Digital Accessibility and Public Works

A presentation at IPWEA State Conference 2022 in March 2022 in Perth WA, Australia by Julie Grundy

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

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What is digital accessibility?

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What is digital accessibility?

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

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How many people have a disability?

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Australians with disability?

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

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18% of Australians have a disability

4.4 million people Australian Census, 2016

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But! It's complicated…

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

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And we're all getting older

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

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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

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Maguire v Sydney Olympics

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Everything is online now

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Assistive technology

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

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Screen readers

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Settings for low vision or dexterity

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Keyboards and keyboard alternatives

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Built-in to your device

Your phone > Settings > Accessibility

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How do we check accessibility?

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1. Test against a standard

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Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

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

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WCAG Structure

• Principles • Guidelines • Success Criteria

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WCAG Principles

• Perceivable • Operable • Understandable • Robust

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WCAG Levels

A AA AAA

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WCAG standard

Hundreds of pages of technical jargon

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WCAG standard in plain language

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

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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

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Manual testing

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

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2. Test with people with disabilities

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User testing is great…

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… but user testing by people with disabilities is gold

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Common ground

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1. Technical compliance isn't enough

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

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Our work fits into a larger context

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Consequences of mistakes

• New barriers • Lack of participation • Exclusion from community

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Consequences of success

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Consequences of success

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

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2. It's cheaper to do it early

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

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3. Functional can be beautiful

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Ed Roberts Campus

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

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Lessons to share

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1. All fixes help someone

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What's your specialty?

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

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2. Shift left

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Project process

Initiate Plan Execute Close

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Start anywhere

An arrow on the last phase, Close

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Shift left

Arrow moves to the previous phase, Execute

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More left

Arrow moves to previous phase, Plan

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The goal

Arrow is now at the first phase, Initiate

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3. Co-design for specific audiences

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Wheelchairs

A woman in a modern wheelchair on smooth footpath

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Freedom Leverage Wheelchair

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

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A quote

“Nothing about us, without us.” Disability activists

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Thankyou, let's chat

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