Past work on Accessibility Guidelines & Lessons learned

Accessible Interface and Information Technology RERC

Telecommunication RERC

[Photo:  Woman who is Deaf using a text PDA Phone]

[Trace Center - University of Wisconsin - Madison Logo]

[Gallaudet University Technology Access Program Logo]

Basis of Comments

RERC work on Standards

• RERC personnel worked on over 40 standards groups
  • ISO
  • IEC
  • JTC1
  • IEEE
  • ITU
  • IETF
  • W3C
  • HFES
  • TIA
  • CEA
  • more

RERC work on Access Guidelines

• Guidelines for Consumer Products (1992)
• Software Accessibility Guidelines for ITF (1994)
• Microsoft Accessibility Guidelines (1999)
• IBM Accessibility Guidelines (1993)
• First Web Guidelines (HTML) (1995)
• TAAC work
  • (complied over 1000 guidelines for TAAC Committee
• On-Line Design Tool - 255
• EITAAC work – and support
• Universal Design Principles
• Accessibility Essentials – Design tool 2
  • User Requirements
• WCAG (W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

Lessons learned

Problems, Issues, Challenges

Two requirements from Industry

1. Guidelines must be general
   • to allow industry to innovate
2. Guidelines must be specific
   • or designers will not know when they have met them
   • and you can’t require that they be met

Where to focus for stable guidelines

• Over the decades, people and their disabilities do not change.
• Over the decades, technologies (barriers and solutions) change greatly.

Focus on Function – not technology

Potential Approach

• Use
  • Bowtie approach
  • Along with ‘sufficient techniques’ approach

Bow Tie Approach

[Graphic of a Blue BowTie:  wide at either end and narrower in the middle]

• A large number of user needs must be met
• Use a smaller number carefully defined requirements
• Allow companies to use a large (and open) number of solutions to meet the requirements

“Sufficient Techniques” Approach

• Allows industry to have some detailed techniques that they can use with confidence without having to do detail investigations — but allows other methods to be used as well.
• Allows what is “sufficient” to change over time to reflect advances in AT and mainstream technology.
• How
  1. General but testable guidelines are developed (as specific as possible)
  2. Very specific techniques that are known to meet the provisions are listed as “sufficient”
     • May have multiple ‘sufficient techniques’
     • May have different ‘sufficient’ techniques for different situations
     • Sufficient techniques do not have to be used.  But provide easy clear way to conform.
     • Techniques can be updated over time.

Lessons (cont’d)

1. There often is not a natural ‘bright line’ for accessibility.
   • For some things the answer is
     • People with disabilities have all levels and combinations of disabilities.
       • Therefore one cannot say, “this is what is needed to make things accessible.” Accessible to whom?
     • To address this
       • standards groups have selected a minimum level of accessibility based on best available information.
       • Sometimes different levels are identified for different situations.

Advances since last round

AT is Changing

• Much harder to say - “direct access” or AT access
  • as .31 does now
  • AT may not be allowed
  • Specific AT may be too expensive (public access)
• AT blending with UD (built-in)
  • What is AT?
• Also – for pubic access – assumptions about AT need to be realistically inclusive

Possible approach

• Product must be accessible – when evaluated with AT that most users have and are allowed to use – when they encounter the product”.

Cell phones & Wireless Phones

• ANSI C63.19 (cellphone / HA compatibility) completed.
• The existing 255 regs refer to ANSI C63.19 which applies to Cell phones
  • Our work showed that Cordless phone interference is also a problem.
    • Worked with TIA, collected data, and a new standard is now under development by TIA – almost complete.
    • This new TIA standard – not C63.19 – should be used for Cordless phones.
• “Magnetic Performance Requirements for Wireless Device / Hearing Aid Telecoil Mode Compatibility” study completed.
  • • Stephen Julstrom (Etymotic Research)
    • Linda Kozma-Spytek (RERC Telecom Access)
    • Scott Isabelle (Motorola)
• The study was initiated last January in support of the ANSI C63.19 cellphone / HA compatibility working group and expanded to support the TIA TR41.3 cordless phone / HA compatibility working group.

Voice technologies

Voice Capability Becoming Ubiquitous

• ATMs - even the small ones
• Phones -
  • Cellular – inherent in hardware
  • VoIP – inherent in hardware
• Computers – part of OS
• PDAs

Security and Digital Rights Management

Closed Products

• Any product where the user is prevented from installing or attaching adaptive assistive technology due to physical, electrical or policy restrictions.

Closed Products

• Increasing prevalence
  • security
  • Digital Rights (DRM)
• New opportunities
  • But face adoption challenges
  • Won’t overcome DRM policy problem

Interoperability

• Accessibility API
  • (requires installation of software – security issues)
• Universal Remote Console
  • ANSI Standard
• USB - “keyclone” feature
• Realtime IPText Standards
  • ITU
  • IETF

Two types of Harmonization

• Harmonization
  • Two provisions can both be implemented at the same time.  They do not conflict.  Though they may differ – it is possible to conform to both.
• Interoperability
  • Products that implement the two provisions/standards are able to work together as effectively as if they both followed the same standard.

Resources Available from I&IT and Telecom RERCs

• Collection of over 1000 accessibility guidelines
• Resource materials
• On-Line Design Tool
• Summary, compilation and analysis work
• Network of resource people internationally
• Collection of mistakes, false steps and red herrings (institutional memory)

Funding for the Trace Center is provided by

[logo] The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research

and

[logo] The National Science Foundation