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Web Accessibility 3.0: Learning From The Past, Planning For The Future

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

Email:b.kelly@ukoln.ac.ukBlog:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/addw08/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/addw08/

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Co-author: Liddy Nevile

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Scenario Planning

Let us critique the first two scenarios in order to explore their limitations (their benefits have been well documented) and see if a third scenario might address such limitations

WAI Approach

Scenario 1

Holistic Accessibility

Scenario 2

Accessibility 3.0

Scenario 3

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WAI Approach

• WAI model relies on conformant Web sites, conformant authoring tools, conformant user agents

• …and conformant users!• A common complaint of “standardistas” – “the

user needs to take responsibility…”• There is value in this argument – but there are

practical shortcomings• And user technophobia/laziness/lethargy is only

one obstacle How many users know they are “disabled”?

WAI’s Approach

Also note importance of evidence-based research. Various UK accessibility studies seem to find that lack of evidence of accessibility of Web sites for PWDs and conformance with WCAG guidelines!

Also note importance of evidence-based research. Various UK accessibility studies seem to find that lack of evidence of accessibility of Web sites for PWDs and conformance with WCAG guidelines!

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WCAG In ContextWCAG 2.0 states that Web resources must be:

• Perceivable • Operable• Understandable • Robust

But this should apply after we’ve decided what our purposes our, rather than constraining what we can or can’t do:

• “Super Cally Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious”:Not universally understandable, now universally accessible, culturally-specific … but witty

• Adobe Flash, MS Word, …Are these formats essential to your corporate infrastructure and workflow?

• Web 2.0, Ajax, Blog, Wikis, UGC, …Do these provide useful services to your users?

Legislation: “take reasonable measure ..” Is bankrupting your company reasonable? Is failing to satisfy your user community reasonable? Is dumbing down the English language reasonable?

Legislation: “take reasonable measure ..” Is bankrupting your company reasonable? Is failing to satisfy your user community reasonable? Is dumbing down the English language reasonable?

WAI’s Scenario

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Holistic Approach

Follow-up work awarded prize for Best Research Paper at ALT-C 2005 E-learning conference

Follow-up work awarded prize for Best Research Paper at ALT-C 2005 E-learning conference

This approach reflects emphasis in UK on blended learning (rather than e-learning)

Kelly, Phipps & Swift developed a blended approach to e-learning accessibility

This approach:• Focusses on the needs

of the learner• Requires accessible

learning outcomes, not necessarily e-learning resources

Holistic Scenario

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Universal Accessibility?

Normal Cancer Man against snow, Austrian Tirol 1974, reproduced with permission of the photographer: Professor Paul Hill

The Great Masturbator by Salvador Dali (1929)

The Duck-RabbitCRAFT BREWERY

Holistic Scenario

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Articulating the ApproachThe "Tangram Metaphor“ (Sloan et al, W4A 2006) developed to avoid checklist / automated approach:

• W3C model has limitations• Jigsaw model implies

single solution• Tangram model seeks to

avoid such problems

This approach:• Encourages developers

to think about a diversity of solutions

• Focus on 'pleasure' it provides to user

This approach:• Encourages developers

to think about a diversity of solutions

• Focus on 'pleasure' it provides to user

Holistic Scenario

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Accessibility 2.0

Need to build on WAI’s successes, whilst articulating a more sophisticated approach. Accessibility 2.0:

• User-focussed: It’s about satisfying user’s needs• Rich set of stakeholders: More than the author

and the user• Always beta: Accessibility is hard, so we’re

continually learning• Flexibility: There’s not a single solution • Diversity: There’s also diversity in society’s views

on accessibility (e.g. widening participation, not universal accessibility)

• Blended solutions: Focus on ‘accessibility’ and not just ‘Web accessibility’

Holistic Scenario

But do scenarios 1 and 2 scale to the size, complexity and diversity of today’s Web?

But do scenarios 1 and 2 scale to the size, complexity and diversity of today’s Web?

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10The Web is Agreement

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Where Are We In This View?

Web

WCAG

Web

IT

WCAG+ATAG+UAAG=universal accessibility• Motherhood and apple pie? • Demonstrably flawed after 10 years

e.g. Lilley: “99.99999% of the Web was invalid HTML. W3C pretended that didn’t exist.”

• So 99.9999% of Web isn’t WACG AA conformant!

WCAG+other guidelines+user focus+blended accessibility = widening participation

• Not yet proven wrong, but ignores scale of Web

The Pixel of PerfectionThe Pixel of Perfection The Holistic HamletThe Holistic Hamlet

WAI

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Kevin Kelly

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Accessibility 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0

Accessibility 1.0: • Handcrafted resources made accessible

Accessibility 2.0:• Institutional approaches to accessibility

Accessibility 3.0:• Global approaches to accessibility

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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A Fresh Look At Accessibility

We acknowledge that:• Not everything on the Web will ever be accessible• Accessibility may not cross cultural, linguistic,

national and discipline boundaries• An individual does not need a universally

accessible resource; rather s/he wants a resource which is accessible to them

• Different communities may have different needs• Same person may have different needs at

different times and places• Let’s not talk about the accessibility of a resource• We find the term ‘inclusive’ more useful than

‘accessible to people with disabilities’

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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Getting ThereWeb 1.0:

• Focus on resources published by institutions• Focus on management of resources (CMSs)

Web 2.0:• Focus on users and user-generated content• Focus on reuse of resources (syndication, embedding, …)• Focus on user comments and discussions• Trust and openness

Accessibility 1.0:• Focus on accessibility of published resources• Focus on software to support publication processes

Accessibility 2.0:• Focus on accessibility of use of content rather than content• Blended accessibility cf potential of social networks to

facilitate discussions• Trust and openness: orgs taking reasonable measures;

involvement with users in design processes cf Kelly et al on design for people with learning disabilities

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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Alternative Resources

Public library example:• Presentation at national Public Library event• “And here’s a Flash-based game we’ve

developed. Easy to do, and the kids love it”• “What about accessibility?”• “Oh, er. We’ll remove it before the new

legislation becomes into force”Blended approach:

• “What’s the purpose of the game?”• “To keep kids amused for 10 mins, while parents

get books”• “How about building blocks or a bouncy castle as

an alternative? This is an alternative approach to problem, which doesn’t focus on disabilities”

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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Library Standards on AlternativesUse Case:

• Catalogue records for books available in multiple formats

• Book, large print book, abridged book, cassette tape, Braille, CD, MP3, …

Need for standards to facilitate retrieval of resource which satisfies end user’s needs

• MARC 21/RDA: Developments to established library standard

• AccessForAll: ISO/IMS Standard aimed at describing alternative for learning resources

• DCMI: Accessibility metadata work

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

Recognition of challenges of the multiple standardisation routes described in “Personalization and Accessibility: Integration of Library and Web Approaches”, Chapman, Nevile, Kelly and Heath

Recognition of challenges of the multiple standardisation routes described in “Personalization and Accessibility: Integration of Library and Web Approaches”, Chapman, Nevile, Kelly and Heath

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Web 3.0

Web 3.0:• Data working with data• Direct intervention by people not always needed• Software can make heuristic assumptions• Can get better as more data made available• The Semantic Web / Linked Data vision which

exploits connections on the social graph

“Its not the Social Network Sites that are interesting - it is the Social Network itself. The Social Graph. The way I am connected, not the way my Web pages are connected.” Tim Berners-Lee

“Its not the Social Network Sites that are interesting - it is the Social Network itself. The Social Graph. The way I am connected, not the way my Web pages are connected.” Tim Berners-Lee

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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Semantic Approach

From Kevin Kelly’s ‘One Machine’ perspective:• It doesn’t matter where the content is• It doesn’t matter who owns the contents

Challenge is to exploit the connections

“I express my network in a FOAF file, and that is a start of the revolution. … It is about getting excited about connections, rather than nervous. ” Tim Berners-Lee

“I express my network in a FOAF file, and that is a start of the revolution. … It is about getting excited about connections, rather than nervous. ” Tim Berners-Lee

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

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Accessibility 3.0We’re already seeing computer software giving us hints on resources which may be of interest to us

Note how improvements can be made:

• By system gathering more data

• By user providing preferences and other hints clues

• By others providing data

• By author metadata

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

Challenge: Can such developments be applied to provide benefits to people with disabilities?

Challenge: Can such developments be applied to provide benefits to people with disabilities?

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Initial Experiments

Project work to explore ways of enhancing accessibility:

• FLUID project: A community, a product, and a collection of

tools created by an international team Provides an infrastructure that enables rich

customisations of an application's user interface appearance and behaviour based on the needs of both institutions and individual users.

Tools which can be integrated into popular education software (Uportal, Moodle, etc.)

Iterative design and agile development process

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Semantic Web Principles

Principles which may be required:• Persistent URIs for resources• Metadata in RDF• Accessibility metadata schema published on Web• Accessibility terms published in public ontologies• Applications to allow user tagging• Applications to provide links to equivalent

resources• Openness of software, content and metadata• Encouragement of vendors to support

personalisation

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Learning From The Past

We’re starting to explore an Accessibility 3.0 vision

But what lessons must we learn from Accessibility 1.0:• We don’t want a theoretical solution• The dangers of standardising too soon• The dangers of legislating too soon• The dangers of ignoring diversity• The need to get market acceptance for tools• The difficulties of getting market acceptance• Standards-based solutions may not deliver • …

Accessibility 3.0 Scenario

Note that the Accessibility 3.0 vision is based on W3C Semantic Web principles. A challenge for W3C and user community is reconciling WAI and SW visions and how they are interpreted.

Note that the Accessibility 3.0 vision is based on W3C Semantic Web principles. A challenge for W3C and user community is reconciling WAI and SW visions and how they are interpreted.

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ConclusionsAccessibility 1.0

• WAI model is flawed • Evidence shows WAI approach is a political success, but

not implemented significantlyAccessibility 2.0

• Holistic approach takes pragmatic view of WCAG’s successes & applies it in a user-focussed context based on institutional framework

• But neither approaches scales to the World Wide WebAccessibility 3.0

• Builds on Social Web and seeks to apply social graph to enhance accessibility of user services

• Very early days

But can this view be sold to organisations, governments and individuals who have bought a the view of WAI delivering “the answer”?These conclusions are aimed at the accessibility researchers and practitioners to persuade them that a rethink is needed

But can this view be sold to organisations, governments and individuals who have bought a the view of WAI delivering “the answer”?These conclusions are aimed at the accessibility researchers and practitioners to persuade them that a rethink is needed

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Another Interpretation

Accessibility 1.0• Based on encoding of HTML resources

Accessibility 2.0• Based on mix of the HTML (and other) resources,

the services, the context, …Accessibility 3.0

• Based on mix of above plus 'intelligence' of the Web in its behind-the-scenes applications e.g. Semantic Web applications Use and sharing of tags etc across applications More atomic resource components so easier to

mix-and-match Microformats and lots of tags ...

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Conclusions

There’s a need:• For accessibility researchers to gather evidence

on proposed solutions to accessibility• To explore ways in which changes in our

understandings can be adopted and deployedThis paper:

• Explores limitations of current approaches• Suggests alternative approaches

Future work:• Need to critique the critique• Need to develop better models for change control• Need to learn from the past

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Questions

Questions are welcome