Preventing Technology-Mediated
Societal Discrimination:
Accessible Design for Including
People with Disabilities
Dr. Jonathan Lazar
Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences
Universal Usability Laboratory
Towson University
jlazar@towson.edu
Copyright Jonathan Lazar 2011
Overview of Presentation





Introduction: Is it really discrimination?
Technical standards for Accessibility
Laws for Accessibility
User-centered design processes to ensure
accessibility
Always remember:


Minor interface tweaks lead to major
improvements in accessibility
All digital information can be made accessible
Societal exclusion

When friends post on social networking
software that they will be visiting DC, but
don’t e-mail that information, and you
have a disability and the social
networking software is inaccessible, you
have missed out on the opportunity
to meet your friends while they are
in DC
Societal exclusion

When a Facebook-based “virtual student
union” at Arizona State University was
implemented to increase a sense of
community among students, but was
inaccessible for blind students, blind
students were excluded from that
sense of community and from the
socialization
Unequal learning opportunities

When campus learning management
software and other collaboration tools
(like blogs and wikis) are inaccessible,
students with disabilities can’t take
part in class and curriculum-related
discussions, meaning that they have
a lower-quality educational
experience
Pricing discrimination

When an airline web site has a “webonly” special, or a company offers special
coupons only to people who “like” the
company on facebook, and these sites
are inaccessible, people with
disabilities are unable to get those
discounts and wind up paying higher
prices
Employment discrimination

When online job applications are inaccessible
(either individual company web sites or
aggregator web sites like careerbuilder), if you
have a disability, you either don’t get
information about jobs that are available,
or you must call the company and
immediately identify yourself as having a
disability and ask for an accommodation so
that you can apply
Interface Inaccessibility Leads to
Forms of Discrimination
that Violate US Law
What do we mean by IT
Accessibility?


Accessibility means that people with
perceptual or motor impairments, using
assistive technology, can successfully use
information technology
Assistive technologies include:





Alternative keyboards or pointing devices
Keyboard-only access
Screen readers
Refreshable Braille
DHH Users need captioning and/or transcripts
IT Accessibility?



For a technology to be accessible, it must
be FLEXIBLE
Accessibility is defined by technical
standards
The guidelines primarily address perceptual
and motor impairment

Not enough research yet to create guidelines
addressing cognitive impairment
Existing web accessibility
technical standards

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act


Web Content Accessibility Guidelines


www.section508.gov (undergoing revision)
www.w3.org/wai (currently in version 2.0)
Address issues such as alt text for images,
captioning for video, transcripts for audio,
appropriate table headers and form labels,
skip navigation, etc…
Different types of disabilities

Within Human-Computer Interaction, we
often separate disabilities into:




Perceptual
Motor
Cognitive (there isn’t enough research on
design for cognitive impairment)
Also, there are print disabilities, learning
disabilities, combinations of disabilities,
and different levels of severity
A short summary of US Laws
for Web Accessibility

Basically, federal, state, and local government,
primary and secondary education, federal grantfunded projects, telecommunications providers,
and private entities that could be considered
public accommodations, are all covered by US
laws requiring web accessibility:




21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility
Act (2010)
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (1998)
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973)
User-Centered Design Processes: The
“Big Three” Methods for Evaluation



Usability testing involving people with
disabilities
Expert reviews, where experts inspect
interfaces for compliance with guidelines
Automated software tools which check
interfaces for common accessibility
problems
User-Centered Design Processes



Since web sites and web content and social media
tools change frequently, compliance monitoring
must be ongoing
Both the shell and the content must be accessible
If web sites or social media tools are being built
or re-designed by people outside of your
organization (or purchased off the shelf),
procurement processes must specify accessibility
and be enforced
HOW do you solve a problem? Read the
standards! Here’s a typical question:



“If you have graphics that are just used as spacer or
formatting, do you need to provide an alt tag, or can
you just skip that?” Here’s what the WCAG 2.0 says:
Decoration, Formatting, Invisible: If non-text
content is pure decoration, is used only for visual
formatting, or is not presented to users, then it is
implemented in a way that it can be ignored by
assistive technology. They define pure decoration as:
serving only an aesthetic purpose, providing no
information, and having no functionality.
And according to their techniques document, they say
that you DO need an alt=“ “
see
http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS20101014/H67 for more information
The design goal is access to the
same web sites, the same
content, the same social media at
the same time. Because
separate but equal is never
truly equal!
Best practices from govt.US Census Bureau





Tests 90% of their websites for accessibility compliance
monthly using automated tools (Uses HiSoftware
Compliance Sheriff, HiSoftware AccVerify)
Accessibility test results are reported to content owners
Regularly perform usability testing involving blind users
of JAWS
Contractors are required to be Section 508 compliant
Section 508 compliance information is included in the
monthly IT newsletter
Best practices from govt.Food and Drug Administration


More than 800 content contributors use a CMS
Formed Section 508 compliance group




Coordinates panel of users with disabilities involved in
usability testing
The group meets biweekly via conference call
Content contributors agree to post only Section
508 compliant contents. Multiple violations lead
to losing your CMS account
Training modules (including video) for 508
compliance are available to all FDA employees
Best practices from educationOregon State University



All new sites must be accessible, and any existing
sites are made accessible as they are upgradedWCAG 2.0 level AA
All web pages (new AND legacy) must include a
plain text link for reporting inaccessibility problems
Priority for making legacy campus web pages
accessible:



1. The top 20% of legacy Web pages most frequently used
2. Pages required for participation, funding, disability-related
services and other key pages needed by people with disabilities,
that are not already in the top 20%, also have top priority
3. Any legacy web pages can be made accessible upon request
Best practices from educationGeorge Mason University




Clear policy publicly posted, with VP of IT/CIO
responsible for campus IT accessibility
All procurement requests for IT must first fill out
an “Accessibility and Section 508 Determination
and Findings Document” and choose an
accessible product or request an exemption
Checklist available for self-assessment of web
pages
Clear, publicly posted process to file complaints
and concerns
Making social media content accessible



Do it because you can reach more
people
Do it because people with
disabilities have important
contributions to the conversation
Do it because it’s required by US
law
Resources that exist

www.buyaccessible.gov


http://www.w3.org/WAI/


Web Accessibility Initiative (including WCAG)
http://www.section508.gov/


Includes standard CFP text for accessibility
Guidelines from Section 508
http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/

Illinois Center for IT and Web Accessibility