More about Accessibility

I am really enjoying my education in regard to making sites/apps accessible for the visually, physically and cognitively impaired. Sadly, only 95 people are following the topic of Web Accessibility on Quora. I am actually suprised there is not more interest. Here are a few of the recent answers I've given on Quora: 

• What is the Americans with Disabilities Act's role in enforcing web accessibility standards?
• Does anyone have any experience with getting a site certified with WIA-AIRA?
• What's a good way to test a web site's accessibility without installing screen-reading software?

Emerging Markets?

I am increasingly unhappy with professional investment managers (and have almost completely taken ownership back). The firm running one of my mutual funds was telling me how it is a good idea to be invested in the emerging BRIC markets (BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China) because they stand to see the largest growth long term. That makes sense, but …

I asked them how the current deleveraging of European banks right now will affect those markets in the short-term (perhaps even medium-term). In other words, European banks are by far the largest investors in emerging markets, much more so than American banks by 4 or 5 times. However, they are now selling off those investments to build up their balance sheets in order to help stabilize the Euro and gain investor confidence. The selling of those investments can't be great for those emerging markets, right?

Basically, the response was that I don't know what I'm talking about and should trust the professionals :(  Not good enough. So I liquidated that mutual fund and am sitting on the cash until a better opportunity clearly presents itself. Not being fully invested is sometimes a good idea. Selling everything before the 2008 crash turned out great.

Anyway, I am no financial professional, but my own investments have done WAY better than the market over the last 5 years … so I am starting to trust my instinct more and more. I am documenting those decisions here, not as advice for others, but just to have a record of my decision making.

Zebra in the Trees

I recently aquired this drawing by Barnaby Fitzgerald titled "Zebra in the Trees." His daily sketches from observation are so effortless and loose ... almost Rembrandt like. I particularly liked this one because it pictorially represents a principle I use in my own drawings: Start with a surface and pull the image out of that surface so they feel connected. In this case, the cross-hatched shadow makes the surface and the zebra stripes emerge from it. This makes a wonderful continuum between material and image.

Reacting to the Reactions

Steve Jobs has recently passed. He took over a company that was almost bankrupt in 1995, and in a few short years turned it into the most valuable company in the world. He redefined the role of CEO and showed everyone how the arts can drive business and innovation. He has changed our lives and is truly a giant that will be missed.

However ... I do not like these statements which claim "there will never be another Steve Jobs." I don't even think Jobs would approve of opinions like that. When you look at his legacy within Apple, or outside examples like his famous commencement speech, it is clear that he believes anyone can change the world.

Of all the reflections on the death of Steve Jobs, my favorite may be the one posted by Michael Lopp. Rather than posting a quote by Jobs, he posted his own thoughts on how Jobs has influenced him. It is so "Jobsian" in its phrasing that I initially misread it as a Jobs quote. This is what "Rands" was saying to himself as a technology engineer:

"You are underestimating the future. You are fretting about the now; worrying about little things that don’t matter. You are wasting precious energy obsessing over irrelevant details. You don’t believe that a better future is out there and can be built, that it can exceed people’s expectations, because you’re spending so much time considering the truth of the present and the seemingly important lessons of the past.

You are underestimating the future because you believe you cannot see it, but you can - you’ve seen it done before."

YES, we can all do it and leaders should be thinking this way. That is exactly the takeaway from Steve's accomplishment with Apple. It is not impossible at all and people can achieve amazing things.

When I think about my own shortcomings as a leader, this thought quoted above gives me encouragement. Attention to detail is very important, but knowing which details matter is more important. Being a visionary means knowing what to focus on and being optimistic/aggressive about achieving a better future.

Thank you Steve. The world is better for your products, but more importantly, it will be brighter from your example.

Unpacking "Accessibility"

The web has evolved from a convenient “option” to a necessary part of our daily lives (banking, shopping, learning, etc). For the estimated 10 million impaired Internet users in America, the web is an increasingly difficult/impossible experience. As interfaces become more “rich” in terms of interaction, many businesses today are not making their new sites friendly for impaired users (visibly, physically or mentally impaired).  And as tasks increasingly require use of the web, it is increasingly important that this segment of society not be left out.

So, the web industry talks about making sites “accessible,” which is great. But it occurred to me recently that this word is getting used in too many different ways. And depending on how you interpret that word, many consequences follow. So, I would like to address a few common conceptions which I think are problematic, and then discuss a more specific/complete meaning which is being championed by the accessibility/legal community at large.

COMMON (MIS)CONCEPTIONS:

“Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible.” -- Wikipedia

This is true, but vague. When you make web site, you want it to work on as many devices as possible. This usually means browsers, phones, iPads and assistive devices for the impaired. However, if a site works great for the impaired, but not an iPad, very few would call it “inaccessible.” Rather, they would call it stupid, because it was not “available” to the iPad. So, I don’t like this definition, because it speaks to availability more than being for the impaired.

“Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity. Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities or special needs … often through use of assistive technology.” -- Wikipedia

This simple “ability to access” is incomplete and/or misleading because it doesn’t address the quality of the experience. Just because someone can make it through a process, does not mean that the process was easy. If the word is defined in this way, then the bar for achievement is set really low. There is a huge difference between a site that is “great to use,” and one that someone “can potentially get through.” 

A BETTER UNDERSTANDING:

I believe accessibility includes the definitions above, but only qualifies as accessible if a site can be used as effectively by people with disabilities as those without. Anne Taylor, from the National Federation for the Blind, has a great interview where she defines it as an “equivalent ease of use.” This specific view of the term is gaining steam.

This does not mean the impaired will have the “same” experience. Listening takes longer. Rather, it means it will be equally easy for an impaired person to navigate a site given the tools they use. The legitimacy of this view is further confirmed by several prominent legal cases (past and present). 

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in access to colleges and universities and contains many of the same provisions as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Reasonable accommodations (e.g., a modification or adjustment to the status quo inherent in the program or activity) to allow a qualified person with a disability to participate fully in the programs and activities of the university. “Participation must be in the most integrated setting possible.”

Law School Admissions Council and National Federation of the Blind April 2011 Settlement Agreement.

“LSAC shall provide "Full and Equal Access" to the lsac.org website as provided herein no later than September 1, 2011 ("Completion Date") and continuing thereafter for the term of this Agreement. "Full and Equal Access" means that www.lsac.org meets the nonvisual requirements of WCAG 2.0, level AA and that blind guests using screen-reader software may acquire the same information and engage in the same transactions as are available to sighted guests with substantially equivalent ease of use.”

Target vs. National Federation of the Blind United States District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. 06-01802 MHP

This is a complex case with many angles (click on the above link to learn about it). But I found it fascinating that Target found several blind users that claimed to enjoy using the site. However, upon closer examination, there were several impediments preventing blind users from doing everything that sighted users could accomplish. The injunction against Target reinforces the idea of a site needing to provide an “equivalent experience.” 

(Note: I don't believe the ADA has ever actually be challenged in court in regard to the web, but always settled outside of court).

IN CONCLUSION:

Almost everyone agrees with the general value proposition that the impaired deserve to use the web. However, how this is achieved (and to what degree) seems to be a matter of some debate. Some people think that making a separate site for screen-readers is the solution. But this does not take into account low-visibility users who enjoy rich websites (they just need help reading). Nor does it take into account the “segregation” issue which is addressed in the American Disabilities Act (among other prominent civil rights cases). So, if you are a business that is not motivated by these values, you should at least consider making your site accessible for potential legal reasons.

Besides business, another camp that may resist making sites rich and accessible is the developers themselves. They have to enter into this unknown world and make it happen, which can be difficult. The state of assistive devices is in flux, without much good documentation. And, it is not easy to test as a non-impaired user. Making sites fully accessibly is not a simple check-box, it takes real work at every stage of the planning and building process.

Some developers may worry this will be “extra work,” or harder than merely making a separate site for the disabled. While technical arguments are usually matters of opinion, I have not yet met a developer experienced in making a rich/accessible sites who believes it is easier to support multiple sites. Instead, the people I know all say that once the dev-patterns are ingrained into the culture, it just feels like a higher quality-level of craftsmanship. 

“Over the past several years, web accessibility has grown from a small niche of best practices that we worked with as conscientious web developers, to a mainstream ideal that our clients are demanding. It is no longer an option to ignore web accessibility.” -- John Tornow, Director of Technology, The Richards Group.

“I see ignorance as the biggest obstacle. Once developers gain the point of view of what makes an experience accessible, the techniques and patterns will become integrated into one’s standard toolkit. Their sense of ‘right’ will be tied to the accessibility of their solutions.” -- Ryan Fitzer, Manager Interactive Development, SapientNitro

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Disclaimer: SlideRoom is not currently 508 or WCAG compliant. When we started in 2006, it was a small system for reviewing multimedia. In the recent past, it has grown into a more complete admissions system used by hundreds of institutions nation-wide. The personal views expressed in this post are the result of current development efforts in making SlideRoom into a fully accessible application. We will be writing about that soon.