Accessibility @ UT

Accessibility @ UTGlenda (goodwitch) [email protected]

glendathegood.com

April 26, 2007

Creating a Culture of Accessibility @ UT

Evangelists aka

Tres Amigos

John SlatinUT

Professor/Researcher

Glenda SimsUT

Technologist

Sharron RushKnowbilityDirector

Evolution of an Accessibility Policy

• 04/2002:  Formed group to draft guideline• 06/2002:  Guideline recommendation

http://wwwtest.utexas.edu/work/gsims/access/

• 07/2002: Guideline posted to UT web• 02/2003:  Attempts to develop policy begun• 05/2005:  Draft policy reviewed by legal• 08/2005:  Official policy posted to web http://

www.utexas.edu/web/guidelines/accessibility.html

Implementation Strategies

Accessible (immediately, no excuses)• All new or revised pages• Top 10% pages (based on analytics)• Critical pages

Accessible by (date)• Legacy Web Pages *

* encourages archive of old / outdated pages!

Highest Priority: Do it NOW!• Top 10% of pages based on use

• Critical Pages (required for your business purpose)

• Audience

Public

Members

Employees

Geeks

BaselineHow (un) Accessible Are We?

Test every link on UT Home Page •Manually•114 links

UT Home Page Accessibility

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Summer 2002 Fall 2002 Spring 2003

Contact Webmaster of each

Inaccessible Site

How Can We Help You?

• 1-on-1 consulting

• Training/Classes

• Online Accessibility Documentation

(started Summer 2002)

AIR: Accessibility Internet Rally

Web DevelopersAccessibility Training

CompetitionAwards

Party________________________________________

Accessible Web Sites!

www.knowbility.org/air

Getting Spotlights Accessible

• April 2000 - IT• Bobby (manual)• WCAG 1.0 Priority 1

• March 2002 – OPA • Bobby (manual)• 508

• April 2003 – OPA• Bobby (automated)• 508

UT Austin: A Promising Practice in Web Accessibility

Research in

Web Accessibility in

Higher Ed

– University of Washington

•http://www.washington.edu/doit/Research/Web/texas.html

Online Risk Management Tools

• Quality (including)• Link checking• Spelling

• Security • Personal Data• Vulnerabilities

• Accessibility

Note: Accessibility Testing Requires Manual Testing

WebXM

Working Smarter - WebXM

• WebXM installed –Summer 2005• WebXM Expert(s)• Training – Web Developers• Competitions

• Broken Links• Accessibility

UT Austin’s Experience

• 2000-Present• Leader: Accessibility Evangelist(s)• Proactive Review: Manual and/or WebXM• Training: Access U• Help:1-on-1 Accessibility Consulting• Guidelines: Accessibility Policy• Competition: Accessibility Internet Rally

Future Best PracticeProvide high level accessibility consulting centrally for:• Captioning• Flash Accessibility• Ajax

Funding• Org funds central consulting • Core critical apps get captioning,

flash, ajax accessibilized for “free”• “Non-essential” / “Icing” apps

pay for this consulting

already provide testing, pro-active monitoring, consulting, training, motivating

8 Steps to Access• Gather Baseline Information• Gain Top Level Support• Organize a Web Accessibility Committee• Define a Standard• Create an Implementation Plan• Provide Training and Technical Support• Monitor Conformance• Remain Flexible Through the Changes

WebAim8 Step Implementation Model

www.webaim.org/articles/implementation

Universal Accessibility

• supports all people

• supports all technology

• generally makes site better for all

• relationship to usability

• search engine optimization

• avoid a separate “text-only” version

“Web for Everyone. Web on Everything.”

- www.w3.org/Consortium/mission

Your Turn

What Questions Do You Have?

What Are Your Next Steps?