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One of the things that I'm constantly
talking about in my courses is

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accessibility.

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The things is that I've come to realize
is that I can talk about this as

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much as I want but it's really up to me
to show to you why it's so important for

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you to make the Web as accessible
as possible for others.

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So today we're going to
talk about three things.

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First, I would like to explain what
a Web accessibility professional does.

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Second, we're going to talk in-depth
about how disabilities relate to the Web.

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Finally, I am going to introduce for

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the first time the four principles
of accessible interface design.

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These four principles are something
that will hopefully guide you

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throughout the entire time
you're making Web pages.

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So let's start off with this whole idea of
what a Web accessibility coordinator does.

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One of my pet peeves is people who say
they don't wanna go into technology

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because they'd rather do something
where they can help people.

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Well, my follow-through to that is that,
if you really want to help people,

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you need to understand technology.

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So, one of the things that people like to
do is find careers where they can help

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people who have issues, and work together
with people who are in technology.

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And that's exactly the type of thing
a Web accessibility coordinator will do.

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So first, one thing they might do is help
guide policy and purchasing decisions,

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on what kind of software is most
accessible to the widest range of people.

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Second, they can evaluate Web
interfaces for accessibility.

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So by learning just some key tips and
tricks they can go to different pages and

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find out where there might be pitfalls for
people.

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Third, they can assist people
with disabilities to access

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online infrastructure.

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Most universities and
large companies will always have someone

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who's job it is to assist those who need
some help accessing online material.

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Or really,
any type of technological tools.

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Fourth, it's very important that people
keep pace with changing technology.

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You will always have a job if you can find
a way to combine your love with helping

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people with the different
tools that are being used.

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So, let's talk specifics.

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According to the 2012 U.S. Census, 1 in
5 people in the U.S. have a disability.

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That means that there are 60
million people in the U.S.

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who are dealing with issues
that other people may not have.

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And half of them are impeded
from using the Internet.

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So we will talk briefly about four
issues that tend to pop up the most

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when dealing with disabilities and
the Internet.

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Visual issues, hearing,
motor and cognitive.

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When you talk about accessibility almost
everyone thinks about screen readers.

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They design and

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say, oh I'm gonna make sure that my
page will read well on a screen reader.

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However, it's much much more than that.

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While 1.8 million people are completely
blind, we also have 8 million people who

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have difficulty reading ordinary
newsprint even with their glasses on.

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So one of the things that we want
to think about when we're designing

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is more than just font size, we also
need to think about color contrast.

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Your different font style.

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Can someone really see your
page as easily as possible?

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We also want to think about
hearing disabilities.

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We're talking about from
partial to total deafness.

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So 8 million people have difficulty
hearing in normal conversation and

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1 million are completely deaf.

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More and more places are moving
to online presence and

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of course we all know that watching
videos online is a very common thing.

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We're all doing it right now.

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So one of the things to think about
if you decide to add videos to your

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site is did you include
the close captioning

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to really make sure as many people
as possible can access your content.

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But there's also other
things to think about.

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Are you blaring music?

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You might have users who don't even
realize that music is playing.

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Or perhaps you have things so

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low that people can't quite
grasp what you're saying.

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One of the things we're gonna talk
about is making sure that people have

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the ability to control the different
multimedia that you're gonna put on

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your page.

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This is going to help people with hearing
disabilities feel that they are in command

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of the technology, not that
the technology's in command of them.

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One of my own personal issues
is that of motor disabilities.

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There are many, many people who are unable
to use a mouse or a physical keyboard.

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Maybe they have slow response time or
just limited fine motor skills.

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So dexterity issues are something that
affects 8 million people who have

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difficulty using their arms or hands.

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But my guess is that for most of us have
had some issue with trying to use the Web,

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and haven't been quite able
to do what we hope to do.

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So one issue that we talked about is
what happens when someone tries to

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tab through your page.

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This is a very common way for
people to get through pages.

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But unless you're very careful you
can make it that people tab through

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to nowhere.

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Another issue is do you
require a steady hand?

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Many people like to add flashy and cool
graphics and animations to the their page.

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But I know that I personally have been
frustrated at trying to click a button

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while the button keeps
moving around the screen.

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Another issue is cognitive disabilities
and when we talk about cognitive

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disabilities, there's a very wide range
of issues we might be talking about.

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There's learning disabilities,
distractibility, dyslexia.

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Even the ability to remember or
focus on large amounts of information.

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Some of the things I was laughing at when
I looked at this slide just now is that

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this slide, perhaps,
has too much text on it for

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people to really be able to
focus on what I'm looking at.

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So, we're saying that there are 16
million adults with ADD or ADHD.

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Another overlooked population is that
there are a large number of soldiers,

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Marines, and National Guard members who
have different psychological conditions

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such as traumatic brain injury, or
post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Now what does that have to do
with making your Web accessible?

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We wanna make sure that things
are easy to understand,

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not flashing, not requiring
great amounts of concentration.

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Cognitive disabilities number
greater than physical and

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perceptual disabilities combined.

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So it's something that you want to think
about when you're designing your page, or

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even if you're just help
other people design theirs.

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So let's get the specific stats because
nothing helps me convince people more that

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they want to design for
the Web than showing them the numbers.

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So almost 10% of the U.S.
population has two or more disabilities.

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40 thousand people in the U.S.
are both deaf and blind.

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So think about trying to access technology
when you have those types of issues.

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41% of adults 65 and
older have a disability.

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And there are almost 9 million people
with disabilities who are poor.

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70% of the disabled are underemployed or
unemployed.

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The issue is not that they are not able
to do the jobs that are out there.

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Many times there are roadblocks put
up there that they can't get through

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in order to do jobs that they
are very well qualified for.

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So the Web offers unprecedented
opportunities for the disabled.

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Here we are right now all
taking a class online.

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So education has the benefit in
that we teachers can reach as

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many people as we can.

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And for students,

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it means that you have access to
resources that you never had before.

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Many, many people get their
news from online resources so

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we wanna make sure that we make
it available to everybody.

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Commerce I find particularly interesting

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because many many places
have online presences but

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are even realizing that they're
alienating such a large customer base?

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And of course the social benefits
of the Web are easy to see, so many

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people have created more friends online
than they actually have in real life.

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So the benefits of the Web
are amplified for the disabled.

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People who before could not access
education, news, commerce or

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social interaction,
are now able to do that.

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So the Web is an enabling technology and

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we want to make sure that
we continue to make it so.

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So hopefully I convinced you just from
a human standpoint that it's important

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to make your Web pages accessible, but
there are of course legal aspects as well.

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The Department of Justice is in
the process of updating the American with

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Disabilities Act to include online
resources of state and local entities.

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What this means is that universities,
state governments,

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local governments all need to make
sure that the information they have

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online is accessible to everyone.

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There are many instances of
case law where individuals or

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groups have filed civil complaints against
universities, companies because they feel

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that their products are not accessible
to people in a way that it should be.

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So, let's just review this for a second.

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What is Web accessibility?

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What it is is making sure that you're
making your Web accessible for the widest

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possible audience, this includes
people with permanent disabilities and

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those with temporary disabilities.

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Currently, the online infrastructure,

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while a wonderful resource,
is hostile to those with disabilities.

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Another issue you want to think about
is that accessibility is inseparable

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from search engine optimization,
mobile technology, and usability.

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Improve one of these things and
you can improve all the others.

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So what's the best way to
accomplish accessibility?

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It's adherence to standards.

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As you start now, you're at the very
beginning of your Web career.

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It's the perfect time for
you to learn the best possible tags and

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the best possible ways to
make your page accessible.

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These standards are going to come from the
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines,

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called WCAG.

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And these guidelines are printable,
not technology based.

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What this means is that you don't need to
go out and find the greatest language or

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greatest technology to
make your page accessible,

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instead you really just need to follow
four principles as you design your sites.

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Is my site perceivable, is it operable,
is it understandable, and is it robust?

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We'll be talking about these four
principles throughout our entire course.

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So, let's review quickly.

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I know that right now you're just
starting your Web design career,

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and it can be overwhelming.

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But I'm really hoping that one of
the things you'll make sure that you do

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is design with accessibility in mind.

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It is the right thing to do for
so many reasons.

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Whether it's because you really want to
reach out to the largest customer base you

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can, or because legally it's required.

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The important thing is
make sure you do it.

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And the great thing is accessible design
is actually pretty straight forward.

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All you need to do is adhere to standards.

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The reason that many
pages are inaccessible,

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is because they're trying to be flashy and

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cool and do things that aren't quite yet
fully implemented to standards.

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So, finally as we go through this class
make sure that you pay special attention

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to the semantics behind HTML tags.

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These semantics contain
special information

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that are going to make it much easier for

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people who are using assistive devices
to understand the content of your page.

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Together we can make sure that
the next generation of Web developers

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are designing for
the greatest possible audience.