1.
Are all users ‘happy’ with
your website?
Andrew Arch
@amja

2.
Which of these users will be happy?

3.
Which of these users will be happy?
 Young man using head wand to type
 Person using sign language over a video link
 Older man sitting at desk with 6 screens
 Hand holding mobile phone
 Elderly women typing on laptop
 Young women feeling refreshable baille (laptop screen is dark)
 Child using mouse at computer

4.
Do you know you users?
 In Australia our
population is
ageing:
◦ 14% > 65 yrs (2012)
◦ 19% > 65 yrs (2031)

5.
Do you know your users?
 Disability in Australia:
◦ 18.5% of population
◦ 50% of people > 65 yrs

6.
Are they online?
 ~50% of older people are online

7.
Do you care?
 In 2012 seniors held over 40% of the
nation's assets. Couples between 50 and 70
have the highest median net worth:
$900,000!
 Amazon does – in 2013 they launched a sub-
site dedicated to people over 50
 Coles does – after court case
 Smashing Mag thinks we all should in 2015

8.
Older people and people with
disabilities care!
There are many reasons why all Australians need to be
connected, and those reasons grow in number and
importance each year.
• The internet … presents a significant opportunity for
increasing the wellbeing of all of us as we age. We must
ensure that older Australians don’t miss out on these
benefits.
• Susan Ryan, Ruby Hutchison Memorial Lecture, March 2012
• With disability, the web becomes more vital and at the
same time more difficult to access.
• Graeme Innes, July 2012

9.
Unprecedented opportunities for:
 Social interaction and communication
 Access to information
 Access to eCommerce
 Access to government services and civic
participation
 Training and learning opportunities
 Employment, research, and access to
workplace applications

10.
CHANGING ABILITIES

11.
How are people affected?
 Many disabilities impact access to print and the web:
◦ Visual (e.g. colour blindness, low vision, blindness)
◦ Auditory (e.g. hearing loss, deafness)
◦ Physical (e.g. limited motor skills)
◦ Cognitive and neurological (e.g. difficulty reading,
concentrating, understanding, remembering)
◦ Users may have multiple disabilities (e.g. a deaf-blind user,
older people)
 Plus situational requirements …

12.
Ageing and hearing loss
 Impact:
◦ Audio can be difficult
to discern
◦ Higher pitch sounds
can be missed
 Prevalence:
◦ 47% of people
61 to 80 years
◦ 93% of people
81+ years

13.
Ageing and vision decline
 Impact:
◦ Decreasing ability to
focus on near tasks
◦ Changing colour
perception and
sensitivity
◦ Decreasing contrast
sensitivity
 Prevalence:
(significant vision loss)
◦ 16% of people
65 - 74 years
◦ 19% of people
75 – 84 years
◦ 46% of people
85+ years

14.
Ageing and physical decline
 Impact:
(Motor skill decline can
result from many
conditions including
arthritis and Parkinson's
Disease)
◦ Difficulty using mouse or
keyboard
◦ Difficult to click small areas
◦ Strain from non-ergonomic
tasks
 Prevalence:
(Conditions commonly
reported)
◦ Arthritis
 Affects at least 50% of
people over 65
◦ Essential tremor
 Affects up to 20% of people
over 65
◦ Parkinson's Disease
 Affects approx. 4% of
people over 85

15.
Ageing and cognitive decline
 Impact:
Navigation,
comprehension, and task
completion can be
affected by:
◦ Short term memory issues
◦ Difficulty with concentration
◦ Distraction from movement
or irrelevant material
◦ Difficulty coping with
information overload
 Prevalence:
(Conditions commonly
reported)
◦ Dementia:
 1.4% of people 65-69 yrs
 24% of people 85+ yrs
◦ Mild cognitive impairment
(MCI) is more common:
 Around 20% of people over
70 years are estimated to
experience MCI

16.
What can you do?

17.
Tackle usability?
http://www.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

18.
Apply some standards?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

19.
Accessible web content
Requirements include:
 Readable and understandable text
 Identifiable and understandable links
 Clear and identifiable headings
 Good orientation and navigation
 WCAG 2.0 addresses these

20.
Usability improvements
Usability improvements especially help older people and
people with disabilities:
• Page layout and design - provide consistency and avoid
overload
• Text presentation - use left justification, increase line spacing
& margins, avoid italics and underlining
• Forms - avoid complexity and provide clear guidance
• Menus and links - provide predictability and consistency
 WCAG 2.0 also addresses these

21.
Websites for Older People:
How WCAG 2.0 Applies
Perceivable
• Text size
• Text style and text layout
• Color and contrast
• Multimedia
• Text-to-speech (speech synthesis)
• CAPTCHA
Operable
• Links
• Navigation and location
• Mouse use
• Keyboard use and tabbing
• Distractions
• Sufficient time
Understandable
• Page organization
• Understandable language
• Consistent navigation and labeling
• Pop-ups and new-windows
• Page refresh and updates
• Instructions and input assistance
• Error prevention and recovery for forms
Robust
• Older equipment/software
http://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/developing

22.
And for non-web applications?
 Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-
Web Information and Communications
Technologies
 Mobile Accessibility: How WCAG 2.0 and
Other W3C/WAI Guidelines Apply to
Mobile (Draft)

23.
Questions?
Time to make more people happy!