User experience is complex and multifaceted. One of those facets is making services usable to people in different situations. The needs of people with disabilities, both apparent and not, must be considered on our mobile and web platforms if we are to provide good service and abide by federal and state regulations. Cervone looks at some of the common accessibility issues people may have with mobile sites and websites and how to address those issues while still creating a visually stimulating and interactive environment for all.

1. FrankCervone, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Information Services and CIO
Purdue University Calumet
Internet Librarian 2012

2. Effective
Efficient
Safe
Useful
Easy to learn
Easy to remember
Satisfying/rewarding
Fun/Enjoyable
Entertaining
Helpful
Motivating
Aesthetically pleasing
Motivating
Usability goals differ from user experience
goals

4. Understand the
underlying problem
before attempting to
solve it
Don't hurt anyone
Make things simple and
intuitive
Acknowledge that the
user is not like you
Have empathy
Adapted from Hess,W. (2010). Guiding Principles for UX Designers, UX
Magazine, March 10, 2010

5. Images courtesy of baddesign.com

6. Attributes of an object that indicate how to use something
Images courtesy of baddesign.com

7. Inform user about what has been or needs to be done
 Sound
 Highlighting
 Animation

8. Restrict the possible actions that can be performed
Help prevent selecting incorrect options

10. Interfaces
Similar operations and
similar elements for
similar tasks
Consistent interfaces
Easier to learn
Easier to use
Video courtesy of baddesign.com

11. Original instructions Suggested instructions
Images courtesy of baddesign.com

12.  It’s the right thing to do
 TheAmericans with DisabilitiesAct (ADA)
 42 U.S.C. § 12101
 Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination
against an individual
 "on the basis of disability in the full and equal
enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities,
privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any
place of public accommodation…."

13. As defined by the ADA Amendments Act
of 2008:
“With respect to an individual, a physical or
mental impairment that substantially limits
one or more major life activities of such
individual; a record of such an impairment or
being regarded as having such an
impairment…”

14.  Seeing
 Hearing
 Eating
 Sleeping
 Walking
 Standing
 Lifting
 Bending
 Speaking
 Breathing
 Learning
 Reading
 Thinking
 Communicating
 Working

15. • Many accessibility techniques focus on visual
disabilities
• Need to remember all categories of
disabilities
• Visual (including blind, low vision, and color blind)
• Cognitive learning
• Auditory
• Motor/Physical
• Speech

17.  An adjustment or auxiliary aid
 Does not cause a fundamental alteration in
the nature or core function of a program or
service
 Does not impose an undue financial or
administrative burden to the institution

18.  Equitable use
 Flexibility in use
 Simple and intuitive
 Perceptible information
 Tolerance for error
 Low physical effort
 Size and space for approach and use

19.  If you do not provide reasonable
accommodations, you could be breaking the
law
 In higher education, section 504 of the 1973
RehabilitationAct protects the rights of
individuals
 Federal financial assistance from the U.S.
Department of Education
 Enforced by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)

20. • Use relative font sizes on web pages
• Provide alternative image text
• Use meaningful names for links
• Explicitly state information
• Provide skip links

21.  Ensure font size is
expressed in
percentages or ems
 Do not express in points
or pixels
 Why?
 Allows users to make the
text larger or smaller as
desired

22.  Accessibility requires text equivalents for all
meaningful graphics and objects (i.e., video)
 Text should be meaningful
 Graphics with text must use an "alt tag“ to
provide access to the text
 Graphics used only for positioning should be
labeled with alt=" " (quote, space, quote)

23.  NOT ALT=”Six cute kittens”
 ALT=“Six inquisitive
kittens, three with tuxedo
markings on the left and
three with black fur on the
right”
© All rights reserved by Romana.R

24.  "Click here" is meaningless in most contexts
 Particularly troublesome when moving
through a page by tabbing
 Best practice is similar considerations to that
of the ALT tag
 Text should be meaningful
 Express clearly where the link will go or what
will happen after selection

25.  Indentation or color alone is not sufficient to
convey meaning
 Is not meaningful to assistive technology
 Don’t rely on indicating required fields by
making them bold
 Explicitly state required fields are "required"

26.  Skip links allow assistive software to bypass
information repeated on every page
 Skip links are typically implemented by
1. Placing a link before the repeated information such
as
<a href="#content"><img src="empty.gif" height="1" border="0"
alt="Skip Main Navigation" width=“1"></a>
2. Placing an anchor at the beginning of actual content
<a name="content"></a>
 The image can be transparent
 Won’t affect visual display
 Page readers will indicate "skip main navigation".

27.  Forms need to be logical and consistent
 Question or description for input field should
be on the same line as the input field itself
 Place labels consistently on the same side of
the input field
 Explicitly identify what information is
required
 Make the word “Required” part of the label for
each mandatory field

28.  Specify column header rows in tables
 Use styles in documents
 Use short titles in headings
 Ensure all heading styles are in the correct order
 Use simple table structure
 Avoid using blank cells for formatting
 Structure layout tables for easy navigation
 Avoid using repeated blank characters
 Avoid image watermarks
 Include closed captions for any audio

29.  Including information a screen reader already
provides
 Misusing the tabindex attribute
 Overusing access keys/Creating conflicts with
keyboard shortcuts

30.  Using alt text “image of a down arrow that
links within thisWeb page” on an anchor link
 Duplicates information the screen reader provides
 A better option
 Simple alt text “down arrow”
 Shortens amount of time to discover purpose of
link
 More accurate and faster

31.  Can confuse the order in which theTab key
moves in a form.
 Makes the form more difficult to navigate
 Often occurs as the result of coding errors
 Most often when some elements are included in
the sequence, but others are left out
 Incorrect tab order
 Makes it difficult for a person listening to a web
page
 Can obscures what part of a page the section is in

32.  Adding access keys may seem helpful
 However, assistive technology often relies on
keyboard shortcuts
 Users often are very familiar with these shortcuts
 Conflicts between access keys of the assistive
technology and keyboard shortcuts create
 User confusion
 Unexpected outcomes

33.  Checking for color contrast
 http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-
contrast.html
 View in various colorblindness scenarios
 http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

34.  WebAccessibilityAccessTool
 http://wave.webaim.org/
 WebAccessibilityChecker
 http://achecker.ca/

35.  Creating accessible Powerpoint presentations
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/creating-accessible-
powerpoint-presentations-HA102013555.aspx
 http://webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint/
 Checking accessibility of a Powerpoint
presentation
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/check-for-accessibility-
issues-HA010369192.aspx

36.  Creating accessibleWord documents
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/creating-accessible-word-
documents-HA101999993.aspx
 http://webaim.org/techniques/word/

37.  Manual captioning software
 http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines/magpie

39.  Frank Cervone
Vice Chancellor for Information Services and CIO
Purdue University Calumet
fcervone@purduecal.edu