Move over Web Accessibility.

Inclusivity is heading straight at you.

A Presentation by Sandi Wassmer

15th February 2010
Welcome
For those of you who know me, I am sure that you have plenty of colourful things to say about me. For
those of you who don’t, this is my schpeel:

I spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to fix this broken world of ours, but since I have no
intention of ever being a politician, I am not about to get on my soapbox and start preaching.

So, I do my bit by running Copious, and building inclusive websites, by writing and speaking about a whole
range of issues from living with a disability to social inclusion to web accessibility and so on.

And for those of you who just can’t work out how someone who is blind can actually see, hold onto your hair
as I do have some statistics for you that should help.

So tonight I am going to try to convince everyone why building Inclusive Websites is the way to go.

The Information Superhighway

I realise that we live in a world of jargon and the real meanings of so many marvellous words have now
been overused and marginalised.

Since I am a marketer, I am probably somewhat responsible for this state of affairs but I am pretty certain
that I have never ridden on the Information Superhighway.

To me, Accessibility is only a part of a much bigger picture, albeit a really important part, but I do have
concerns about considering Accessibility in isolation, as this just isn’t working and I certainly do not want
this to be the case.

Accessibility has somehow gotten a bad name. To be completely politically incorrect – please trust me,
being visually impaired has not stopped me from opening up my big gob and putting my foot in it fairly
frequently – it is viewed by non-disabled folk as something that they have to do to make disabled folk
happy.

And in the online environment, Accessibility, for the most part is seen by a lot of marketers, designers and
developers as something that they have to do and so they get out their “Accessibility Checklist” when they
finish a project and start ticking.

More so, many simply resent it. Marketers believe that by including it, they will dilute their brand; Designers
feel that it will hamper their creativity and Developers think that it will limit functionality. They are wrong, but
I can’t blame them.

Accessibility has been railroaded by a combination of geeks and disabled folk – both groups to which I have
fully paid up memberships - and although the tireless work that has been done to date has gotten us to
where we are now, we need to go mainstream, as Accessibility in its current state is sadly misunderstood.

Understanding the aims of Accessibility

Accessibility was meant to provide ways for all sorts of people to access environments, technology,
products and services and, in doing so, creating greater opportunities for all to participate in and contribute
to society. And so legislation like the DDA was born.

Don’t get me wrong. Accessibility is an important part of my life. It is an unobstructed bridge between me
and the world and has furnished me with an ever-burgeoning collection of Assistive Technologies that do
what my eyes cannot. Without it, I shudder to think where I would be now. Certainly not standing here
talking to you guys.
But I am a creative, I live in a visual world and I went to art school, and as I still have useful vision, albeit at
a distance of about 10 centimetres, I still experience the world visually, which I expect probably comes as a
bit of a surprise.

Some Statistics that you may or may not know

o 97% of people who are registered blind have some residual vision

o Only 3% of people who are registered blind are totally blind

o There are 10.6 million disabled people in the UK, which is approximately 18% of the population

o 6.9 million disabled people in the UK are of working age, which is 19% of the working population.

o The estimated annual purchasing power of people with disabilities is £80 billion

By building websites with only Accessibility in mind, we are not considering the needs of the other 82% and,
most likely, a big chunk of the 18% we think we are serving.

Just because a website is Accessible, does not mean it is anything else and Access alone does not enable
the great Internet experiences that we all deserve.

In order to build great websites, we have a whole bunch of great tools in our arsenal.

Inclusivity is what’s on my mind and with it comes a whole new

language with plenty of big words
Inclusive Design, Universal Design and Design for All

These all mean the same thing. Phew!

Accessibility, Usability, User Centric Design, Progressive Enhancement and User Experience are all part of
Inclusive Design

Inclusive design encompasses all of these practices and offers choice where a single design solution
cannot accommodate all users. And the great thing about the Internet is that we have the technology and
we should use it!

The British Standards Institution definition of Inclusive Design

"The design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, as many people
as reasonably possible ... without the need for special adaptation or specialised design." [1]

The Seven Principles of Inclusive Design Sandi style

There are seven principles of Inclusive Design, which I have Sandi-ized for ease of reference. I just found
the original a bit too wordy when trying to explain this stuff to non-academics.

PRINCIPLE ONE:
Equitable Use [2]
The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
Sandi says: UNBIASED
Welcoming to all

PRINCIPLE TWO:
Flexibility in Use
The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

Sandi says: FLEXIBLE

But recognises that one size does not fit all

PRINCIPLE THREE:
Simple and Intuitive Use
Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or
current concentration level.

Sandi says: STRAIGHTFORWARD

Your 10 year old can use it without having to refer to the manual

PRINCIPLE FOUR:
Perceptible Information
The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or
the user's sensory abilities.

Sandi says: CLEAR

There is no ambiguity.

PRINCIPLE FIVE:
Tolerance for Error
The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.

Sandi says: IS SENSIBLE ABOUT MISTAKES

Aims to eliminate user error altogether, but doesn’t make you cross if you still make one

PRINCIPLE SIX:
Low Physical Effort
The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.

Sandi says: MINIMISES PHYSICAL EFFORT

You don’t feel like you need a nap after using it

PRINCIPLE SEVEN:
Size and Space for Approach and Use
Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user's
body size, posture, or mobility.

Sandi says: APPROPRIATE SIZE AND SHAPE

Its size and shape do not prohibit or limit your enjoyment of it.

ASS U ME
We all know what happens when we assume and applying the principles of Inclusive Design requires
Knowledge and not Assumptions. It is the Knowledge of the needs of the diversity of users that is central to
getting Inclusive Design right.

Assumption
People are either able or disabled

Truth
People are People. We are all different. Every single one of us.

Assumption [3]
Websites are either accessible or inaccessible

Truth
Accessibility is subjective.

Assumption
Disabled people don’t appreciate aesthetics.

Truth
Anyone can have bad taste.

I just don’t see the point in developing websites, or any other products and services for that matter, for
disabled folk separately from everybody else when the technology is right here right now to include
everybody from the get go.

But I am not suggesting that one size fits all. It doesn’t. If we consider all of the variables at the outset and
use the techniques we have to hand, we can create different experiences for different people with the same
website.

And it doesn’t require any special software and if you know what you are doing and plan to build a robust
website, it won’t cost any more money either.

There is, of course, the underlying cost of time, as like learning anything new, if you want to get it right, you
have to invest the time to learn how.

I can’t possibly be an expert in all of these things.

How am I ever going to get it right?
It is not really a matter of right or wrong, as there are so many variables influencing the websites we design.

In an ideal world, there would be no clients, no budgets and we would all merrily work in an agile fashion
and never ever finish a project…..

But, most of us work in the commercial world and as such there are many restrictions placed on the work
that we do and in my opinion trying your best is all that you can do. It is still going to be a long haul and the
need for Inclusivity or Accessibility would not exist if Inclusivity or Accessibility were the norm, but they are
not and so it is a journey and a learning process for us all.

And even when we think we have it licked, someone comes along with a better idea, or a more elegant
solution or experience teaches us something we hadn’t thought about. That is the beauty of technology.

We are now fortunate enough to have amassed a good base of knowledge about such things and
information is plentiful so there is no excuse for not trying. And anyone who is in this industry who is not
interested in innovation or creativity is simply in the wrong place.

If you want to be told what to do and stick to a rigid, pre-defined set of rules, I am sure that there are a few
financial institutions in dire need of your help a mile or so down the road……

But here in Standards land, you need to think, to have ideas and to be resourceful. You have to use the
tools at your disposal to create something new every time you design a new website.
You may be able to repurpose code or use a CMS, but every website is different and you need to take a big
breath, a step back and look at which tools you have in your arsenal that best suit the project and then use
those tools with ingenuity to make something great.

The Process?
The Brief should never be brief

The brief needs to be clear and it all starts at, well, yeah, the beginning.

The project’s objectives should incorporate being guided by the principles of inclusive design or, at least,
have the acronym WCAG somewhere in there. If it doesn’t, you should be asking why.

The Proposal is not what you have to do in order to provide a quote

The Proposal is your opportunity to set out your stall and to take time to consider how to best approach the
project in order to get the most out of it.

Make it clear that you intend to involve users throughout the process and that you will have an inclusion
leader who will take responsibility for ensuring that the objective of inclusive design is met as best it can be
within budget. An inclusion leader is just a poncy way of saying that someone on the team will take
responsibility for this.

Functional Scoping takes time to get right but it always pays off

This is the fun bit, well, to me anyhow. Because this is when you really start to consider end users needs in
detail.

You throw everything into the pot and work out how to achieve the best balance between all of the elements
and as well as all of the aspects of Inclusive Design that you need to be considering, you also have to throw
in what the client wants, what their budget is, how their brand is articulated in other media and so on. Like I
say, you have to do your best.

I have had plenty of clients that I disagree with and have even fired one, but principles don’t pay the bills
and sometimes you need to make compromises on projects. You can do this without compromising your
integrity in most cases.

Technical Scoping is different for everyone

Personally, I like to nail everything down as much as possible to avoid misunderstandings and manage
expectations, for both the client and the development team, but how this is done in order to achieve the
goals of Inclusivity really depends on the complexity of the project and the skill of the developers.

What matters most is that those working on the front end and those working on the back end understand
how what they do impacts on each other and they need to make sure, at this stage, that whatever is being
built can meet the functional scope in detail in terms of functionality and overall user experience. Talk. Talk.
And then talk some more.

Learn, Design, Test, Tweak, Learn, Build, Test, Tweak, as much as you can

Of course, the amount of tweaking that is required is inversely proportional to the amount of planning that
has gone into the previous stages, but even then, the old adage that you never know someone until you
have lived with them applies here.
You just won’t know if it works until someone uses it. That is why testing throughout the build is so
important. I have had plenty of great ideas that make sense on paper, but were a whole different kettle of
fish in reality. Live and learn.

More testing. Really?

Oh yeah. Once you have finished the build, you need to let it brew a little. It is one thing testing the
independent features and functionality, but once the site is finished, finessed and you think it is ready for
Joe Public, you need to test it again. Usability testing and Accessibility testing are a must and, again, the
same factors apply, just do your best and always be a champion.

The G in WCAG is Operable

The WCAG is your friend and you and your friend need to get to know each other for the relationship to
flourish.

The WCAG are Guidelines. They are not Rules.

Guidelines make you think about what you are doing. They make you push the boundaries. They foster
innovation and creativity.

Rules are usually either to be followed without thinking or to be rebelled against. I hate rules and usually do
the latter. Either way, they are inflexible and are what they are.

But the lovely Guideline is flexible and adapts over time and the WCAG is a living, breathing thing. Every
project I work on brings new meaning to it and the only way that any of us are going to achieve Accessibility
nirvana is to keep on learning.

Building Accessible websites must be done from the ground up, so using the Guidelines as a Checklist after
you have built your website is not the solution. Accessibility starts from the minute you read the client’s
brief. You wouldn’t build a 50-story building and then work out where to put the lift in afterwards, would you?

Where does Usability fit in again?

Usability is defined as:

"The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively,
efficiency and with satisfaction in a specified context of use." [4]

And there are different schools of thought on Usability, but all are based on one thing – making the user
experience as enjoyable as possible.

Usability focuses on three key areas:

o Effectiveness
o Efficiency
o Satisfaction

Usability should also be considered during the planning, design and development process in a similar way
to that of Accessibility in that principles are used as a guide, but unlike Accessibility, there are no laws, so it
is more of an iterative process and the depth and breadth of Usability testing and assessment depends on a
variety of factors in the same way as Accessibility.

Although Accessibility and Usability are separate in theory and in law, in practice, planning and testing for
both in tandem makes sense, just as long as you understand the distinctions.
<div id="it begins with"><p>Web Standards</p></div>
For those of you who believe that getting your CSS and HTML to validate means that you can kick back
and sit in awe of your Accessible site, I am here to tell you that this is only the beginning.

Creating semantic HTML for structure and clean CSS for presentation provides the ideal foundation for
Accessibility.

Does the mention of PE make you want to get your short shorts on?
The principles of Inclusive Design certainly keep us in good stead, but the strategy of Progressive
Enhancement is a veritable and important extension of these principles and provides some pretty clever
ways of giving end users choice.

It ensures that, at the lowest common denominator, a website can be used by anyone that is able to use the
Internet and by any device that is able to connect to it.

Progressive Enhancement is a strategy.

Graceful degradation is an afterthought.
That’s what I think. Others may disagree and that is ok with me.

Graceful degradation is difficult, hugely time consuming and invariably leads to compromises, resulting in
an inferior user experience for many.

It is akin to playing Jenga – remove too many blocks and the whole thing falls down.

If consideration has only been given, in the planning of a build, to providing the best and most exciting
experience for the most sophisticated users, the resulting website may make a lot of people at head office
really excited about all of the cool things the website can do but will certainly exclude a big chunk of the
website's potential audience.

Graceful degradation is still a valuable practice, particularly when a designer is asked to re-skin an existing
website, but for all new builds, Progressive Enhancement is the best approach. It leads to a far better
experience for both designers and end users.

It allows designers to look at website features and functionality in layers and to have the opportunity to
consider how each layer works in order to create equally valuable, but different, user experiences.

It also ensures that, as and when new technologies emerge or existing ones change, further improvements
or enhancements can be made without adversely affecting the foundation.

Take the example of form validation. When JavaScript is inherent in its functionality and it is written inline in
the HTML, graceful degradation techniques would require significant reworking of, not only the form
functionality, but the impact this would have on the style and structure of the website.
Whereas, if forms are built to work without JavaScript and enhancements are provided as a bonus, the
deployment is simply staged and allows for consideration to be given to the form structure in advance of its
behaviour.

Internet users are people and people come in all shapes and sizes
In order to ensure that websites offer plenty of choice to accommodate how different people will access and
use them, we need to know what the variables are.
Marketing people will tell you about:
o Demographics
o Psychographics
o Geographic Location
o Behaviour
o Perceived Benefits

Analytics people will talk about:

o Browsers
o Technical Configurations
o User Preferences
o Internet Connections
o On-site Behaviour

Should you listen to them? Of course.

The information collected in market research before the build and the analysis provided by analytics tools
are invaluable. The more, the merrier. However, what both of these lack is the ability to truly understand the
nuances and intricacies of human nature that manifest themselves quite clearly and sometimes rather oddly
in people's online behaviour.

Ideally, we would simply provide a completely personalised experience for every user, and although end
user customisation and personalisation technology is available, for most projects, it is too costly and, even
so, it would be impossible to get it 100% right.

But, and this is by no way a default, understanding all of the different options that go into the mix enables
designers to create websites that allow end users to personalise the experience themselves.

The best way to demonstrate this is by example, so please meet Peter, George and John.

From a demographic profiling perspective, Peter, George and John seem exactly the same. They are all 30
years old, live in the same city, have the same level of education, are married with 2.4 children and do the
same job with the same salary. They are all completely boring and have no hobbies or interests
whatsoever, hate shopping and spend as little time as possible on their appearance.

In traditional marketing terms, these guys fall into the same category and would be marketed to in exactly
the same way, but on the Internet, it is a completely different story.

Peter is quite IT savvy. He uses either his highly spec’d Macbook with all of the bells and whistles or his
iPhone 3GS, has the fastest broadband going, uses the latest version of Firefox with every extension there
is and surfs the internet between commercials every night and all weekend. He is quite an impatient guy
and likes sites that use JavaScript as he feels it makes browsing faster and easier. He loves Flash websites
because he thinks they are cool.

George dislikes computers all-together and has an old desktop PC, that they were going to throw out at
work, running Windows XP. He surfs the Internet at weekends for an hour or so and uses the default
browser with its default settings, but has JavaScript turned off because somebody told him it makes surfing
the Internet easier. He has a mobile phone, but only uses it for work.

John, like Peter, is also pretty IT savvy, but as John is visually impaired, he uses a high spec PC with a 24
inch monitor and uses both a screenreader and magnification software. He also has the latest version of
Firefox with plenty of extensions. He doesn't mind JavaScript if its Accessible but avoids flash websites
entirely.

All three should have an equally valuable experience on the Internet, but a website built with a singular
journey in mind will invariably only serve one of them. And I guess that this is my point. The Internet is a
great equaliser.
Creating websites that can be used by as many people as possible, irrespective of their likes, dislikes,
moods, needs, abilities, technical setup, devices, income and so on just makes sense because when
everyone is included, everyone wins.

So what the heck does the future hold?

Well, plenty. Although technology is moving at its usual rapid pace, Inclusivity still has a long way to go, but
we have certainly made a good start.

For those who are new to all of this stuff, don’t be misguided by thinking that you are the only one on the
learning curve. We all are.

What really matters for designers and developers right now?

o Being open and willing to learn
o Moving with technology and always deciding what’s best rather than simply applying what you know
o Sharing knowledge
o Not being afraid to ask

And what about HTML5, CSS3, ARIA, Smartphones, Apps and other mobile devices?

Well, that we’ll have to keep for another time. But since, this is now the end of my presentation, I leave you
with one final thought:

Inclusive Design brings people together.

Works Cited

1 The British Standards Institution. Design management systems. Managing inclusive design. Guide. [Internet]. 2005 [cited 2010
January 30]. Available from: http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030142267.

The Center for Universal Design. Principles of Universal Design. [Internet]. 1997 [cited 2010 January 30]. Available from:
2 http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprinciplestext.htm.

Ian Pouncey. Web accessibility myths. [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2010 January 30]. Available from:
3 http://ianpouncey.com/weblog/2010/01/web-accessibility-myths/.

International Organization for Standardization. ISO 9241-151:2008 Ergonomics of human-system interaction - Part 151:
4 Guidance on World Wide Web user interface. [Internet]. 2008 [cited 2010 January 30]. Available from:
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=37031.
Places where Sandi Wassmer can be found

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SandiWassmer

Work:
www.copious.co.uk

Action for Blind People Blog:

www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk/news/blog

© Copyright 2010 Sandi Wassmer

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/