with disabilities on its transportation vehicles and that the priority seating meets the specified standards.
Every conventional transportation service provider shall ensure that there are audible verbal announcements of all destination points or available route stops on its transportation vehicles while the vehicle is on route or while the vehicle is being operated.
Step 1: Businesses and non-profits with 20 or more employees and public sector organizations must complete an accessibility compliance report every three years.
Step 2: Filing your report is a legal obligation under the AODA.
Step 3: If you do not complete your accessibility compliance report, you could face enforcement measures which can include financial penalties.
Step 4: The Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility (MSAA) conducts Verification audits every year to obtain and verify evidence of compliance.
Step 5: A small organization, with fewer than 20 employees, is exempt from the requirement to file accessibility reports, but not from the regulations.
For the Government of Ontario and the Legislative Assembly, reports must be filed annually.
For designated public sector organizations the report must be filed every two years.
For large organizations the report must be filed every three years.
For small organizations having between 20 to 50 employees the report must be filed every three years.
Audit Requirements
Business accessibility refers to the ease with which the organization's products, services, and facilities can be used by the company's employees and customers.
Step 1: Have an established accessibility policies strategy.
Step 2: Have a multi-year accessibility plan, and update it every five years for designated public sector and large organisations only.
Step 3: Provide training for all staff on the AODA Standards, the areas of the Ontario Human Rights Code that refer to people with disabilities, and on how to provide goods, services or facilities to a person with a disability.
Step 4: Have a process for receiving and responding to feedback about how they provide accessibility to people with disabilities. This feedback process must be accessible to people with disabilities by providing or arranging for accessible formats or communication supports upon request.
Step 5: If found noncompliant the director shall determine whether the severity of the impact of the contravention is of a minor, moderate or major nature.
In cases where the impact of the contravention is determined to be major the director may set the penalty to a maximum of $100,000, in the case of a corporation and $50,000, in the case of an individual or unincorporated organization.
Benefits
Digital accessibility is an integrated component of business operations, and it deals with the design of technological products and services so that people with various disabilities can partake in the use of the products and services.
Risk: Minimize Legal Risk
Many countries have laws requiring digital accessibility, and the issue is of increased legal concern.
Market: Extend Market Reach.
The global market of people with disabilities is over 1 billion people with a spending power of more than $6 trillion. Accessibility often improves the online experience for all users. Wider Audience Reach means higher sales figures and greater profitability.
Innovation: Innovation drives creativity.
Accessibility features in products and services often solve unanticipated problems. Improved Digital accessibility User Experience means ease of use, text clarity, and better navigation/practices that benefit users of all abilities.
Brand: Enhances Your Brand.
Diversity and inclusion efforts so important to business success are accelerated with a clear, well-integrated accessibility commitment. An accessible business is likely to be viewed more favorably and thus improving Brand Image with customers, friends, family, colleagues and social media.
Visibility: Accessibility standards improve visibility.
Search engines like Google are dedicated to providing the best search results to their users. Search engine crawlers take into account the user experience of your website and rank it accordingly.
Part 2: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Common Design Flaws
About 96% of all digital communication errors detected fall into six categories.
Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented. User agents, like screen readers, require clearly defined HTML elements within a structured web page. The Banner, Navigation panel, Main section, and Footer are visually perceivable on a standard computer screen, but not necessarily on a screen reader device.
The intent of WCAG 1.1 Text Alternatives Success Criterion is to make information conveyed by non-text content, such as images, accessible through the use of a text alternative. Text alternatives make information accessible because they can be rendered through any sensory modality; Such as visual, auditory or tactile to match the needs of the user.
The intent of WCAG 1.2 Time Based Media Success Criterion is to make information conveyed by prerecorded audio-only and prerecorded video-only content available to all users.
The intent of WCAG 1.3 Adaptable Success Criterion is to ensure that information and relationships that are implied by visual or auditory formatting are preserved when the presentation format changes.
The intent of WCAG 1.4 Distinguishable Success Criterion is to ensure that all users can access information that is conveyed by colour differences.
Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable. All web page elements must be operable by a keyboard, speech input, and other non-mouse devices. Some of the Java scripts may not be keyboard accessible, and preventing non-mouse users from performing some functions.
The intent of WCAG 2.1 keyboard Accessible Success Criterion is to ensure that, wherever possible, content can be operated through a keyboard or keyboard interface, so an alternate keyboard can be used.
The intent of WCAG 2.2 Enough Time Success Criterion is to ensure that users with disabilities are given adequate time to interact with web content whenever possible.
The intent of WCAG 2.3 Seizures and Physical Reactions Success Criterion is to allow users to access the full content of a site without inducing seizures due to photosensitivity.
The intent of WCAG 2.4 Navigable Success Criteria is to provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.
The intent of WCAG 2.5 Input Modalities Success Criterion is to ensure that content can be controlled with a range of pointing devices, abilities, and assistive technologies.
Understandable: Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface.
The intent of WCAG 3.1 Readable Success Criteria is to define the language of the page. This will ensure that content developers provide information in the web page that user agents need to present text and other linguistic content correctly.
The intent of WCAG 3.2 success criteria is to make web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
The intent of WCAG 3.3 Input Assistance Success Criteria is to ensure that users are aware that an error has occurred and can determine what is wrong.
Robustable: The intent of this Success Criterion is to ensure that user agents, including assistive technologies, can accurately interpret and parse content.
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, like browsers and assistive technologies.
This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance. Meeting this requirement helps maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, like screen readers. In particular, it enables assistive technologies to process the content reliably, and to present or to operate it in different ways.
This includes non-standard buttons, input fields, and other controls. To deliver a desirable user experience, there must be a separation between web page design and user content. The web page may not render as expected in all browsers, and will not perform as expected in differing screen readers.
