Improving web accessibility can be challenging, particularly for organizations with large, complex digital estates and internal organizational structures. Efforts can be guided by technical standards, but there are shortcomings with treating accessibility for people with disabilities as a compliance effort. Using the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design as an approach to remediation of accessibility barriers in the built environment as a parallel, we explore an approach to improving digital accessibility that places value on conscious, pragmatic decision-making and sharing of evidence of progress. Presented as part of the 12th Web for All Conference (W4A 2015), May 20, 2015, with David Sloan and Henny Swan: http://www.w4a.info/2015/. The manuscript version of the paper is available at http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/05/complementing-standards-by-demonstrating-commitment-and-progress/.

1. Complementing Standards by
Demonstrating Commitment and
Progress
Sarah Horton, UX Strategy Lead
David Sloan, UX Research Lead
Henny Swan, UX and Design Lead

2. Screenshot of compliance audit with red
“Fail” notations

3. Common thinking that a site is or is not
accessible

4. Accessibility compliance is a
fleeting illusion—like a rainbow

5. What if we complement technical
standards with making a commitment
and demonstrating progress?

6. Accessibility Maturity Continuum
• Identify
• Prioritize
• Inject
• Integrate

7. ADA Scoping Applied to Digital
• New digital resource—build accessible
• Altering existing resource—fix key features
• Removing existing barriers—prioritize and fix

8. ADA Program Applied to Existing
• Get organized
• Obtain resource documentation
• Conduct audit
• Summarize barriers and solutions
• Make decisions and set priorities
• Maintain documentation
• Make changes
• Follow up

9. Demonstrating commitment

10. Establish leadership and responsibility
• Chief Accessibility Officer (CAO)
• Director of User Experience/CAO
• Accessibility Program Lead
• Accessibility Specialist

11. Commitment through specification of policies
and standards

12. Demonstrating progress

13. Set a baseline and track progress
• Set a standard, e.g.,
– Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
• Define scope of applicability, e.g.,
– Teaching and learning
– Research
– External communications and business processes
– Internal communications and business processes

14. Commitment through documentation of
accessibility

15. “Academia has Questions and Answers.
Industry has Problems and Solutions.”
—Paulo Urbano, IHC’14

16. Problems > Questions > Answers > Solutions

17. Thank you!
@gradualclearing
@sloandr
@iheni