UD 2016 Keynote, York University. What if we prioritize people with disabilities when making design decisions?

1. Accessible User Experience:
In Strategy, In Practice…In Thinking!
Mike Paciello @mpaciello

5. What if we define accessibility as
making a commitment and demonstrating
progress?

6. What would accessibility look like?

7. Accessibility maturity
Moving your organization along the continuum toward a
mature approach to accessibility

10. Identify and repair accessibility
issues based on standards
compliance

11. What is the primary driver for
organizations to pay attention to
accessibility?
• Legislation
• Reputation
• Business benefit
• Improving UX
• User demand

12. Activities
• Identify methodology
• Identify samples to test
• Test samples against standards
• Write up issues
• Test and recommend code fixes

13. Deliverables
• Audit results spreadsheet
• Common issues report
• Accessibility documentation (e.g., QA report)
• Help desk support
• Remediation support

15. Insights
• Frequency and distribution of issues
• Estimate of impact and effort of issues
• Potential design and code changes to repair issues

16. Potential outcomes
• Accessibility documented
• Vendor works to fix issues
• Vendor engages consultancy for retest and revised
accessibility documentation

18. Prioritize evaluation and repair
activities based on real-world impact

19. Audience Survey: How active are
organizations in researching the
difficulties faced by customers with
disabilities?
• Very
• Somewhat
• Not very
• Not at all

20. Context
• Legal obligation to provide accessibility
• Custom-built system fails to meet accessibility
requirements
• Group of users with disabilities demanding accessibility
improvements

21. Activities
• Conduct contextual inquiry interviews
• Create sampling strategy based on insights from
interviews

22. Deliverables
• Same as “identify” activity, plus…
• Task-based sampling strategy
• First-person perspectives in report

23. Insights
• Real issues encountered by people with disabilities
• Accessibility issues not surfaced in standards review

24. Outcomes
• Partners with user groups to improve accessibility
• Focuses on real issues that impact stakeholders
• Fixes issues related to accessible user experience
(AUX)

26. Inject accessibility best practices into
the design and development process

27. Survey #2: What is the most important
phase in the design/development process
to address accessibility?
• Strategy
• Design
• Content
• Development
• Quality Assurance (QA)

28. Context
• Your organization understands that remediation is costly
and ineffective
• Your organization knows its current processes do not
support accessibility
• Your organization seeks to address accessibility early in
process and improve processes

29. Activities
• Determine appropriate interaction points and methods
• Review and respond to design artifacts

30. Deliverables
• User stories to help guide design decisions
• Design reviews (wireframes, style guides)
• Training in accessible design best practices
• Code library reviews (technical and design)
• QA test design and implementation

31. Insights
• Optimal time to address accessibility in
design/development lifecycle
• Roles and responsibilities with respect to attention to
accessibility
• Appropriate and effective ways of communicating
accessibility knowledge

32. Outcomes
• Addresses accessibility issues during the
design/development process
• Builds internal capacity for accessibility

34. Integrate accessibility best practices
into culture and practice

35. Survey #3: What sector is most receptive
to transforming culture and practice to
integrate accessibility?
• Government
• Finance
• Technology
• Education
• Healthcare

36. Context
• Advocacy group makes a complaint to your organization
about digital accessibility
• Organization cannot fix all IT services
• Organization understands it must fix culture and process
to respond

37. Activities
• Perform gap analysis to understand current state
• Build understanding of desired future state
• Assess gaps between current state and future state

38. Deliverables
• Roadmap report
• Commitment to ongoing partnership

39. Details
• Definition of future state
• Assets and opportunities
• Challenges and barriers
• Roadmap toward Accessibility in Practice
• Supporting information: Applicable policies

40. Insights
• Perceptions of accessibility and responsibility within an
organization
• Governance requirements to advance an integration
agenda
• Requirements for activities for change

41. Outcomes
• Your organization makes visible commitment to providing
accessible IT services
• Organization embarks on initiative to address
shortcoming(s) in existing services
• Organization establishes policy and processes to
support accessibility in new services

42. An Accessible Design Maturity Continuum
By David Sloan, UX Research Lead, The Paciello Group
uxfor.us/mature-it

43. Where is your organization currently on
the accessibility maturity continuum?
• Identify (compliance)
• Prioritize (targeted)
• Inject (early attention)
• Integrate (culture, practice)

44. Accessibility process standards
Engaging your organization in activities that demonstrate
commitment and show progress

45. Make a commitment to ICT
accessibility

46. Responsibility and accountability
• Designate a senior official for “plain writing”
• Explain the Act’s requirements to staff
• Establish a procedure to oversee the implementation of the Act
within the agency
• Train agency staff in plain writing
• Designate staff as points of contact for the agency plain writing web
page
• Post its compliance plan for meeting the requirements of the Act on
its plain language web page
US Plain Writing Act of 2010—uxfor.us/plain-writing

47. Activities
Establish leadership
• Chief Accessibility Officer (CAO)
• Director of User Experience/CAO
• Accessibility Program Lead
• Accessibility Specialist

48. Establish an accessibility baseline
and track progress

49. Activities
• Set a standard, e.g.,
– Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
• Define scope of applicability, e.g.,
– Teaching and learning
– Research
– External communications and business processes
– Internal communications and business processes

50. Foster a community of practice

51. Activities
• Integrate usability and accessibility support into existing
IT facilities
• Tie accessibility into existing professional development
and training activities
• Include expectations around accessibility awareness and
skills in position descriptions

53. People working together, committed to
making progress, and targeting success

54. There are two ways to creating lasting
change:
• Take baby steps (& feel successful)
• Change your environment
—BJ Fogg
Design for Lasting Change, bjfogg.org/lastingchange

55. Changing the environment
…Radical accessibility

56. What if we
prioritize people
with disabilities
when making
design decisions?

57. With focus on people with disabilities…
• User experience activities focus on people with
disabilities
• Accessibility activities are not isolated to QA
• Recruitment requires accessibility skills and knowledge
• There are no accessibility specialists

58. What if accessibility
was integrated into
training and
education
programs?

59. With integrated accessibility education…
• Accessibility is a core digital literacy
• There are no accessibility majors/specialists
• Accessibility is part of continuing professional
development
• There is no accessibility certification

60. What if accessibility
investment was for new
products rather than
fixing existing ones?

61. With a focus on new products…
• Investment is in resources for accessible development
• There are no accessibility audits
• Accessibility efforts focus on improving processes
• There is no remediation of accessibility issues
Radical accessibility

63. When people feel successful taking baby
steps they often find themselves wanting to
make big changes, including their
environment.
—BJ Fogg

64. We have an organizational mandate
that UX won’t hand anything to
engineering that cannot be made
accessible.
—Becky Reed
Accessibility for Business and Pleasure uxfor.us/accessibility-roi

65. “Rather than saying, you must have
accessibility training, we talk about
role-based training. You are a faculty
member; here are the things you need
to know as part of being a faculty
member.”— Dan Jones
Accessibility for Business and Pleasure uxfor.us/accessibility-roi

66. If I could call it something other than
accessibility I would. I would call it design
that works for everyone, or good design.
—Rick Ferrie
Accessibility for Business and Pleasure uxfor.us/accessibility-roi

67. Accessible Design Maturity Continuum
An Accessible Design Maturity Continuum, uxfor.us/mature-it

68. Thank you!
@mpaciello
mpaciello@paciellogroup.com