[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Website Accessibility Plan

[Gunela Astbrink]

Congratulations on an excellent initiative!

And apologies for a slow response as I've been off the list for a while.

This looks like a very good strategy. It is good news indeed that ISOC 
is working on a solid plan with key elements to advance ISOC's web 
accessibility. Apart from technical development, staff training is 
essential together with more detailed testing with users with 
disabilities as you have outlined.

I'm presuming that one of the other areas that will be fixed is 
captioning of videos for Deaf people.

How will ISOC's website accessibility plan impact the templates 
developed for Chapters' own websites? I realise that this takes time but 
it would be a great initiative if ISOC could provide the impetus in 
helping Chapters with web accessibility.

For those less familiar with accessibility, the paper I wrote on 
accessibility to the Internet for people with disability provides 
background on why accessibility is important. It indicates that 
accessibility goes beyond web accessibility too.
http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-accessibility-internet-use-persons-disabilities-moving-forward

It has a section on "What we all can do". Chapters can help spread the 
message globally. We have had Community Grant disability projects in 
Australia and Armenia. One Australian project working with PICISOC and 
the Pacific Disability Forum has helped build awareness in the Pacific 
Island region. The other project was to raise disability awareness to 
Chapter Leaders in the Asia Pacific region. We look forward to hearing 
about the Armenian project for people with visual impairment.

I recall the positive reaction by Chapter Leaders to the accessibility 
workshop I organised in Sri Lanka in 2011. A highlight of the workshop 
was when Manique Gunaratne who is blind demonstrated how she couldn't 
use websites with her screen-reading software because of the way they 
are designed. Since that time, the Hong Kong Chapter has run an 
accessibility workshop and it would be great if other Chapters could do 
that.

In other regions, there would be a need for more general disability 
awareness training. Is ISOC considering providing support for this?

I recognise that there is much to do and this takes time. Hopefully, we 
will see in future how ISOC can be a model for accessibility to reflect 
its statement: "The Internet is Everyone".

Gunela Astbrink


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	[Chapter-delegates] Website Accessibility Plan
> Date: 	Mon, 4 Mar 2013 18:29:05 +0100
> From: 	Dan Graham <dan.graham at isoc.org>
> To: 	chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org Delegates
> <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Here's an update on the plan to ensure our site meets Web Content
> Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) level 2.0.
>
> Progress so far: Two accessibility audits were conducted last year. One
> focused on identifying specific issues that were preventing specific
> sections of the site from being WCAG 2.0 compliant. The second was
> conducted by a visually impaired person and provided valuable
> constructive criticism and great recommendations.
>
> Two actions followed the above mentioned audits:
>
>  1. A series of quick fixes to the site
>  2. The development of plan that will ensure our site is WCAG compliant
>       - and stays that way moving forward
>
>
> *1. Quick Fixes*
>
>   * The ability to control the image carousel with next, previous and
>     pause buttons.
>   * Underlined links as they help make our links more visible
>   * The ability to navigate the site without a mouse (i.e. keyboard only)
>   * Currently adding alternative text to all images on the site
>
>
> *2. Accessibility Plan*
>
> As mentioned, the goal is to ensure that our site is WCAG 2.0. compliant
> (http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/). Ideally, I'd like our website to
> be a flagship for accessibility. I've asked our main web developer
> (Balance Interactive) to develop plan to help us reach this goal.
>
> It's important to note that this commitment to accessibility will
> require changes in our processes. Some of these changes will translate
> into longer development times and greater costs. In other words, the
> challenge of compliance will be, as stated in the WCAG summary:
> "To create content that can be presented in different ways, including by
> assistive technologies, without losing meaning".
>
> The following items are expected to take 10 to 12 weeks to complete.
>
> Here's an overview of the key components of the plan:
>
> *2.1 Changes to our Content Management System (CMS)*
> A key step to ensuring that our content is accessible is the addition of
> accessibility checks within our CMS workflow. We'll be adding a
> new component to our CMS (Drupal) that will provide our content
> creators/editors with the ability to check the accessibility of their
> content prior to it being published to the website - and allow them to
> make the necessary changes to ensure WCAG 2.0 compliance.
>
> *2.2 Content Strategy*
> Key sections of our site will be reviewed to identify content that may
> cause difficulties or barriers to people with disabilities. This review
> will be larger in scope than the audits that were done last year. This
> will result in further fixes to the site and will also inform
> documentation of guidelines and training for staff (see below)
>
> *2.3 Staff Training*
> This will be key to ensure the site continues to be WCAG 2.0. compliant.
> Accessibility workshops for staff (those who post content to
> the website) will be given by a team of accessibility experts from
> Balance Interactive. The sessions will focus on creating usable web
> pages that are WCAG 2.0 compliant. Both Lia and I will be trained on how
> to train staff in this area, ensuring that we can conduct this type
> of training on a regular basis moving forward.
>
> *2.4 Testing by People with Disabilities*
> To be a flagship for accessibility, it is critical to involve people
> with disabilities in the testing. We'll be using a vendor who
> specializes in this type of testing - Knowbility
> (http://www.knowbility.org/). This testing ensures a representative
> variety of disabilities and assistive technology used.
>
> *2.5 Responsive Design*
> Accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. In a broader
> sense, accessible design also helps serve content to a variety of
> devices, across several connection speeds. The goal is to ensure that
> our site has different layouts for different devices. For accessibility
> purposes, we will be able to display alternative text, links to
> transcripts, and lower resolution for slower connections.
>
> Let me know if you have any questions.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dan
>
> Dan Graham
> Director, Online Marketing
> Internet Society
>
> Office: +41 22 809 0368
> Mobile: +41 78 757 9943
>
> www.internetsociety.org
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>
>
-- 
Gunela Astbrink
GSA InfoComm
PO Box 600
Ballina NSW 2478
Australia
Mobile: +61 417 715738
Email: g.astbrink at gsa.com.au