Accessibility 101

Accessibility 101 Radimir Bitsov & Núria Peña

Basics of Accessibility

Web Accessibility

ED IN A PL EX Web accessibility is the level at which digital solutions are effective to as many people as possible, regardless of their physical or functional capacity.

Inclusive Design

ED IN A PL EX Concepts or ways of thinking about design, products, services, and environments that enables and draws on the full range of human diversity.

Semantic Markup

ED IN A PL EX Semantically correct markup refers to the practice of using correct HTML elements for their intended purpose.

Colour Contrast

ED IN A PL EX Colour contrast stands for the difference in perceived brightness between two colours. It’s expressed as a ratio ranging from 1:1 (white text on a white background) to 21:1 (black text on a white background).

Alternative Image Text

ED IN A PL EX Alternative image text provides a textual alternative to image content in web pages via an attribute “alt” on the <img> element.

ARIA

ED IN A PL EX Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specifications and their implementation enable us to control the way native or custom elements are translated into the accessibility tree by using standardised attributes.

Accessibility Tree

ED IN A PL EX Accessibility tree is the modified version of the Document Object Model tree (page structure) that most assistive technologies interact with.

WCAG

ED IN A PL EX Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) is a standard for web accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organisations, and governments internationally.

Types of Disabilities

Permanent Temporal Situational

Physical or motor Visual Cognitive & Learning Psycho & neurological Hearing

Physical or motor disabilities

Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Cord Injury, Empathy Lab Arthritis, Parkinson’s, Essential tremor ED Cerebral Palsy, Muscular dystrophy IN A PL EX A physical disability is a limitation on a person’s physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina

Visual disabilities

Empathy Lab Visual acuity, Low vision, Blurred Vision Colour Blindness Glaucoma, Cataracts, Astigmatism Blindness ED All them IN A PL EX or also known as vision impairment, is a decreased ability to see.

Hearing disabilities

Hard of Hearing (HoH), Hearing Loss Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) Deafness ED Empathy Lab IN A PL EX or hearing impairment, occurs when you lose part or all of your ability to hear.

Cognitive & Learning disabilities

Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia Asperger’s, ADHD, Autism, Alzheimer’s Down’s Syndrome ED Empathy Lab IN A PL EX Learning difficulties, distractibility, the inability to focus on large amounts of information.

Psycho & neurological disorders

Schizophrenia, Epilepsy, Dementia Anxiety ED Vestibular disorders: Vertigo, Motion sickness, Photosensitivity IN A PL EX Anything that affects the mental health, feelings and mood of a person.

Assistive Technology (AT)

Screen Readers

NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) Empathy Lab VoiceOver ED Job Access With Speech (JAWS) IN A PL EX A screen reader is a software application that translates onscreen information into speech or Braille.

Adaptive Switches

Empathy Lab Apple devices built-in: Switch Control Android devices built-in: Switch Access ED Button switches, mouth sticks, cheek clickers, Sip-and-puff. IN A PL EX A tool primarily used by people with motor impairments to access and control digital equipment.

Voice Recognition

Built-in dictation technology: laptops, smartphones and tablets. Apps: Dragon Dictation (iOS) Empathy Lab Chrome Tools: WordQ and Read&Write ED Also known as “speech-to-text” or “speech recognition” IN A PL EX is a dictation tool that transforms voice into written text.

Screen magnifier

OS X built-in Empathy Lab Software: ZoomMe (OS) ED Windows built-in Magnifier IN A PL EX is software that interfaces with a computer’s graphical output to present enlarged screen content.

Thank you!