Access & A11y(s)

1. What is Digital Accessibility?

Episode Summary

In Access & Allies' first episode, let's talk about what digital accessibility really means!

Episode Notes

Timestamps:

Resources:

Web Accessibility Initiative. "Accessibility Standards." May 10, 2019. website. https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/. Accessed December 11, 2022.

Music:

Twists & Turns | The Paul Dunlea Group

Episode Transcription

This is the inaugural episode of the all•Access podcast Access & Allies. My name is Rowan; I’m the co-President and Director of Communications for all•Access.

The goals of Access & A11ies is to attempt to break down any digital accessibility topic under the sun to answer any and all of your questions around making digital tools more accessible. Thanks for tuning in, and if you prefer to read along, make sure to find this episode’s transcript in the notes — along with any resources I mention.

all•Access is an initiative focused on supporting organizations and business leaders in making their online presence and digital information accessible to everyone, regardless of ability or disability, device they’re using, or their location, be it sitting at home or on the bus. We make inclusive digital spaces through making new or retrofitting existing websites to meet WCAG’s standards for accessibility, training & consulting, and full or partial site assessments.

Now, let’s get started with today’s topic.

Whenever I tell people what all•Access does, quite often the first question I’m asked is “What is ‘digital accessibility’?”

So for our first episode, I thought I would start at the beginning and provide an overview of this fundamental phrase in the work we do.

Digital accessibility is one of those really vast topics which are complex in nature but can be summarized simply. It’s about making information technology and digital spaces useable by anyone.

While all•Access has a focus in making website accessibility, that’s only one facet of digital accessibility. This topic can apply to anything from the documents you create (in Word or PDFs), to the social media platforms you might occupy like Instagram, LinkedIn, to the devices you use like your laptop, cellphone, or any assistive technology.

Basically, if it applies to technology, it can be made more — or less — accessible!

Now, to make technology more accessible, we might use what’s called “assistive technology,” or in some cases “assistive devices”. The University of Virginia has a good page on digital accessibility which I’ll link in the notes section, and they provide the following examples for how some folks with disabilities might use assistive technology:

Blind or non-sighted users benefit from either screen readers which read content on the screen aloud to the user, or refreshable Braille devices which are tactile.
Folks with low vision might use screen magnification software or font enlargement functions such as Ctrl + in Windows or Command + on Macs.
Individuals with motor control disabilities might benefit from keyboard navigation instead of using a mouse, speech recognition software, head pointers or mouth sticks which are physical ways of controlling a device with the movement of the head, or eye-gaze tracking systems.
People with hearing disabilities often benefit from captions and subtitles.

These things and more need to be considered when providing information digitally and in different contexts (for example, on smart phones vs. tablets vs. desktops).

There are layers upon layers when thinking about how to make digital information accessible. It’s incredibly nuanced, and there are multiple trains of thought on which solutions are best practice. So, I like to keep in mind the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines’ key concepts: pour (that’s P O U R, not P O O R). So, POUR, pour, stands for: Perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. I’ll go into a bit more detail here…

Perceivable, as in information has to be presented in a way that is tangible to all users and not in any way invisible.
- For example, can screen readers identify all the content sighted users are able to see?
Operable, as in all users must be equally able to navigate through the content.
- Can someone who doesn’t use a mouse tab through your website on their keyboard?
Understandable, as in all users are able to grasp the information based on the visual layout of content and language used.
- A good rule of thumb for language is to use what’s known as “plain language”, which means avoiding words outside of common vernacular, and using active language as much as possible.
- In digital accessibility, we typically aim for an 8th grade reading level for copywriting, and there are tools out there to meet this expectation.
The last letter is R, for robust, which means it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of users, including assistive technology. Using websites as an example here:
- Can I navigate through your site without any questions on how get through it or on what something means?
- Can a screen reader pick up all the copy, read appropriate alternative text on images (I will talk more about that in a later episode), and go through all the content in the order it was intended?
- Can I tab through your site with just my keyboard in the intended order?
- Do you use multiple methods of conveying key information (as in not simply relying on colour but using symbols or another visual difference as well)?

There are lots of things to consider when designing for digital accessibility, but POUR is a great mindset to have in moving forward instead of getting hung up on all the possible pit falls that comes with worrying about possible inaccessible outcomes. And what I mean by that, is it can be difficult to see the bigger picture when there are all these small details in considering people with disabilities or making your content fit a myriad of contexts, and it’s easy to feel stuck or like digital accessibility is a task that’s just too big to tackle.

But, when we shift our mindset so that we’re now aiming to hit certain targets like POUR, it becomes so much easier to make meaningful progress and find solutions.

One thing I haven’t mentioned when it comes to digital accessibility is that it doesn’t all have to happen overnight. Did you just realize your website is entirely inaccessible to a portion of your possible clientele? That’s fine! Now you can get started on meeting those needs little by little. It will always be a work in progress, because accessibility is tied to your content which in and of itself is always a moving target.

One of the super cool things about digital accessibility — aside from being more inclusive in its design — is that it’s always at the forefront of technological solutions. If you have an accessible website, it also means that you’re achieving better SEO and potentially bringing in higher revenue. And if you’re a developer, making sure you know the WCAG standards for accessibility is a surefire way to up your game and wow your clients or organization.

In this episode we talked about “What is digital accessibility?”, how it might show up, especially for people with disabilities, different types of assistive technology and devices, and the very helpful acronym POUR, which are four great words to have in the back of your mind when designing anything digital (perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust). And then I got a little preachy about why digital accessibility is awesome in a lot of ways other than meeting those important inclusivity goals.

But I digress. Next time we’ll dive into guidelines and their related success criteria.

Once again, this has been all•Access’ podcast Access & Allies episode one: What is digital accessibility. I’m your host, Rowan King, and if there are any topics you want to hear me blabber on about in relation to digital accessibility, or if you want to reach out for any other reason, make sure to email us at info@allaccess.dev. Also, check out our website for more information on who we are, what we do, and neat facts about digital accessibility at allaccess.dev.

It's been fun talking at you and until next time on Access & Allies.