managing accessibility compliance in the enterprise

One Accessible World

Managing Accessibility Compliance in the Enterprise

Karl Groves

Director of Training, Deque Systems

Phone: 443-517-9280

E-mail: karl.groves@deque.com

Twitter: @karlgroves

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Agenda

• Defining the problem• Solving the Problem

– 20 Questions: or, Gauging Organizational Maturity– Managing Compliance

• Project Management Approaches– Waterfall– Agile

• Training• Center of Excellence

• Recap & Questions

DEFINING THE PROBLEM

Defining the Problem

• Objective: Understand the ways in which accessibility is often mishandled in large organizations, thus leading to risk exposure

• Accessibility compliance is often backwards– Testing & compliance

efforts often happen after the fact

– Post-deployment remediation is often expensive, time-consuming, and incapable of addressing high impact issues

– This damages profitability, timelines, and quality

• Accessibility is often not part of the process– Should be included in all phases of the lifecycle

• Planning• Requirements• Procurement/ Design & Development• Release• Maintenance

• Staff often lack training on accessibility– Executives– Human Resources– Project Managers– Developers– Content Creators– QA

• Accessibility policy & procedure not formalized– Not part of ELC/ SDLC– No formal conformance criteria– No teeth to acceptance process– No enterprise tools provided to staff

GAUGING ORGANIZATIONAL MATURITY

Solving the Problem

Gauging Organizational Maturity

• Where does the organization stand now with respect to Accessibility Policy & Procedure?– This gives us our path moving forward.

• Is there a formal program in place to manage accessibility compliance?

• Who is tasked with coordinating accessibility compliance?

• Does the org. have a PMO (Project Management Office)?– PMO might also be Program Management Office

• Does the organization have a documented SDLC/ ELC?

• Has accessibility been placed into your ELC/ SDLC processes?

• Does language exist in your procurement/ specification development documents which discuss accessibility compliance?– If so, is it specific enough to be followed

• Are deliverables validated for accessibility before acceptance?

• Is code validated for accessibility before acceptance into source control?

• What internal training is in place to educate QA/ development staff in accessibility?

• What technologies are under development by the company?– Web?– Software?– Documents?– Multimedia?

• For Web: What technologies are used on the web?– JavaScript/ DOM Scripting?– Ajax?– Flash?– Flex?

• Who performs testing to ensure accessibility?– Developers?– QA Dept.?– UX staff?

• What software/ tools are in use by the development team to assess accessibility?

• If they use an enterprise-class tool, have they had any formal training in how to use the product?

• Is there a formalized (documented) accessibility auditing methodology in place?

• To what standards are the company’s products developed/ tested against?

• What formal training does the typical developer have in accessibility?

• What formal training does the typical QA tester have in accessibility?

• Do the testers use assistive technologies to perform tests?

• Have they documented the conformance criteria for the standards against which they’ve chosen to comply?

• Does the company test their system(s) using users with disabilities?

• Does the company test for functional performance?

Organizational Maturity: A Customer Story

Conducted an Accessibility Skills Assessment Survey for a client with about 200 staff representing Content Creators, Design/UI, QA and Project Management members. The client’s goal was to determine their accessibility related knowledge. The results were:

• 79% had formal Computer Science training• 55% of the skills questions were answered

incorrectly across all 4 areas• 23% of the respondents had some formal training

in accessibility • 22% had training* in the workplace on

Accessibility (not formal training)• 21% seek out accessibility knowledge online

through web sites and blogs• 3% of those tested attended an accessibility

related event• 0% have purchased books on the topic

MANAGING COMPLIANCESolving the Problem

Managing Compliance

• How can we address the shortcomings found in our organization’s level of maturity with regard to accessibility?

Managing Compliance: High Level

• Train, train, train• Institutionalize conformance• Plan compliance a head of time• Include a SME throughout all project phases• Monitor compliance at all phases• Implement Center of Excellence

• Prevention is preferable to inspection & rework.– Remediation can add up to 40% more time to front-end

development if not done right in the first place

Remediation vs. Doing it Right

Avg. cost per defect = (num of devs * num of hours) * cost per dev per hour -------------------------------------------------- (number of fixed defects)

• Some estimates in QA community calculate cost around $500 per defect to find & fix defects and deploy remediated code– Dependent upon #of bugs, etc.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

Managing Compliance

Project Management Approaches

• Remember this: It is hard to stop a moving train.– Accessibility must be managed early and closely.

WATERFALL MODEL

Planning Phase

• Determine what risk is involved re: accessibility• Determine the overall impact accessibility may

have on project timeline• Determine whether any extra funding or

resources are needed for accessibility• Include accessibility assets needed for project• Determine what accessibility related activities

are necessary in each phase

Requirements Phase

• Identify accessibility stakeholders• For each feature/ technology in use, determine

what standards and guidelines will apply• Include typical use cases/ user stories to

generate accessibility requirements

Procurement

• Investigate what conformance requirements exist for deliverable– Communicate this in all solicitations

• Research available market offerings• Determine which product/ service offers highest

level of compliance while fitting business need• Validate vendor claims of conformance, they will

often be inaccurate or incomplete• Ensure final award documents cite conformance

requirements

Design Phase

• Utilize deliverables from planning & requirements phases to inform design phase– Revisit/ revise conformance criteria based on

technologies in use

• Validate design prototypes and comps with stakeholders and SMEs

• Audit functional mockups for accessibility– Utilize formal best practices to gauge compliance

Development Phase

• Get ahead of accessibility issues. This is the last viable chance to prevent problems

• Revisit/ revise conformance criteria based on technologies in use

• Perform iterative testing as system is developed• Developers should test code as they develop,

just as they would for browser compatibility

Testing

• Thorough testing required• Test against formal standard with well-defined

conformance criteria• Ensure testing involves functional performance

with assistive technologies

Deployment Phase

• Ensure system is deployed with any accessibility-related configuration in place

Maintenance Phase

• Provide a method to identify and track accessibility-related problems (pref. as bugs)

• Assign appropriate priority to issues

Accessibility Compliance Approach

Applicable Provision Evaluation

Initial FinalUpdate Update

Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Milestone 3 Milestone 4A Milestone 4B Milestone 5

FinalInitial

Initial Final

Initial FinalUpdate Update

Initial FinalUpdate

Initial FinalUpdate UpdateAccessibility Risk Information Document

Integration Plan forAccessible Support

Accessibility Test

PlanAccessibility Test

Results

Create a Test PlanIdentify the Applicable

508 ProvisionIdentify 508 Issues

and Make Corrections

Work ProductComponent

Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) Section 508 Work Product - to - Milestone Cross-Reference Matrix

AGILE MODEL

Agile vs. Waterfall

• Both methodologies have:– Planning– Requirements– Design– Develop– Implementation

• Difference is in approach• No difference regarding accessibility

Agile - Planning

• Develop accessibility user stories– “I want to be able to access audio description for

online videos”– “I want to be able to compare products”…”using a

screen reader”

• Identify disabled Customer Representative– “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation”

(Agile Manifesto)

Agile – Planning

• Based on features under development this cycle:– Identify any applicable standards.– For those standards, identify conformance criteria– For each conformance criteria, identify best practices

to develop requirements– Include these requirements in Definition of Done

Agile - Development

• Developers should create accessibility tests during test development

• Developers should utilize automated testing (inc. tools like FireEyes) during development prior to committing changes

Agile - Development

• Ensure any unmet accessibility requirements are put into sprint backlog for reinclusion next iteration

Remediation

• Treat accessibility errors as you would any other bug

• Prioritize based on impact, time to fix

Remediation Matrix

TRAININGManaging Compliance

Benefits of Training

• Addresses disparities in level of understanding• Addresses inaccuracies/ deficiencies in

understanding• Reduces risk of non-compliant interfaces &

content• Avoids costly post release remediation• Protects project timelines and budgets

Training Philosophy

• Train people to understand disabilities– A firm grasp of “Why” can always lead you to discover

“how”. Technology is always changing. Challenges faced by disabled users do not change.

• Train people to understand their specific impact on end users

Training

• All involved in design & dev, plus HR & execs should get high level understanding of:– Laws– Standards– Understanding Disability

Training

• Executives– Policy & Risk

Training

• Human Resources– Skill set(s) to look for in future applicants– Training requirements for current staff

Training

• Procurement– Legal implications of accessibility compliance– How different technologies impact accessibility– How, when, and which standards apply

Training

• Project Management– Understanding requirements & how to define them– Integrating accessibility into lifecycle: what & where

Training

• Designers– Specific BPs relating to interaction & visual design– What they design gets implemented

Training

• Developers– Specific BPs relating to production of accessible

interfaces– Specific advanced techniques based on technologies

under development.

Training

• Content Creators– Specific BPs relating to production of accessible

content– Techniques & Procedures on use of content creation

tools (i.e. content management systems) so accessible output is ensured

Training

• QA– Need to understand how to test for accessibility– Need to understand how to use accessibility testing

tools & interpret their output

ACCESSIBILITY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Managing Compliance

Center of Excellence: What it is

• Centralized location for knowledge, training, support, and expertise in accessibility.

• Provides communication between knowledge domains

• Develops, maintains, and shares accessibility resources, and assets– Sample deliverables, test plans, conformance guides,

code samples, etc.

COE: The Promise

• Support for individuals and enterprise • Standards for consistent implementation• Training to improve individual and enterprise

execution• Measurements to the expectation• Governance for consistent implementation by

the agency and contractors

COE: Support

• Design Support– Prototype Validation

• Development Support– Accessibility User Stories– Customer Advocate– Subject matter expertise

• Testing Support– Testing/ Conformance– Continuous Monitoring– Use Case/ Usability Test Support

COE: Standards

• Broad, Organizational Standards• Interpretation of Ind. Standards• Development Guides• Global Testing to determine areas of

improvement

COE: Training

• Establish an agency/corporate curriculum• Testing/ Conformance guides based on

technologies in use• New hire assets

COE: Measurements

• Dashboard reporting throughout all levels of the enterprise

• Establish your benchmark and measure improvements

• Assist PM in measuring success• Gather metrics

COE: Governance

• Ensure consistent contract language• Ensure compliance of deliverables by

vendors• Gatekeeper to acceptance/ release/

milestone exit

Rules which are not enforced don’t get followed

• The Problem– Accessibility

Compliance is Backwards

– Accessibility Not Part of the Process

– Staff are not trained– Accessibility Policy &

Procedure not formalized

• The Solution– Train, train, train– Institutionalize

conformance– Plan compliance– Include a SME

throughout all project phases

– Monitor compliance– Implement Center of

Excellence

QUESTIONS?

managing accessibility compliance in the enterprise

gauging organizational

gauging organizational

formal training

company test

accessibility

documented

web

acceptance

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