Are you aware that the federal government has requirements for how you communicate? If you use video, it needs to be both captioned and audibly described. Is your documentation on the web? It needs to be accessible. But what does it mean to be accessible? What are the laws governing accessibility, and how do they relate to your profession? In this presentation, Paul Paire from Temple University will cover: •An overview of accessibility and the related laws •Specific accessibility laws as they relate to the technical communication field •Items to address when making documents (Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF) and videos accessible

1. Accessibility
WITH REGARDS TO TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
BY PAUL PAIRE, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

2. What law affects you in your job?
Murphy’s law
Rehabilitation act of 1973, as amended
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended

3. Legal background – Americans with
Disabilities Act
Civil Rights law
The goal of this law is to make sure that people with disabilities can
have an equal opportunity to participate in programs, services, and
activities.
Title II states that communications with persons with disabilities
must be "as effective as communications with others“
Title III deals with public accommodations for people with
disabilities.

4. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as
amended
“No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United
States... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to
discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal
financial assistance.”
Section 504
Section 508
◦ Operating systems & software
◦ Telecommunications products
◦ Self contained, closed products
 Web content
 Videos or multimedia products
 Desktop or portable computers

5. Section 1194.41 Information,
Documentation and Support
(a) Product support documentation provided to end-users shall be
made available in alternate formats upon request, at no additional
charge
(b) End-users shall have access to a description of the accessibility
and compatibility features of products in alternate formats or
alternate methods upon request, at no additional charge.
(c) Support services for products shall accommodate the
communication needs of end-users with disabilities.

6. Examples of ‘alternate formats’
Braille
ASCII text
Large print
Recorded audio/video
◦ Captions
◦ Audio descriptions
Electronic text that is accessible to a screen reader (this includes web pages)
◦ Tags to denote headings, sections
◦ Descriptions of non-text elements such as pictures
◦ If using web pages, follow section 508 requirements for web pages (or WCAG 2.0)

7. Description of the accessibility and
compatibility features
Are there accessibility features of the product
◦ Can be operated with limited strength and dexterity Keyboard only access
◦ Look at the other section 508 guidelines for accessibility features
How does the product work with:
◦ Screen readers
◦ JAWS
◦ Braille displays
◦ Assistive Listening Devices
◦ Screen magnifiers
◦ ZoomText
◦ MAGic
◦ Voice recognition technology (aka Speech to Text)
◦ Dragon Naturally Speaking

8. Are you required to adhere to this?
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended
◦ Receive federal funds?
◦ Do your clients receive federal funds?
Americans with disabilities Act of 1990, as amended
◦ Civil rights law – you have to adhere to it

9. How many people are affected?
7 % of the male population is colorblind
Table 1. Prevalence of disability by age: 1997
Total number
With disability
Percent with disability
All ages
267,665,000
52,596,000
19.7%
Under 15 years
59,606,000
4,661,000
7.8%
15 to 24 years
36,897,000
3,961,000
10.7%
25 to 44 years
83,887,000
11,200,000
13.4%
45 to 54 years
33,620,000
7,585,000
22.6%
55 to 64 years
21,591,000
7,708,000
35.7%
65 years and over
32,064,000
17,480,000
54.5%
The above numbers do not include people with a temporary disability

10. What types of disabilities?
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders
Blindness or Low Vision
Brain Injuries
Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing
Learning Disabilities
Medical Disabilities
Physical Disabilities
Psychiatric Disabilities
Speech and Language Disabilities

11. Federal funds - MARTA
Martin vs. MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority)
◦ First case where web accessibility was addressed
◦ Case summary
◦
◦
◦
◦
Blind person wanted to use MARTA (public transit)
Web wasn’t accessible
Print materials weren’t accessible
Took too long to get accessible materials (by the time they got them they were out of date)
◦ What’s the real issue?
◦ Equal and equitable access (timeliness)

12. e-Commerce - Target
$6 million class action settlement
+ $4 million in legal fees
Target’s website was inaccessible (which prevented people who are
blind and use assistive technology from using its online services.)

13. How do you communicate?
PDF
Web
Word
EPUB
Video

14. PDFs
A virtual panacea for information distribution
◦ Maintain format and style regardless of platform
A virtual nightmare for people who are blind/low vision
◦ Reading order
◦ Tags
Tools used to create them often don’t pass on accessibility features
New (2012) standard: PDF/UA

15. Adobe
Adobe has adopted accessibility features in many of its programs:
◦ Acrobat X and XI
◦ Creative Cloud suite (InDesign, etc.)
◦ Flash
Has free training and resources for creating accessible content
◦ Adobe.tv
◦ www.adobe.com/accessibility

16. Web
Section 508 requirements:
◦ Alt-text
◦ Captions
◦ Color contrast & color is not the only way to convey information
◦ Style sheets not required
◦ Tables styled appropriately
◦ Forms are accessible
◦ Skip navigation links
◦ If a timed response is required, people are alerted & can ask for more time

17. Web 2.0
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
Voluntary
Three levels:
◦A
◦ AA (most institutions are adopting this)
◦ AAA
Section 508 is pending a refresh which will closely match WCAG 2.0
AA

18. Word accessibility
Staring in 2010 (PC Only), use the Accessibility checker
◦ Alt text
◦ Tables have column headers
◦ Styles to provide structure
◦ Hypertext is meaningful
◦ Tables (i.e. no blank rows)
◦ No repeated blank characters
◦ No floating objects

19. Video accessibility
Section 508 requirement
Training or informational multimedia productions
Is the software being used to play the videos accessible?

20. Videos - captions
Section 508 requirement
Contrast of text with background image
Accurate transcription
◦ Non-verbal content (i.e. music)
◦ Silence
Speakers are identified
No federal guidelines for how accurate the captions need to be
Beneficial for people without disabilities
◦ Noisy environment (can turn on captions)
◦ Non-English speakers

21. Videos – audio descriptions
Section 508 requirement
Audible descriptions of what is happening visually

22. Voluntary Product Accessibility
Template
Industry standard document
Has sections for each of the 508 standards (including
‘documentation and support’)
◦ Criteria
◦ Level of Support & Supporting Features
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Supports
Supports with Exceptions
Supports with equivalent facilitation (there’s a work around)
Supports when combined with Compatible AT
Does not support
Not applicable
◦ Remarks and comments

23. Cautions about braille
Less than 10% of the blind population knows braille (and it’s typically
not taught in school)
If you get items made in braille, have it checked to make sure it’s
accurate

24. Questions?

25. Contact
paire@temple.edu