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Accessibility and Sakai 2.1 : The Challenge of Accessible Tool Design

Accessibility and Sakai 2.1 : The Challenge of Accessible Tool Design. Mike Elledge, Accessibility Team Lead Gonzalo Silverio, User Interface Developer. Introduction. Sakai Accessibility Requirements (Mike) Accessibility Accomplishments (Mike) Sakai 2.1 Status (Mike) Challenges (Gonzalo)

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Accessibility and Sakai 2.1 : The Challenge of Accessible Tool Design

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  1. Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: The Challenge of Accessible Tool Design Mike Elledge, Accessibility Team Lead Gonzalo Silverio, User Interface Developer

  2. Introduction • Sakai Accessibility Requirements (Mike) • Accessibility Accomplishments (Mike) • Sakai 2.1 Status (Mike) • Challenges (Gonzalo) • Solutions (Gonzalo) • Remaining Issues (Gonzalo) • What’s Next (Mike) • Lessons Learned (Mike/Gonzalo) • Q & A (Mike/Gonzalo) Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  3. Sakai Requirements • Technical Objective: • Section 508 and WCAG 1.0 Priority One and Two Compliant • Contained in Accessibility Style Guide • Overall Objective: • Technical compliance • Usable Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  4. Sakai Requirements • Specifics: • Navigation • Consistent and varied • Content • Predictable and meaningful • Elements • Cascading Style Sheets • Minimal frames, • Skips, accesskeys tables • Accessibility tips and info • Title attributes • Alt attributes • Heading tags • Table, form tags Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  5. Accessibility Protocol • Evaluation • Conversion to XHTML: Dreamweaver • Review: Firefox (Tabs, titles, CSS), Fangs (Headings, links), WebXACT (as needed) • Review and Repair: A-Prompt; hand-coding • Validation: W3C HTML Validator Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  6. Evaluation Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  7. Schedule Page Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  8. Accessibility Protocol • Evaluation • User Testing • JAWS 6.1 and 7.0 Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  9. User Testing Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  10. Accessibility Testers • Sean Keegan, HTCTU for the California Community Colleges • John Howard, Indiana University • Mary Stores, Indiana University • Rich Caloggero, MIT • Stephanie Norton, MIT • Audrey Weinland, Stanford University • Mike Elledge, University of Michigan • Gonzalo Silverio, University of Michigan • Chris Ridpath, University of Toronto Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  11. Accessibility Protocol • Evaluation • User Testing • Results in Confluence: 2.1 Accessibility > Accessibility Results and Recommendations Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  12. Accessibility Compliance • Older (legacy) tools mostly compliant with Section 508/WCAG One & Two • Exceptions: • JavaScript must be enabled • Missing tags here and there • Need additional titling Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  13. JSF Compliance • New (Java Server Faces) widgets • Don’t replicate all html functionality • Onkeypress, <fieldset/legend>, <th id/td headers> • Have to customize JSF to add them Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  14. Overall Usability • “Getting better all the time…” • Still need usability enhancements: • More informative frame, link titling • More consistent content headings • Deeper use of heading tags • Accesskeys for common functions • Still some unexpected/inconsistent tag behavior • Refactoring of some tools for functional consistency Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  15. 2.1 Status • Accessible, if not perfect • More frequent and consistent use of accessibility tags • Emphasis on improving navigation and usability • JAWS 7.0 Demo Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  16. Procedural Challenges • Development • Distributed development • Accessibility specialists not in at first • Learning as we go along • Post – dev review • Recommendations came from individuals • Evaluation was “tool by tool + repair” vs “element by element + norm” • Room for interpretation • Many, many iterations Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  17. Technical Challenges--Constructs • Reliance on problematic constructs • iFrames • Dynamic html • Presentation tables Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  18. Technical Challenges--Tools • Legacy tools • Not modular (a change touches many files) • Ie. Table formats • Ie. Onclick + onkeypress • Variability (tools are all very different) • Tools are “legacy”: Contain traces of all the decisions made through their history – including things affecting accessibility Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  19. Technical Challenges--Tools • New JSF based tools • JSF has great accessibility hooks built in • But widgets and jsps are not obliged to use them • A norm is still needed  Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  20. Technical Challenges--Tools • Some JSF constructs are problematic • selectManyCheckboxlist • selectOneRadio • Both produce a table • panelGrid • dataTable • Complex tabular data difficult Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  21. Solutions • Portal • IFrames • Use of invisible and visible headers (h1-h6) to stitch together the portal /portlet content • Accesskeys • Tables • Removed all presentational tables • Semantic richness and consistency in tabular data tables • Other • Alternate invisible info where appropriate • When color / images / background image carry info • Where dhtml broke the screen reader nav model Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  22. Remaining Issues • iFrame use • Refresh: Great improvements made in 2.1 - but still some way to go. • Javascript and alternates • Dynamic content • Being thorough – complex application –need to catch them all Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  23. What’s Next • Short Term • Elimination of “extra” iFrame • Clean up of titling, missing tags • Heading enhancements • Accesskeys for functions • Longer Term • Codification of accessibility—”Best Practices” • JSF customization • Tool refactoring • Learner preference content delivery (U Toronto) Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  24. Process Lessons Learned • Building-in vs. Retrofitting: Make accessibility part of design; make design part of development • Working Collaboratively: Carrots taste better, but take longer than sticks • Consistency is King: Establish consistent accessibility and evaluation standards, and stick to them • Remember Usability: Compliance is only first step Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  25. Technical Lessons Learned • Internal norms + external guidelines + the best of intentions + retrofitting = a lot of work + error prone • Possibilities: • Self validating code • Against the declared doctype • Against an accessibility schema • Accessibility views via faceless Sakai Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  26. Questions and Answers • One question for you: Should we schedule a BOF to discuss this further? • Your questions… Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

  27. JAWS Demo • Demo of Announcements, illustrating: • Tabbing • Accesskeys • Headings • Table summary • Read existing announcements, add attachment, review announcement Accessibility and Sakai 2.1: Accessible Tool Design

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