In the course of our work for the National Disability Authority over the last year we've talked to a wide variety groups and individuals who have an interest in accessibility and as a result of their input, our approach has shifted a little. Here's what we found out.
Regular InfoCentre readers will know that Frontend has been arguing for greater accessibility on the web for some time. Frontend have recently completed the delivery of the first version (1.1) of the Irish National Disability Authority (NDA) IT Accessibility Guidelines. In the course of our work for the NDA over the last year we've talked to a wide variety groups and individuals who have an interest in accessibility and as a result of their input, our approach has shifted a little. Here's what we found out.
There is general cost-benefit argument associated with accessibility; the cost of making a service accessible will be offset by an increase in audience uptake. This cost benefit argument doesn't cut much ice in the public sector however. The principles of universal access, similar to those in existing building regulations, will also apply to the provision of services through digital channels. Government agencies wishing to provide a service through any channel must make it equally available to every citizen.
Cost-benefit arguments don't hold much sway in the private sector either. Our discussions with private sector service providers revealed an unwillingness to invest making their services accessible. The perception is that the increase of market share gained would not offset the costs involved. The hard fact is that those most likely to benefit from accessible services are also likely to be the least profitable customers. There are exceptions of course, such as Tesco UK, that have made the effort to provide inclusive services but for the moment at least these remain in the minority.
Without an obvious market incentive, accessible or inclusive services are not going to be very forthcoming. However, one key driver for accessibility will be Government Procurement Policy. This has already proved a catalyst for change in the US, where federal agencies insist that suppliers guarantee compliance to given accessibility standards. The knock-on effect of this has seen Section 508 guidelines becoming widely adopted by service providers and equipment manufacturers in the US. While the initial impact is confined within the public sector, the benefits quickly radiate outwards into the general consumer domain. Our discussions with both public and private sector organisations here, suggest that concentrating on the way services are procured will provide the most immediate results.
Anecdotal experience from the UK suggests that access to public services has a unique audience. It is not constituted by the young, computer literate, early adopters the IT sector is used to catering for, but by the people who have greatest need to interact with government; women with children, people on income support and older people. Access to public services through traditional channels is already difficult for these groups. Migrating these services to other channels presents a significant challenge in terms of both accessibility and usability. The majority of these users do not have access to the Internet, nor do they have access to, or experience with computers.
The needs of all citizens must be considered equally. Otherwise realisation of the idealistic vision of happy citizens interacting with a responsive government through a multitude of technological channels runs the risk of increasing social exclusion and the technologically literate will increase their advantage by monopolising direct access to government.
Current discussion on accessibility is almost exclusively focussed on the web medium. In the rush to make every service available on-line the general accessibility debate seems to have forgotten all other channels. As mentioned the majority of households do not have access to the web, and for a lot of citizens the cost of a PC is simply not affordable. In fact, for the foreseeable future, the primary device for accessing public service information will be the telephone. Making automated phone services usable and accessible should be central to any government initiative.
But Information Technology is being integrated into all aspects of our lives - swipe cards are replacing keys, ticketing machines have replaced station clerks and ATMs are making face-to-face banking a thing of the past. Each device poses a new set of problems for people with impairments (and often everyone else as well). Inclusive access to these services will be paramount. Access to government services over the web may one day be the primary channel that it was predicted to be, but in the mean time we need to consider other channels as well.
The current discussion on accessibility is too focused on extreme cases that are difficult to accommodate. Take screen reading software for example, screen-reader users are relatively rare, less than 0.5% of the population are blind and by no means all of them use screen readers. Yet the focus on technical fixes for these extreme cases tends to scare-off service providers, and is often used as an excuse for doing nothing at all.
This narrow focus is at the expense of a much larger segment of society, that have milder impairments such as partial sight, poor hearing, and poor language skills. The needs of this larger group can be more easily accommodated - resizable text, big tactile buttons, plain easy to follow instructions etc. are simple and inexpensive design steps to implement. This approach to design would be of benefit to us all - not just the impaired, think of the next time you try to get cash from an ATM while wearing gloves. The focus for development needs to be on how to make gradual and sensible improvements that cater for the many, as opposed to focusing on daunting Utopian solutions that breed in-action.
The Irish National Disability Authority IT Accessibility Guidelines (version 1.1) aim to make the development of universally accessible services easier by providing a common Accessibility resource for a variety of IT channels. They are intended for use by the procurers, designers and developers of information based services in both private and public sectors. Currently four channels are covered Web, Telecoms, Public Access Terminals and Application Software. Additional channels will be added on a phased basis. The guidelines are available at http://accessit.nda.ie/
The Benefits of Viewing User TestsThe benefits of user testing have long been established. It is still important however to try and maximise these benefits. One way in which this can be done is by viewing the user test yourself.
Back To Basics: How Poor Usability Effects AccessibilityIn recent user testing with a range of participants including Visually Impaired (VIP) and Blind users we found that the majority of problems were common across all groups. However the effect of poor usability is more severe for users with visual disabilities. Surprisingly all of the issues are very familiar and are easy to fix so we thought we’d revisit some of the basics of accessible web design.
Providing 'Skip Links'Accessible does not always mean usable. Here are a few pointers on how to make accessible sites that are truly usable.
Text-only is not accessibleA common approach to accessibility is to provide a text only version of web pages, but this does not address all of the accessibility issues.
Effective Alt TextIt is perfectly possible to diligently apply alt text to every image on a site and create a result that is completely useless . Unless the alt text effectively conveys the information the image displays, it will be ineffective.
