Oh my GAAD! (The wide world of accessibility)

The talk covered:

● what GAAD is;
● why it’s (still) important;
● what we can do to make the world a better place (and our software more usable by more people).

Given at https://www.meetup.com/WOSSAT/events/278074181/ on Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 6:00 PM, for Global Accessibility Awareness Day ❤️

Transcript

1. Oh my GAAD! (The wide world of accessibility)
2. Agenda ! 1. What is GAAD? 2. Why is GAAD important? 3. How can we make the world a better place?
3. Who am I? ! Steve Barnett FED (and UX) person Accessibility at Totara Learning naga.co.za
4. Agenda ! ! 1. What is GAAD? 2. Why is GAAD important? 3. How can we make the world a better place?
5. GAAD? Global Accessibility Awareness Day! Third Thursday of each May (since 2011)
6. What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day for? Question
7. What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day for? Talking, thinking, and learning about accessibility and inclusion (An) answer
8. Agenda ! ✔ 1. What is GAAD? ! 2. Why is GAAD important? 3. How can we make the world a better place?
9. Why is GAAD important? (1 of 3)
10. How many people in the world have disabilities? (World population is about 8 billion) Question
11. How many people in the world have disabilities? (World population is about 8 billion) About 1 billion have (at least one) disability (An) answer
12. How many people in Aotearoa New Zealand have disabilities? (Population is about 5 million) Question
13. How many people in Aotearoa New Zealand have disabilities? (Population is about 5 million) About 1 million have (at least one) disability (An) answer
14. Why is GAAD important? (1 of 3) There are many people with disabilities in the world
15. Why is GAAD important? (2 of 3)
16. Social model of disability Disability = Ability + Barrier
17. Disability is a spectrum, not a binary
18. Many types of disability, for example: Auditory Cognitive Physical Visual
19. Raise a hand ! / nod your head if you or someone you know is: blind (Gentle!) activity
20. Raise a hand ! / nod your head if you or someone you know has: low vision or poor eyesight (perhaps from old age) (Gentle!) activity
21. Raise a hand ! / nod your head if you or someone you know is: colour blind (Gentle!) activity
22. Raise a hand ! / nod your head if you or someone you know has: been outside on a sunny day with a shiny screen (Gentle!) activity
23. Why is GAAD important? (2 of 3) Accessibility affects me, you, and many people we know (Oh, and our customers)
24. Why is GAAD important? (3 of 3)
25. Almost every home page has some accessibility problems
26. WebAIM Million 98% of home pages have at least one problem About 60 errors per home page
27. Why is GAAD important? (3 of 3) Lots of web pages have lots of accessibility errors
28. Agenda ! ✔ 1. What is GAAD? ✔ 2. Why is GAAD important? (many people, many errors) ! 3. How can we make the world a better place?
29. Use WebAIM Million as a guide A. Check for errors B. Check for meaningful text context
30. A. Check for errors (what) Missing link text or button text
31. Why might link text or button text be missing? Why might it be a problem? Question
32. Why might link text or button text be missing? When links or buttons are images Why might it be a problem? You can't tell what it is / does! (An) answer
33. A. Check for errors (what) Missing labels for form fields
34. Why might missing labels be a problem? Question
35. Why might missing labels be a problem? You can't tell what it is! "What is this? Username? Password?" (An) answer
36. A. Check for errors (what) Missing alt text for images
37. Why might missing alt text be a problem? Question
38. Why might missing alt text be a problem? You can't tell what it is! Bonus points: if the image is inside a link or button, it has no name! (An) answer
39. A. Check for errors (what) Low colour contrast
40. Why might low colour contrast be a problem? Question
41. Why might low colour contrast be a problem? If you can't see it, you can't read it! (An) answer
42. A. Check for errors (how) Use an automated tool: run Deque’s axe browser extension
43. B. Check for meaningful text context (what) Links with “click here”
44. Why might "click here" as link text be a problem? Question
45. Why might "click here" as link text be a problem? Doesn't make sense out of context "Where does this link go?" (An) answer
46. B. Check for meaningful text context (what) Buttons with generic “submit” text
47. Why might "submit" as button text be a problem? Question
48. Why might "submit" as button text be a problem? Bad UX for everyone "What does this button do?" (An) answer
49. B. Check for meaningful text context (what) Alt text of “image.jpg”
50. Why might "image.jpg" as alt text be a problem? Question
51. Why might "image.jpg" as alt text be a problem? You don't get the same meaning as the image (An) answer
52. B. Check for meaningful text context (how) Use a screen reader Run TPGi's ARC Toolkit Chrome extension: manually check links, buttons, and images
53. Agenda ! ✔ 1. What is GAAD? ✔ 2. Why is GAAD important? ✔ 3. How can we make the world a better place? (run some tools, fix some bugs!)
54. Recap ! ✔ 1. What is GAAD? ✔ 2. Why is GAAD important? ✔ 3. How can we make the world a better place?
55. Handy links https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/ https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/ disability-survey-2013 https://webaim.org/projects/million/ https://www.deque.com/axe/ https://www.tpgi.com/arc-platform/arc-toolkit/
56. Thanks! !