a11yTO-Enterprise-Accessibility-Round-Table-Discussion-17NOV2012

Tales of Adventure in the Wild World of Big Business…

Enterprise Accessibility Round Table

• Winning the Business Case• Developing Policy and Process• Training and Testing

The Adventure of a Lifetime!

1. Where are we going?2. How do we get there?3. What lies ahead?4. What did you experience?

The Adventure of a Lifetime!

Winning the Business Case

• What kind of company are you?• What are your primary business objectives?• How good are your relationships?• What are your primary risks, prioritized?• What does your company consider a game

changing move?• How does the budget work?• Who are the deciders?• What are their key measures of success?

Winning the Business CaseWhere are we going?

• The Accessibility Road Show!• The risks• The rewards• The humanity• The plan

• Let accessibility be the solution to any problem!• Work harder than anyone else to find the answers!• Be a fixer, a resource, a collaborator!• Be a champion for your allies!• Be relentlessly positive!• Be fearless!

Winning the Business CaseHow do we get there?

• Look for opportunity in innovation• Look for digital governance and standards• Empower the User Champions• Build the business case, adapt, then build again• Soon there will be time for pragmatism, for realism,

but not yet…

Winning the Business CaseWhat lies ahead?

• Cabbages, oak trees, and apples• The beauty of a pilot• Six little characters can be huge• Get in early, adjust often• Look, I made a Flash movie!

Winning the Business CaseWhat did you experience?

Developing Policy and Process

• So you have your business case. Now what?• a11y buy-in - management, team, etc.• Cherry picking your a11y standards.• WCAG 2.0, AODA, CDN govt. a11y Standard.• ISO/IEC 40500 – a game changer?• WCAG 2.0 - arid reading.• Achieving Conformance – Where to Start?

Developing Policy and ProcessWhere are we going?

• Adopting vs. Adapting.• Defining the scope.• ACS - Fighting the a11y Checklist Syndrome• Stakeholder accountability.• a11y in the lifecycle.• Breaking it down. Really.

Developing Policy and ProcessHow do we get there?

• Five Stages of Web Accessibility• Denial - “PWD aren't my target audience!”• Anger - “This is a barrier to my creativity!”• Bargaining - “Isn't level A enough?!”• Depression - “It's never good enough!”• Acceptance - “We can do this!”

Developing Policy and ProcessWhat lies ahead?

• Bad - a11y as last minute QA.• Good - a11y in the early stages.• The Power of Planning.• Organizational Changes.• Cultural Shifts – Resistance.• Pragmatism – Choosing your battles. • Baby Steps to Greatness.

Developing Policy and ProcessWhat did you experience?

Training and Testing

• From design to disaster; accolades to refunds• Redesigned components• Field tests to relaunch• Goal: “kill the competition”• Invention, innovation, execution

Training and TestingWhat did you experience?

3 Million Hours with Nothing to Show For It

Users. Users. Users. Semper Paratus

• Why do you develop your product?• In a group of ten users, at least one is likely to

have a disability• A culture for the future• Reinvent yourself or fall behind or die

Training and TestingWhere are we going?

Pesky Little Practical Details

• Testing as a core and not a process• Include users with disabilities in all aspects of product

creation• Design/conception, and UX• Development• User accepted testing and disability specific testing• Unstructured and a/b testing• Post-production Feedback is a form of testing• Introspection, the beginning and the end• Expect to fall behind and plan to get ahead• Involve all—from design to testing• Tactics = self-direction, structured training, building

internal and external expertise, social and professional networks, time for personal projects

Training and TestingHow do we get there?

Shore Up the Core

• Are your users satisfied?• Can you do better in the next iteration?• Are you taking shortcuts?• The cost of reinvention >= profit• Constant, accelerating changes in fields lead to

shorter time for failure without building a foundation in knowledge and continuous rebuilding

Training and TestingWhat lies ahead?

Pratik PatelPatel EZFire@[email protected]

Denis BoudreauDeque Systems@[email protected]

Elle WatersSimply Accessible@Nethermind [email protected]

Questions?