WEBVTT 00:00:00.647 --> 00:00:02.612 The web is about information accessibility 00:00:02.612 --> 00:00:04.502 It's really a basic human freedom that we 00:00:04.503 --> 00:00:06.557 are just really beginning to talk about in 00:00:06.557 --> 00:00:09.017 the last decade. <ahm> It's important 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:11.369 therefore that everybody have this freedom 00:00:11.369 --> 00:00:13.519 any freedom that's only allocated to a few 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.394 is not really a freedom. 00:00:14.414 --> 00:00:18.194 The web is about information and <er> it's 00:00:18.234 --> 00:00:20.364 important that people can access the 00:00:20.374 --> 00:00:22.444 information that they need in order to 00:00:22.457 --> 00:00:24.477 complete a workflow or get their job done 00:00:24.489 --> 00:00:25.339 finish a task. 00:00:25.939 --> 00:00:27.945 I think the web should be accessible to 00:00:27.945 --> 00:00:30.230 everyone all the time. I grew up with it 00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:34.050 being easily accessible to me.<Erm> It's how 00:00:34.068 --> 00:00:37.162 I learnt information easily. <Erm>I can't 00:00:37.162 --> 00:00:38.882 imagine someone not being able to just 00:00:38.892 --> 00:00:41.103 google something instantly, and getting 00:00:41.117 --> 00:00:42.207 what they need. 00:00:42.955 --> 00:00:45.615 I think websites should be accessible<ah> 00:00:45.615 --> 00:00:49.063 because...the web is founded kinda on this 00:00:49.063 --> 00:00:50.973 idea of sharing information and if you 00:00:50.980 --> 00:00:53.300 can't share information or if some people 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:55.230 can't see it , then it's not truly being shared. 00:00:55.271 --> 00:01:04.951 <music> 00:01:10.552 --> 00:01:12.249 We all have different abilities and 00:01:12.249 --> 00:01:14.247 disabilities, and if we're all going to be 00:01:14.247 --> 00:01:16.897 able to get the same content and interpret 00:01:16.897 --> 00:01:18.987 it in a somewhat similar fashion, it has 00:01:18.993 --> 00:01:21.054 to be given to us in that way and 00:01:21.054 --> 00:01:22.507 accessible so that we can actually reach it 00:01:22.517 --> 00:01:25.297 Accessibility is important for a number of 00:01:25.301 --> 00:01:28.351 reasons. <ah> For one, there are laws that 00:01:28.351 --> 00:01:32.824 apply.<ah>Another is, it can relate to our 00:01:32.824 --> 00:01:36.034 reputation. And a third is that<ah>by 00:01:36.034 --> 00:01:39.107 paying attention to it, we create a more 00:01:39.107 --> 00:01:41.212 inclusive educational environment. 00:01:41.212 --> 00:01:43.502 I think we are really good as developers 00:01:43.502 --> 00:01:48.367 at being...focusing on the 80% case. 00:01:48.367 --> 00:01:50.657 Focusing on how do we make every 4 out of 00:01:50.657 --> 00:01:52.536 every 5 of our users happy. How do we 00:01:52.536 --> 00:01:54.353 build things for those group of people, 00:01:54.353 --> 00:01:58.046 because the last 20% is always hard. 00:01:58.046 --> 00:02:00.882 But I say that the web is for 100%. 00:02:00.882 --> 00:02:02.915 It's for everybody, which is what 00:02:02.915 --> 00:02:03.884 Tim Burners-Lee said. 00:02:03.994 --> 00:02:06.444 I'm definitely am very moved by this 00:02:06.464 --> 00:02:08.395 notion of inclusiveness. I mean I think 00:02:08.395 --> 00:02:11.066 that, for me it's a part of who I... 00:02:11.066 --> 00:02:14.296 this is important to me. But <erm> there's NOTE Paragraph 00:02:14.296 --> 00:02:18.906 also just the sort of, <erm> the notion of 00:02:18.913 --> 00:02:24.034 of having everybody's contributions to the 00:02:24.034 --> 00:02:25.024 sort of...the knowledge. 00:02:25.232 --> 00:02:28.122 Big challenge is, to escape your own 00:02:28.122 --> 00:02:30.883 viewpoint. And to not make the assumption 00:02:30.903 --> 00:02:32.999 that everyone sees the web the way you see 00:02:32.999 --> 00:02:36.039 it, on the device you see, <erm> the way 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.509 you use it. And so when you're creating 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:40.664 web pages, that's the biggest challenge, 00:02:40.664 --> 00:02:43.564 is getting outside of where you're sitting. 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:46.930 The biggest obstacle to accessibility, 00:02:46.950 --> 00:02:49.890 I think is...is pure knowledge. 00:02:49.890 --> 00:02:51.736 It's really about putting yourself in the 00:02:51.736 --> 00:02:53.430 mind of a person with disabilities. 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:56.980 A person who has, who has no motor skills 00:02:56.980 --> 00:02:59.380 has no hands, has a lack of vision, has a 00:02:59.386 --> 00:03:02.206 lack of hearing.<Ahm> May have a 00:03:02.206 --> 00:03:04.488 cognitive disability. To be able to put 00:03:04.508 --> 00:03:06.091 yourselves in their shoes and understand 00:03:06.091 --> 00:03:08.302 how are they working with the thing that 00:03:08.302 --> 00:03:09.772 I'm building or designing right now, 00:03:09.772 --> 00:03:11.016 can they use it? 00:03:11.173 --> 00:03:14.063 The alternative is, you build something 00:03:14.074 --> 00:03:16.956 someone says "oh no it's not accessible!" 00:03:16.956 --> 00:03:20.576 and so you go back and try to fix it but 00:03:20.576 --> 00:03:22.489 you probably have been doing the wrong 00:03:22.489 --> 00:03:24.817 thing at many places <ah> you know you may 00:03:24.817 --> 00:03:27.597 have hundreds of images with no alt text, 00:03:27.606 --> 00:03:30.306 you may have navigation that's very confused 00:03:30.322 --> 00:03:32.633 or you are relying on libraries that... 00:03:32.633 --> 00:03:34.373 <lady on headphones>open internet explorer 00:03:34.373 --> 00:03:36.103 it's just that the technologies aren't 00:03:36.103 --> 00:03:39.031 going to figure out. <Erm> And so that's 00:03:39.041 --> 00:03:40.546 when someone says, it's too much, 00:03:40.546 --> 00:03:42.886 too expensive, it's too much work. 00:03:42.886 --> 00:03:44.896 Well...just do it from the beginning and 00:03:44.896 --> 00:03:47.496 it'll...it'll probably get a 00:03:47.506 --> 00:03:50.026 quality product with less work. 00:03:50.592 --> 00:03:52.752 Accessibility is important to incorporate 00:03:52.752 --> 00:03:55.040 early on because if you don't 00:03:55.040 --> 00:03:57.050 incorporate it early on, you will 00:03:57.050 --> 00:03:59.583 incorporate it later at greater expense, 00:03:59.583 --> 00:04:02.748 with a certain amount of time you don't have 00:04:02.748 --> 00:04:04.398 with a certain amount of money you 00:04:04.398 --> 00:04:05.798 don't have to try to make it better. 00:04:05.798 --> 00:04:07.478 Accessibility, unfortunately like 00:04:07.478 --> 00:04:09.127 everything else in design and web design 00:04:09.127 --> 00:04:10.767 has to be done from the very beginning. 00:04:10.776 --> 00:04:13.052 So whether you're designing for different 00:04:13.052 --> 00:04:15.193 devices, whether doing for different kinds 00:04:15.193 --> 00:04:17.603 of human abilities, all those things have 00:04:17.606 --> 00:04:19.738 to be thought of from the very beginning 00:04:19.738 --> 00:04:21.852 and built into your concept of what your 00:04:21.852 --> 00:04:23.451 your plan is. Of course nobody wants to 00:04:23.451 --> 00:04:24.991 take time at the end. We're almost there, 00:04:24.991 --> 00:04:26.794 we just want to get it out, and that's the 00:04:26.794 --> 00:04:28.617 mistake many of us make. It's like 00:04:28.617 --> 00:04:30.767 "I'll just get it out, then I'll go back and fix it." 00:04:30.767 --> 00:04:32.921 No. Doesn't ever happen. There's always 00:04:32.921 --> 00:04:33.341 a next project. 00:04:33.341 --> 00:04:35.987 The first step in getting an accessible 00:04:35.987 --> 00:04:38.455 site, is to work with the management, so 00:04:38.455 --> 00:04:40.243 they understand the value of making it 00:04:40.243 --> 00:04:43.458 accessible, and also helping them 00:04:43.458 --> 00:04:46.010 understand that <erm> we can do pretty 00:04:46.010 --> 00:04:48.680 much anything they want and be accesible. 00:04:48.684 --> 00:04:52.614 If you just talk about accessibility, it 00:04:52.614 --> 00:04:54.679 may not be immediately appreciated as 00:04:54.679 --> 00:04:56.924 something important to do. But if you 00:04:56.924 --> 00:05:01.216 start talking about quality and <ah> the 00:05:01.216 --> 00:05:03.445 overlap of search engine optimisation and 00:05:03.445 --> 00:05:05.502 accessibility and things of that nature 00:05:05.502 --> 00:05:07.373 that...that will tend to get people's 00:05:07.373 --> 00:05:08.253 attention more. 00:05:08.273 --> 00:05:11.628 When I started, I was a designer and I 00:05:11.628 --> 00:05:13.514 wanted to make things look pretty. And you 00:05:13.514 --> 00:05:16.334 don't think about anything besides the 00:05:16.334 --> 00:05:19.737 aesthetics. And what I soon realised was 00:05:19.737 --> 00:05:22.466 that when you have something that works 00:05:22.466 --> 00:05:26.146 it already looks good, right, so 00:05:26.146 --> 00:05:27.662 that's where I started to move towards 00:05:27.662 --> 00:05:30.029 things being functional then the beauty 00:05:30.029 --> 00:05:31.650 came along after that. 00:05:31.650 --> 00:05:35.046 I don't believe that making a site 00:05:35.046 --> 00:05:38.472 accessible inhibits creativity. In fact 00:05:38.472 --> 00:05:41.482 I would argue it...it...helps creativity, 00:05:41.482 --> 00:05:43.069 it improves creativity. 00:05:43.069 --> 00:05:44.979 Good accessible design often closely 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:48.597 relates to good usable design. And we 00:05:48.597 --> 00:05:50.397 found a really close parallel between good 00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:53.533 mobile design, mobile for mobile devices 00:05:53.533 --> 00:05:56.141 and the simplicity and clarity of good 00:05:56.141 --> 00:05:57.427 accessible design. <when tablet appears> 00:05:57.427 --> 00:05:58.247 <eletronic female voice from tablet>Safari 00:05:58.247 --> 00:05:59.750 skip to primary content. <at each tap> 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:00.760 <electronic female voice reads tapped content> 00:06:00.760 --> 00:06:04.557 In page link. Current Student. Future Student. 00:06:04.557 --> 00:06:07.647 Menu Item. Accessible Technology. 00:06:07.797 --> 00:06:10.216 <Rick Ells> So they are all inter-related 00:06:10.216 --> 00:06:11.827 and basically if you're making a really 00:06:11.827 --> 00:06:13.896 complicated site with lots of stuff on it. 00:06:13.896 --> 00:06:15.820 When you're doing, using different methods 00:06:15.820 --> 00:06:18.063 all over the place. <ah> You're probably 00:06:18.083 --> 00:06:19.833 not building that great a site anyway. 00:06:19.943 --> 00:06:22.303 The way we create websites today, has 00:06:22.342 --> 00:06:24.374 improved from 10 years ago. We're not 00:06:24.374 --> 00:06:26.881 using in-line styles, we're not only 00:06:26.881 --> 00:06:30.667 designing for 1 screen size. So the 00:06:30.667 --> 00:06:33.101 developers and designers are forced to 00:06:33.101 --> 00:06:35.086 design for every person and every device. 00:06:35.086 --> 00:06:39.938 We can't go backwards, we can't become 00:06:39.938 --> 00:06:40.878 limited again. 00:06:40.942 --> 00:06:44.592 Primarily what you can do as a designer 00:06:44.592 --> 00:06:46.531 to <erm> to check for accessibility is 00:06:46.531 --> 00:06:48.858 making sure that you have good headings. 00:06:48.858 --> 00:06:51.033 Good proper headings and headings 00:06:51.033 --> 00:06:55.023 structure <erm> good labels on inputs 00:06:55.031 --> 00:06:57.201 <erm> good labels on buttons and links 00:06:57.210 --> 00:06:59.436 so making sure you're using the right tags 00:06:59.436 --> 00:07:01.966 and the second best thing I would say, 00:07:01.978 --> 00:07:04.298 at least that I do are <erm> checking 00:07:04.323 --> 00:07:05.863 with the keyboard, just looking to see 00:07:05.863 --> 00:07:08.714 keyboard navigation, making sure there's 00:07:08.714 --> 00:07:10.355 you know there's good focus, indicators 00:07:10.355 --> 00:07:11.997 and that you don't get the focus trapped 00:07:11.997 --> 00:07:12.900 anywhere. 00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:16.590 The heart of the challenge in <ah> sort of 00:07:16.590 --> 00:07:18.570 the development world is that many 00:07:18.570 --> 00:07:21.403 developers you know look around and find 00:07:21.403 --> 00:07:23.523 open source libraries with really cool 00:07:23.523 --> 00:07:26.567 stuff. So they find ways to make things 00:07:26.581 --> 00:07:28.528 bounce across the screen, or make things 00:07:28.528 --> 00:07:30.411 get big and small and so on. And it just 00:07:30.411 --> 00:07:32.491 doesn't enter their mind to evaluate them 00:07:32.491 --> 00:07:33.161 for accessibility. 00:07:33.404 --> 00:07:34.969 When you're looking at a java script 00:07:34.969 --> 00:07:36.698 library or a content management system, 00:07:36.698 --> 00:07:38.146 piece of code that you would like to use, 00:07:38.146 --> 00:07:40.636 you need to look both at, does it do what 00:07:40.646 --> 00:07:43.406 you want for the web and does it also, 00:07:43.406 --> 00:07:45.911 is it also accessible? In other words, 00:07:45.972 --> 00:07:46.662 does it do it for you and for everybody. 00:07:46.832 --> 00:07:48.683 So as soon as you build something, you go 00:07:48.683 --> 00:07:50.122 back and you check it and check it over 00:07:50.122 --> 00:07:52.348 and over again. On multiple browsers, on 00:07:52.348 --> 00:07:55.163 multiple machines. You know I'll even call 00:07:55.163 --> 00:07:57.453 people you know overseas,and say "hey can 00:07:57.468 --> 00:07:59.044 you can you find it, can you check it, is 00:07:59.044 --> 00:08:01.286 it working for you? Oh ok good you know. 00:08:01.286 --> 00:08:03.184 And now they have tools out there where 00:08:03.184 --> 00:08:05.378 you can check on every single browser out 00:08:05.378 --> 00:08:07.278 there. In the past, that was really 00:08:07.303 --> 00:08:09.124 important, it still is. <erm> We have a few 00:08:09.124 --> 00:08:10.663 browsers out there, like a handful of 00:08:10.663 --> 00:08:12.831 browsers that we use, but we need to check 00:08:12.831 --> 00:08:15.281 it on on every possible system and platform. 00:08:15.281 --> 00:08:17.815 The best thing that you can do ultimately 00:08:17.815 --> 00:08:19.625 to check a design be it, checking for 00:08:19.625 --> 00:08:22.635 usability or accessibility is actually 00:08:22.635 --> 00:08:23.981 putting it in front of users and seeing if 00:08:23.981 --> 00:08:24.555 they can use it. 00:08:24.555 --> 00:08:26.695 You know, no matter how great your site is 00:08:26.695 --> 00:08:28.115 you know you may think you're hitting all 00:08:28.123 --> 00:08:29.513 the standards, then you watch someone go 00:08:29.513 --> 00:08:32.267 through it and you say well, wow they had 00:08:32.267 --> 00:08:33.635 ...that didn't work out so well 00:08:33.635 --> 00:08:37.605 When I think of what a university does at 00:08:37.605 --> 00:08:43.356 it's core is to, not take everyone with 00:08:43.356 --> 00:08:46.197 very similar ideas and turn out people 00:08:46.197 --> 00:08:49.287 with the same ideas, but it's to benefit 00:08:49.287 --> 00:08:52.418 from a broad range of abilities and skills 00:08:52.418 --> 00:08:55.516 and different perspectives. And I see 00:08:55.516 --> 00:08:57.660 accessibility and disability as being a 00:08:57.660 --> 00:08:58.750 part of that spectrum. 00:08:58.762 --> 00:09:00.932 I think accessibility needs to be talked 00:09:00.944 --> 00:09:02.846 about more, it needs to be taught in 00:09:02.846 --> 00:09:04.885 the institution, in schools, it needs to 00:09:04.885 --> 00:09:07.302 be enforced in institutions and commercial 00:09:07.302 --> 00:09:08.092 environments. 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:10.479 As new technology comes out, I think there 00:09:10.479 --> 00:09:12.427 will be some there just neglect it 00:09:12.427 --> 00:09:14.746 completely, and others that champion it. 00:09:14.746 --> 00:09:17.226 And the ones that champion it will be more 00:09:17.237 --> 00:09:19.271 user-friendly to everybody else, and they'll 00:09:19.271 --> 00:09:20.131 win in the marketplace. 00:09:20.219 --> 00:09:23.709 I think the future of the web<erm> is to 00:09:23.709 --> 00:09:25.192 be making fewer and fewer assumptions 00:09:25.192 --> 00:09:27.076 about how other people use it. We have 00:09:27.076 --> 00:09:32.096 mobile devices, we have screen readers, 00:09:32.096 --> 00:09:34.389 and we even have your web page or your 00:09:34.390 --> 00:09:36.443 content might be used by another machine 00:09:36.443 --> 00:09:38.305 so I think the fewer of the web is to 00:09:38.305 --> 00:09:40.227 continue making fewer and fewer 00:09:40.227 --> 00:09:42.537 assumptions and more universal content 00:09:42.537 --> 00:09:45.607 that is not restrictive or exclusive. 00:09:46.036 --> 00:09:48.626 I think it can be very challenging for a 00:09:48.626 --> 00:09:54.085 certain applications to serve people with disabilities 00:09:54.085 --> 00:09:56.785 but that's where the engineer needs to 00:09:56.785 --> 00:09:59.202 think about "why did I become an engineer" 00:09:59.202 --> 00:10:02.462 to make the impossible, possible, to solve 00:10:02.477 --> 00:10:04.643 big problems. And this is a big problem, 00:10:04.643 --> 00:10:06.331 so let's attack it, let's solve it. 00:10:06.331 --> 00:10:07.251 <music>