This document discusses pragmatic accessibility and encourages making websites accessible. It defines pragmatic accessibility as continuous improvement rather than perfection. Many groups benefit from accessibility including the blind, deaf, color blind, those with mobility or cognitive impairments, as well as users on mobile devices or in certain environments. Accessibility benefits rural users who have less access to high-speed internet. The document advocates for empathy and understanding how people access information. It provides overviews of what content creators, designers, programmers and decision makers need to know to improve accessibility and engagement. Resources for learning more about accessibility techniques and testing are also shared.

1. Encouraging Accessibility
with staff and creatives.

2. Who am I?
- An advocate and consultant on web accessibility
- A writer and speaker on pragmatic accessibility
- Read more at http://www.joedolson.com

3. What is 'Pragmatic Accessibility'?

4. Pragmatism is inexact
• Pragmatism is not perfection.
• Continuous improvement is crucial
• Lack of accessibility is not a reason to keep
information off the web.

5. “Perfect” Accessibility is Subjective

6. Who benefits from web accessibility?
• Blind or partially sighted users.
• Deaf and Hard of Hearing users.
• Color blind users.
• Users with cognitive impairments.
• Users with mobility impairments.

7. Who else benefits from web accessibility?
• Users of smart phones and tablets.
• Users in brightly lit rooms.
• Rural users.
• Impatient users.
• Everybody

8. Why rural users?
• Gap in rural and urban adoption of broadband:
13%, 2003. In 2011? Still 13%.
• Rural poverty statistics are 2% higher than the
national average
• 63% of rural households have broadband, vs.
67% of suburban. But...
• While nearly 100% of urban households can
access speeds over 10Mbps, only 75% of rural
households have the same.
Sources: PewInternet.org; Utah Broadband Project; National Telecommunications and Information Administration

9. 10 Mbps seems pretty fast.
• Yes, it is. And so is basic broadband, at 3 Mbps.
• Everybody benefits if they can get to your site sooner
• Load time has a direct relationship to abandonment.
• Don't sacrifice structure for speed.

10. Encouraging Accessibility
• Art vs. Accessibility
• Empathy
• Time & Money

11. The Art of Accessibility
• Popular design trends don't lock step with
usability:
– Color choice
– Button design
– To underline or not to underline?
• Accessible design is a communication art
• Accessibility requires great visual thinking...
• ...and the ability to translate visual into
machine-readable

12. Empathic Accessibility
• How do people get information off the web?
• What is a barrier to getting that information?
• How does assistive technology work?

13. Time & Money
• Is there an added cost for accessibility?
• If there is, how do you budget for that?
• Can accessibility be added later?

14. Accessibility is:
• Basic best practices
• Consideration of alternate access
• Great usability

15. Getting Engagement

16. Who are key accessibility stakeholders?
• Content creators
• Designers
• Programmers
• Decision makers

17. Content Creator Knowledge
• Skimmable content
• Meaningful link text
• Avoiding color or locationally driven text
• Clear language
• Careful use of acronyms and abbreviations
• Alternate content for images,audio, or video
• Use all-CAPS carefully.

18. Designer/Developer Knowledge
• Color contrast
• Heading structure
• Reading order
• Avoid images of text.
• Use adequate font sizes (10pt plus)
• Consider line length
• Make links recognizable; consider link focus
• Label form fields and controls clearly.

19. Decision Maker Knowledge
• What features will introduce new issues or
incur additional costs?
• How can you do a quick accessibility test?
• How do you interpret testing results?

20. Accessibility Example: the alt attribute
• Most basic building block of alternate content
• Know when it's crucial
• Otherwise, use is subjective

21. Testing Web site Accessibility
• Overview: wave.webaim.org
• What do these results mean?
• What don't they cover?

23. Accessibility Resources.
- WCAG Recommended Techniques: highly technical, though
simpler than the WCAG itself.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/
- WebAIM: Simplified summaries, recommendations.
Extensive documentation on almost every accessibility
topic: http://webaim.org
- University of Minnesota, Duluth Web Design References:
Extensive curated catalog of accessibility articles on the
web: http://bit.ly/t3tPZC

24. Questions?