Digital Accessibility and Public Works Julie Grundy Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant, Intopia IPWEA State Conference WA, March 2022

What is digital accessibility?

A measure of how easy it is for someone with a disability to use a digital product

How many people have a disability?

Australians with disability?

• 0 – 5% • 5 – 15% • 15 – 25% • Greater than 25%

18% of Australians have a disability

4.4 million people Australian Census, 2016

But! It's complicated…

• What about disabilities that don’t affect phone and computer use? • Or impairments that aren’t disabilities?

And we're all getting older

Reductions in vision, hearing and mobility are common with increased age

Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA)

“The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) aims to provide a fair go for Australians with disabilities—it gives them the right to substantive equality of opportunity in areas like employment, education and the provision of goods and services.” - Productivity Commission review of the Act

Maguire v Sydney Olympics

Everything is online now

Assistive technology

Any tool used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities

Screen readers

Settings for low vision or dexterity

Keyboards and keyboard alternatives

Built-in to your device

Your phone > Settings > Accessibility

How do we check accessibility?

1. Test against a standard

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/

WCAG Structure

• Principles • Guidelines • Success Criteria

WCAG Principles

• Perceivable • Operable • Understandable • Robust

WCAG Levels

A AA AAA

WCAG standard

Hundreds of pages of technical jargon

WCAG standard in plain language

WebAIM’s WCAG checklist https://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist

Automated testing

• Will catch 20 to 50% of issues • aXe DevTools by Deque • ARC Toolkit by TPGi • Android Accessibility Scanner app by Google • Accessibility Insights for Android app by Microsoft

Manual testing

• Accessibility Insights for Web by Microsoft (Use the Assessment feature) • Your friendly local accessibility auditor

2. Test with people with disabilities

User testing is great…

… but user testing by people with disabilities is gold

Common ground

1. Technical compliance isn't enough

A photo of me standing and reaching up above my head to touch a braille sign on a public toilet block

Our work fits into a larger context

Consequences of mistakes

• New barriers • Lack of participation • Exclusion from community

Consequences of success

• Previously overlooked demographics are included in community • Increased diversity in public life

2. It's cheaper to do it early

A photo of a wheelchair ramp beside a set of stairs. The ramp ends with 3 steps.

3. Functional can be beautiful

Ed Roberts Campus

• Ramps • Wide corridors • Curved hallways • Automated doors and lights

Lessons to share

1. All fixes help someone

What's your specialty?

• Comica11y by Paul Spencer • Accessible Astronomy by Yuma Decaux • ThisAbles for Ikea

2. Shift left

Project process

Initiate Plan Execute Close

Start anywhere

An arrow on the last phase, Close

Shift left

Arrow moves to the previous phase, Execute

More left

Arrow moves to previous phase, Plan

The goal

Arrow is now at the first phase, Initiate

3. Co-design for specific audiences

Wheelchairs

A woman in a modern wheelchair on smooth footpath

Freedom Leverage Wheelchair

A wheelchair made from bicycle parts, with long levers instead of armrests

A quote

“Nothing about us, without us.” Disability activists

Thankyou, let's chat

Julie Grundy julie@intopia.digital www.intopia.digital