Submitted by Robin Christopherson on Wed, 23/01/2019 - 12:58
Take a moment to consider the possible implications of a blind person or couple forgetting to close the curtains or turn off the lights before going to bed. Having no light perception means that that is a very possible eventuality - and perhaps even a regular occurrence. Now IKEA are helping bring smarter, more affordable, homes to people with disabilities.
IKEA's smart home devices
IKEA already have a range of connected-home devices including smart plugs that allow you to turn less-smart devices on and off by an app or by voice, as well as smart lightbulbs that can be similarly controlled. Among the thousands of exhibitors at this year's Consumer Electronic Show, IKEA unveiled a range of smart blinds to add to the collection.
This isn't ground-breaking tech, of course, and IKEA aren't first to the market with their connected blinds, but, as with all IKEA products, these smart blinds are well-designed and really good value at a fraction of the cost of most competitors. Compatible with both Amazon's Alexa and the Google Home Assistant, IKEA say they'll be available in-store and online from early next month; February 2019.
KADRILJ blind starts at £90
FYRTUR blind starts at £110
The perfect blinds for the blind
I've written in previous articles about the power of the connected home (check out 'Lightbulb moment? How smarter homes, Alexa and the age of automation will help disabled people') and how such setups can assist with everything from the casual voice command to check the weather or play your favourite media, to controlling your entire environment and contacting friends or even emergency services when all you have is your voice.
In light of such potentially empowering solutions, smartblinds and lightbulbs might seem a little less life-changing - but believe me, as a blind person myself, the ability to have lights automatically come on at dusk and go off at a pre-set time (or when you say "Goodnight" to Alexa, say) and to know that your windows will be well-masked by blinds that have similar smarts, is practically priceless from both a social and decency point of view.
Simply set up your lights and blinds to know about sunset and your bedtime and you can avoid extensive embarrassment - whether it's keeping your dog in the dark, inviting friends into a pitch-black house or inadvertently offering all sorts of night time novelties to neighbours.
There's even a strong security angle here too. If you neglect to put lights on on dark evenings, then you may be giving potential burglars the impression that no one's home and effectively inviting them in. Confronting a burglar isn't ideal at the best of times - and even less so if you surprise each other in the dark.
How tech is making theatre accessible to all: TechShare Pro 2018
Submitted by Claudia.Cahalane on Tue, 22/01/2019 - 18:44
At AbilityNet’s accessible technology event TechShare Pro 2018 on 30 November 2018, delegates heard how the theatre industry is working to create shows that can be more fully enjoyed by those with hearing or sight loss.
One person’s experience of theatre is different to the next. Like any piece of art, how we enjoy and interpret what happens on stage comes from our own unique perspective. There has been some provision at theatres for deaf audiences in recent years, including signing, hearing loop inductions, infrared systems, and captioning screens either on or near the stage. These aren’t common, however, and for some shows, captioning is often only visible in a limited number of seats and involves looking away from the main action. It can occasionally be distracting for other audience members or performers too.
Smart Caption glasses at National Theatre
Firstly, there was big news from the National Theatre in London, who, from the end of this month will offer Smart Caption glasses to audience members at every single performance. Using augmented reality, the glasses will provide those who are deaf or who have hearing loss with a scrolling written version of the script within the glasses.
Jonathan Suffolk, technical director at London's National Theatre spoke at the event about how limitations around captioning led to the launch of ‘Smart Caption’ glasses at the National. The theatre, along with Professor Andrew Lambourne (who specialises in textual information processing) created the glasses which were designed and produced by Epson.
In the short film below, Suffolk explains the tech, which has been four years in the making: He says: "The glasses use a speech following software engine designed by Lambourne, which listens to the performers' voices, along with lighting and sound cues derived from the production, to create a live timecode which is used to trigger and broadcast lines of captioning text. This is then transmitted over wifi into the glasses. We developed the method of broadcast and the user interface with our innovation partner Accenture."
The glasses have proved popular, with 51 people using them within two weeks of launch in October 2017. “We've had 100% customer satisfaction so far, which we're really surprised about,” said Suffolk. “We thought people would think the glasses were heavy; they are a bit cumbersome - but although they're early tech in terms of deployable, reality glasses, we're giving people a 90-97% accuracy, so it’s an immersive experience."
Bringing smart captioning glasses to cinemas
Now Suffolk and his team are looking at taking this assistive technology into cinemas for National Theatre's live broadcast and for use by cinema audiences more broadly. They also hope to work with the subsidised arts sector and potentially the West End to get the glasses used in many more venues.
Excitingly, for blind audiences and those with sight loss, the theatre is also working on audio description, so that those with vision impairment can directly receive verbal information about what is visually happening on stage.
At the opposite end of the theatre world - in terms of size and budget - we heard from the equally determined Philippa Cross, general manager of Talking Birds theatre company. At the Google-sponsored, sold out event, Cross talked about the creation of the Difference Engine. This tech is for deaf audience members and those with hearing loss, but is also broadening to offer audio description for audience members with sight loss.
Talkng Birds and The Difference Engine
Based in Coventry, the small theatre company frequently puts on shows in unusual venues like monasteries and recently a cattle market. It views accessibility as part of the creative process within such venues. The team has experimented with various accessibility options including captioning systems, infrared and even speaking into a mic from backstage to give audio descriptions. But, they’ve often found the options were expensive and didn’t work well in intimate spaces.
In recent years Talking Birds has been collaborating with Coventry University to develop an inexpensive captioning system delivered through a smart phone app - this is called the ‘Difference Engine’.
“When the iPhone came along. And (at the same time) the Arts Council had a fund for artists and digital we thought: hold on a minute, that's an opportunity - could we deliver captions, and audio description, to things that people already have in their pocket?” said Cross. “And that's when the Difference Engine came into being. We commissioned somebody from Coventry University and he made us a prototype using captioning and audio description built-in."
The team is still developing and testing the technology. Eventually Talking Birds aims to enable theatre companies to use the Difference Engine as a downloaded app on a tablet computer. The app will send a scrolling script to smartphones during shows. Currently, the company is supplying laptops and Raspberry Pis loaded with the required tech and software to get captions sent to smartphones during shows. The team is also excited at the moment to be experimenting with audio description.
There’s a lot of interest in the Difference Engine, with 30 companies trialling it in the last year. Disability-positive theatre company Graeae took the captioning system on tour for a month last summer and were one of four companies to caption every single performance at Edinburgh Festival last year, according to Cross.
“As Philipa said, we were delighted to use the Talking Birds app this summer. That was wonderful; we are always looking to find new ways to use technology,” said Richard Matthews, head of marketing at Graeae.
Graeae: Putting disabled artists centre stage
Graeae was keen to use the Difference Engine because the London-based company’s mission is to put deaf and disabled artists centre stage and give equal casting opportunities to disabled actors and to non-disabled actors.
There’s a lot the industry could learn from Graeae, which creatively embeds British Sign Language (BSL) captioning and audio description into all its productions. “For example, we’ll build in a character who will sign through the show. Those things aren't a bolt-on or plonked on the side of the stage or above the stage, but are part of the artistic fabric of the production, so if you took any of those elements away, the show wouldn’t be the same.”
In addition, Graeae always uses deaf or disabled artists to do audio description, to make sure they are giving opportunities to disabled artists as often as possible.
Matthews added: “We also never release content through any of our public channels without it being audio described and without it being captioned. We use a brilliant website called Rev.com which captions videos for one-dollar a minute. Then a free piece of software called HandBrake, which you can download from the web and use to burn the subtitles into your videos.”
Find out more about Graeae's work in this impressive compilation film.
Graeae finished by giving a snapshot of what innovative accessible theatre could be like in the future. “We want to look into the possibilities of incorporating different senses into shows,” said Matthews. “We want to see whether there is a way that we can bring smell into our productions, for example, so that audiences who are blind or for deaf can access the production using another sense. It's what we call the layering of access and giving different people with different access requirements different - but equally rich - experiences.”
There’s quite obviously still plenty of room for innovation in the the accessible theatre world. We look forward to learning about new chapters in the inclusive theatre story this year and seeing who is breaking new ground.
What works for you?
If your theatre company is doing something pioneering around accessibility using technology, we’d love to hear about it.
As a blind person I would describe myself as a moderately competent screenreader user. I use the internet every day, and as one of the co-authors of the Click-Away Pound Survey, I am keenly aware of the accessibility and usability barriers faced by many disabled internet users.
Like most people, when I have issues with a site I’ll usually shrug and go elsewhere if I can. So I thought it would be interesting to keep track of my personal experience of some of the sites I used during 2018. This is a random and rather small selection of what happened on some sites.
A well-known classified ads website
I tried to place a job advert on my local are page on the website and failed as it had a graphic Captcha with no working alternative. In the end I had to ask for help from someone although I would have preferred not to use the site. I will definitely look for an alternative next time.
A large railway franchise
I tried to book a train ticket on the website and gave up as couldn’t navigate to the Buy Now page. There was an email address to report accessibility issues, and for once I bothered to write but, to add insult to injury, I got a bounce back saying there was no such email address! So I then tried the app. This I did manage, but is so unintuitive that it took me 40 minutes of trial and error.
A mainstream UK news media publisher
I tried to sign up for a regular subscription through the app but the pages wouldn’t work properly with Voice Over on my phone. I did drop them an email and they answered the question wrongly twice. I eventually got them to understand and got a mail that said they knew about this issue and would sort it out, and invited me to ‘join by phone’. Why would I do that given they appear to not care overly much about my requirements? And of course, the last time I looked nothing had changed.
A popular vacuum cleaner brand
I wanted to buy an appliance because they offer an extra year’s warranty if you buy online. Gave up as couldn’t select the product and move it into the shopping basket. Bought it through a large global online retailer in the end but lost the second year’s warranty. Is that an Equality Act issue?
A local authority in southern England
I needed to buy some parking permits but there is a graphic Captcha, again with no working alternative, which stopped me doing so. I dropped them a note and to be fair they called me within an hour and I bought the permits by phone. They said they would report the problem to the web team and someone would get in touch. So far nothing, and I’m not holding my breath.
An online supermarket
Some years ago, I decided to do my supermarket shopping online. I eventually chose this specific one as their website and app are great and I use them all of the time. I’ve never bothered to check with the others again although I suspect I could do my shopping cheaper.
Charity giving
Mixed results here. One charitable cause was easy and quick to donate to, but I had to give up on another well-known site due to poor usability which meant the charity didn’t get my donation.
A large global online retailer
Like most people I use this site and have learnt its funny little ways and can generally get what I’m looking for. However, when I was trying to get a refund it took 40 minutes to find how to do it and had to ask someone for help before I managed it.
All this is one person’s experience, but it reflects what we found from the Click-Away Pound Survey 2016. A mixed bag, but more barriers than not!
Clearly, my personal experience suggests that business isn’t learning the lesson and confirms our decision to re-run the survey in 2019 and see what has changed, if anything, since 2016.
Help us change the internet experiences of disabled people
The first Click-Away Pound helped identify how much business is being lost because of inaccessible sites. You can help us update that information and by completing the survey and enter the prize draw at www.clickawaypound.com
AbilityNet offers a number of products and services to help build accessible websites, find out more here.
Top 5 Alexa skills to help with your New Year’s resolutions
Submitted by Adam Tweed on Tue, 15/01/2019 - 08:56
Many of you may have seen that the Amazon Echo; more affectionately referred to as 'Alexa' was an extremely popular Christmas present this year. In fact, so many units were sold that, as reported on Christmas day, Amazon servers could not handle the volume of traffic as excited new owners plugged them in and attempted to register.
With so many purchased, chances are one may have appeared on your gift list, and although many people will currently only have used it to play music or perhaps listen to a podcast or audiobook, there are over 50,000 skills you can now choose from (although it is a bit of a mixed bag). To enable a 'skill' all you have to do is ask for it; "Alexa open [name of skill]" and Alexa will talk you through the process.
How can Alexa help people with disabilities?
The Alexa (and voice assistants in general) often feature in our blogs as a great example of a mainstream device that is of great benefit to many disabled people as they enable an interaction and experience of technology that is practically identical to that of a non-disabled person. In addition to this, it requires nothing more than the ability to ask a question or make a request and is therefore ideal for technophobes, the bamboozled or daunted, or anyone who simply struggles with technology.
Top skills to use in January 2019:
7-minute workout: Worried you've overdone it a bit this Christmas, or have you made a New Year's Resolution you're determined to keep this year? Try "Alexa, open 7-minute workout". This skill, as its name suggests, provides you with a 7-minute workout consisting of 45 exercises (not all in the one session) at three levels of intensity; low-impact, standard, and advanced. You can have accompanying 'chilled' or 'energetic' music or just a silent timer and you can ask for "help" at any time to have the exercise explained. At the end of the exercise you take a break and let Alexa know when you're ready to move on.
Tomato helper: If you're struggling with focus, you may want to try the 'Pomodoro technique' this takes a period of two-hours and divides it into four lots of 25-minutes with a five-minute break in between, followed by a longer break at the end. "Alexa, open tomato helper" will access the skill (be careful to get the name right or your Alexa will just set a regular timer). You can request a "silent timer" as the default timer 'ticks' and can get a bit annoying. At the end of the 25-minute pomodoro an alarm will ring and you simply say 'next' for the five-minute break, then 'next' when the alarm rings again and you start the next pomodoro.
Sleep and relaxation sounds: As its name suggests this skill provides background noise to help you sleep, although equally, you can use it to drown-out a noisy flatmate. The skill has a free version with a selection of sounds from 'ocean' to 'cat purring', to the sound of crickets that can lend a tropical feel to the coldest of nights; "Alexa, ask sleep sounds to play [name of sound]" will access the skill. You can follow this with a sleep timer to have the skill switch off after a while rather than play all night; "Alexa, set a sleep timer for x minutes".
Connect your calendar: Rather than a specific 'skill', connecting your calendar (iCal, Google, Office 365, etc) via the Alexa app will mean that you can ask; "Alexa, what's in my calendar?" and Alexa will read out your next calendar entry. If this happens to be "meeting, tomorrow at 9:00am" and you're worried sleep sounds will have you sleeping too deeply, you can always say; "Alexa, set an alarm for 7am".
Daily News Briefing: This skill allows you to pick and choose to have the news headlines from a whole host of news providers read out to you. Some services use human newsreaders, others Alexa will read out. You can pick your favourite providers and across a broad selection of themes from world news to entertainment, sports to fashion, and many more. There are many different ways to ask for your news feed (referred to as your 'flash briefing'), but the easiest to remember is; "Alexa, what's the news?" If fake news is a concern, why not try "Alexa, open the fake news game" and Alexa will play a real/fake news story game with you; a news story summary is read out and you have to decide whether it turned out to be real or fake.
Want more skills?
Our own Head of Digital Inclusion, Robin Christopherson, hosts a daily podcast called 'Dot to Dot' in which a new skill or built-in feature of the Echo is demonstrated each and every day. Taking around five minutes, make it a New Year's resolution to check out Robin's Dot to Dot podcast on iTunes or simply search for it on your podcasting app of choice.
AbilityNet is a UK charity that helps people to use technology to achieve their goals. If you have questions about disability and technology you can call us on 0800 269 545 or email enquiries@abilitynet.org.uk.
What next for audio description on TV and advertising? TechShare Pro 2018
Submitted by Claudia.Cahalane on Mon, 14/01/2019 - 12:35
It’s 25 years since the first audio described programme arrived on UK TV, believed to be Coronation Street. Last year more than 150,000 hours of television were broadcast with audio description in the UK - a big win for those who are blind or have sight loss. In addition, 2018 also saw the first audio described advert - for Fairy liquid - broadcast on ITV.
For any fans out there - Gogglebox is now audio described, but still a lot of top TV programmes aren’t audio described across all viewing platforms and options. So what can we expect in 2019?
At the Google-sponsored TechShare Pro event in London on 30 November, it looked promising that an increasing amount of audio described programming and advertising would be available this year - meaning that people who are blind or have sight loss should miss out on fewer of their favourite programmes.
W3C Community Group on Audio Description
In the Accessible Media and Advertising session of AbilityNet's event, we heard from speakers at BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, about how the broadcast sector is working to streamline and standardise what is still a relatively new practise.
Perhaps one of the most important developments, is the creation of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Community Group on audio description, which met for the first time in October 2018. “The aim is to agree requirements and proposals for a workable open standard file format for audio description,” said Nigel Megitt, executive product manager at the BBC and chair of the W3C group.
“Audio description is fantastic, but all of the tools that you use to make it are proprietary - there’s no way to exchange information about the production of audio description,” he said.
The art of audio description
There is clearly an art to creating useful and appropriate audio description which fits between dialogue, and this is something the industry is working to keep improving. Megitt added: “All the way through from writing the scripts to mixing the audio - there are no tool providers for this. The W3C group exchanges audio described scripts and is all about finding the right mix (of dialogue and audio description).
Having some ‘standard tooling’ would make it cheaper and easier for more people to create audio description, he told delegates.
The W3C group is also working on audio description being available for Braille devices or via speech-to-text, so that audiences who are blind or who have vision loss have a choice of how to receive information about what’s happening on their screen.
The W3C group has 19 participant organisations across the media industry and hopes to have open standard recommendations on audio description by the end of this year.
Getting audio descriptions on all platforms
Delegates shared their frustrations about how audio description is not currently available on a number of digital platforms such as Facebook and Youtube. But Sumaira Latif, special consultant for inclusive design at Procter & Gamble (who spearheaded the industry’s movement towards audio described adverts in the UK) said she was pushing for this. She said she was hopeful this would change in the near future and is working closely with key players in the industry to help find a solution.
Rachel Yendoll, head of content management at Channel 4, spoke after Latif, revealing that since she took over Access Services at the channel two years ago, her team has been on “quite a journey”.
“We had a lot to fix and I am happy to say we are getting there. In terms of making sure we have content there for viewers, we have listened to them, so stuff like Gogglebox is audit described. It's difficult to do. It's delivered to my team at 7pm in the evening and I have two teams on standby waiting to audio describe it.”
Audio description on Catch up TV
Yendoll said that progress is slower than she would like on getting catch up All4 programmes audio described across the 26 platforms that it’s available on. “We are on a journey of making those platforms accessible but it’s expensive and complicated,” she said. She hinted that there are “a couple of exciting things that will happen next year (2019) at Channel 4” in this space.
The BBC offers audio description on iPlayer as does ITV on its app.
Meanwhile audio described adverts are new to broadcasting. But they look set to grow considerably this year as the business case around audio description becomes obvious.
The business case for audio described adverts
Last year the first audio described advert was broadcast on ITV, largely driven by the work of Sumaira Latif at P&G. The other mainstream channels followed. Latif outlined the business case for advertisers such as Procter and Gamble, who spend £150 million a year on advertising. “By 2020 there's predicted to be 2.25million blind people across the world. That's an obvious audience who shave and wash their hair like everyone else,” she said.
However, Latif also pointed out that the current rules around audio described advertising are tight and she is asking for more realistic rules. “With the Fairy advert we had to go slightly over the dialogue in the advert with our audio description to make the commercial meaningful for blind viewers and those with low vision. We are supposed to keep audio description outside of dialogue but in a 30 second commercial this is very hard."
Check out one of Fairy's audio described adverts below.
Sonali Rai, the RNIB’s broadcast relationships and audio description product manager, praised the broadcasting sector at the event. “I don't think there is a group that is more committed to accessibility,” she said. “It's not just about doing the right thing, but the sector is very progressive - looking at how it can extend accessibility into other services and how can it make the processes more efficient and improve the user experience.”
One of the challenges, added Rai, is that platforms have been built and are now having to be retrofitted to include audio description. “If you build accessibility into the structures in the first place that is much easier."
Rai added that: “On television and video boxes, there is the capability to do audio description, but on the web, and on mobiles, there's still a bit of catching up to do - even though the capabilities are also there.
Latif, who is blind, is a big advocate for audio description and concluded the session by reminding broadcasters that they need to act more quickly. She said those who lag behind are missing out a large group of potential customers and viewers.
“We (people who are blind or have sight loss) don’t watch anything unless it is audio described. The people spending all this money making TV programmes are losing millions of people who can't enjoy catch-up TV. She urged the relevant figures in the industry to “put the business argument forward and help to accelerate it.”
“You guys are doing the right thing, but we need to move faster,” said Latif.
Find out more
Find out about the current world of audio description at cinemas, on Netflix, in theatres and more on the RNIB website.
Techshare Pro 2018: Accessibility Professional Development and Certification Initiative – how important is it?
Submitted by Guest Blogger on Mon, 14/01/2019 - 12:11
By Christopher Lee, Managing Director, International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP)
Locating accessibility (a11y) professionals can be challenging for organizations requiring their products and services to be used by all consumers, including those with disabilities who happen to make up the largest minority on the planet.
There is a good reason for an organization not being able to track down a11y professionals. Becoming an effective accessibility professional takes time and dedication to the field, which is one of the reasons why many IT related products still don’t include a11y as part of the development lifecycle. However, we have seen movement in the field through employees around the globe addressing the lack of internal a11y knowledge by engaging in professional development and certification on their own. In many cases these professionals are not being asked by their employer to pursue certification or being compensated for their extra time and dedication to equal access for all their customers. In many cases these dedicated professionals are making a personal and professional statement that a11y matters. Every time I have a chance to meet or work with one of these self-driven a11y professionals I am reminded of a quote I once read by Steve Krug, “The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives. How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?”
Over the last several years we have seen not only individuals, but also organizations making strategic steps towards improving their internal and external accessibility policies and processes. At the November 2018 TechShare Pro Conference in London, hosted by Barclays and organized by AbilityNet, I was able to engage with participants to learn more about how or if their organizations were addressing a11y from an internal professional development standpoint. As the newly appointed Managing Director for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), whose mission is to define, promote and improve the accessibility profession I wanted to soak in everything. The conference provided a platform to learn how companies were dealing with digital accessibility for assistive technologies, a11y standards and laws, and universal design. I was enthused to see how many entities were participating in the IAAP a11y professional certifications program or were considering getting involved. I noted the presentations and discussions were not quite on the level of a movement of system change, but companies were engaged and energetic about the importance of their employees needing a11y professional development and certifications.
I was delighted to hear from companies like Apple and Google who talked about their impressive a11y initiatives. In his presentation, Neil Milliken, Co-Founder of AXSChat, highlighted the importance of solidifying the accessibility profession lifecycle through education, internships/apprenticeship, and certification. Neil’s and other presenters' comments were perfectly aligned with the message that IAAP was there to share at the conference. Since 2014, IAAP has noticed a growing need from our membership base for training leading to core education and specialized knowledge around the digital accessibility profession in areas of design, content creation, web/mobile development, and usability testing. Highlighted in the December 13, 2018 24 Accessibility Blog, “Accessibility Pro Certified: To Be or Not To Be,” Glenda Sims, Team A11Y lead at Deque, examines pursuing a11y certification. In her blog post Glenda highlights the IAAP certification initiatives, Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competency (CPACC) and Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS), as steps towards collaboratively defining the accessibility profession.
Are you working towards being a champion in a11y or developing a11y professional development opportunities for your organization? Join IAAP and Glenda Sims for our AXSChat Tweet Chat event. AXSChat is an online community of individuals dedicated to creating an inclusive world.
The AXSChat takes place on January 15, 2019, at 3 pm ET/ 8 pm GMT and will be archived for individuals who can’t attend.
How to give legal teeth to digital accessibility - New York vs Norway
Submitted by Robin Christopherson on Thu, 10/01/2019 - 14:20
The plain fact is that there are an awful lot of inaccessible websites and apps out there - contrary to both legal requirements and good business sense. We've been calling for the UK Government to give the law some teeth for several years now. Let's look at the two main methods by which companies can be made to take their legal responsibilities more seriously.
Method 1: The New York (and Florida) way
The US are a much more litigious lot than we are in the UK. Sometimes that leads to unwelcome outcomes (such as MacDonald's customers around the world having to settle for luke-warm coffee), but sometimes it can be helpful too. One example is in the area of digital accessibility, where their level of litigation is orders of magnitude higher than ours – and nowhere higher than in New York State.
So how do we in the UK do it? We don’t have clear figures for legal cases concerning inaccessible websites or mobile apps here. This is because companies are loathed to lose a legal case and henceforth become a legal and very public precedent. As a result, they settle out of court with a sum for the plaintiff and a promise to resolve the issues. As this is prior to any legal outcome it is not binding. It also doesn't come with any publicity as anonymity as part of the settlement agreement. It doesn’t lead to headlines and often doesn’t lead to an accessible website either.
So that's how it's done here in the UK; low-key and low impact and a landscape of inaccessibility a decade and a half after the law came into effect.
Compare that to the US. In the US their dirty digital laundry is very much aired in public. Going for the big buck settlements with legally-binding outcomes is very much their bag. As a result we have solid stats and substantive, positive outcomes for users with disabilities. Let's look at some figures:
Photo credit: 2018 ADA Web Accessibility Lawsuit Recap Report [Blog] via Usablenet
Website monitoring company Usablenet have published a web accessibility lawsuit report that has captured every legal case in the US throughout 2018. There were over 2,200 cases in all; a massive 181% increase over the previous year. Interestingly, though, the vast majority of cases (96%) were filed in either New York or Florida. It should be noted, however, that only the filings are in these two states - the companies listed are from all over the US. Goodness only knows what levels of litigation would result if other states decided to champion digital accessibility in this way.
Being involved in such a legal case has an obvious financial risk to the company in question. Moreover, being conducted in the public domain, it also has the potential for significant accompanying brand damage too.
"And what has been the result?" I hear you ask.
Well, apart from a thousand or so extra accessible websites a year, having strong, longstanding legislation (the 'Americans with Disabilities Act' and 'Section 508') with such concrete consequences for non-compliance has resulted in tangible benefits for disabled users everywhere. As a direct result of the legal requirement for accessibility before products are able to be purchased at scale for US Government and the education sector, the likes of Microsoft and Apple have given accessibility the Rolls-Royce treatment (I've no idea what the equivalent analogy would be in terms of American cars I'm afraid).
We are now in the fortunate position that the big tech manufacturers are vying for brand dominance in the area of accessibility and see performance in meeting the diversity and inclusion agenda on par with user security and data privacy. The average company delivering services online, however, still needs a wake-up call.
So that's one way to give the law some teeth; rely on dynamic disabled individuals or organisations (usually charities) to fight cases one by one. There's no doubt it works, but it takes huge amounts of effort and money and isn't really having a noticeable impact in the digital Wild West that is the world wide web.
Method 2: The new way like Norway
The second approach is a radical one. Brace yourself. Ready? Here it is… Have the government enforce the law the way they already do in so many other areas, like crime, taxation or even parking tickets and fishing permits.
Why leave it to individuals to fight it out in the courts when governments already have all the machinery in place to enforce the law and ensure a high level of overall compliance?
Digital inclusion is important. Anyone that's read any of my posts will be aware of the overwhelming ethical, legal and very real business cases for accessibility. In this mobile-first world of computing in extreme environments, inclusive design quite literally benefits every user on a daily basis. That's why we've been calling for a bigger player to assist in realising significant change before another decade passes.
One example is the national airline, SAS, that was given a year to comply and, when it didn't, they were given an additional week and threatened with a tough €15,000 fine every day thereafter. After no movement and lots of complaining about how hard it would be to remedy the issues and no action whatsoever, they then fixed the issues in 12 days to everyone's satisfaction.
Hear from myself, representatives from Norway, and presenter Peter White on this week's BBC In Touch programme discussing enforcement and how a new approach such as this is actually making a difference. There's still a long way to go, but Norwegian travelers can now at least browse and buy tickets with their biggest airline regardless of disability or impairment - along with many other sites too.
The law needs teeth
Here in the UK, we need Government to champion millions of users who are being left behind by the digital revolution. With public and commercial services being driven ever-more online, and our employment and education options, entertainment and social interactions dependant upon digital, why does Her Majesty's Government see this area of enforcement as less important than parking in the wrong spot or illicitly catching a fish? The course and quality of people's lives are at stake.
AbilityNet calls for government enforcement of website accessibility on BBC 'In Touch' programme
Submitted by Robin Christopherson on Wed, 09/01/2019 - 10:54
On yesterday's (Tuesday 8 Jan 2019) BBC Radio 4 programme 'In Touch' AbilityNet called for the government to finally begin enforcing the law that requires websites and apps to be accessible to all regardless of disability or special access technology.
Listen to In Touch online
In Touch is a weekly programme aimed at listeners with visual impairments; covering topics such as technology, travel, dating, daily living and how to learn new skills if you're losing your vision later in life. Presenter Peter White often covers other important issues relating to laws and regulations that impact people with low or no vision, such as benefits, shared surfaces (where cars and pedestrians are forced to use the same spaces) and cases of poor customer service or outright discrimination.
I was more than happy to talk to Peter about the very important topic of website and mobile apps accessibility, and share why the government might finally want to step up to the task and begin putting some effort into enforcement.
AbilityNet has been championing the call for enforcement of digital accessibility laws for several years now.
Here are links to a few articles I've written on the subject that provide further discussion and information on the compelling case for government enforcement:
TechShare Pro reveals top tech innovations driving accessibility in 2019
Submitted by Claudia.Cahalane on Thu, 27/12/2018 - 09:34
Last month, AbilityNet hosted the sold out TechShare Pro event in Canary Wharf, sponsored by Google. We learned more about some much-awaited and innovative accessible tech. In no particular order, here's 14 fabulous assistive and accessible ideas to watch in 2019.
1 Talking Birds Difference Engine
For people who are deaf or who have hearing loss, enjoyment of live theatre can be limited. Some larger theatres might offer LED captioning machines on stage, but this is rare. In any case, this option is often too expensive or logistically difficult for modern pop-up shows, touring or promenade style theatre.
Talking Birds theatre company’s Difference Engine app offers live captions of performances on any device (such as phone or tablet computer) that's connected to wifi. Talking Birds is also close to making the difference engine work for people who are blind or visually impaired too. The app will soon offer live audio captioning.
Samsung TV’s have a number of accessibility features. These include the 'voice control' option whereby TVs will speak information that’s on screen and provide verbal information about volume, current channel and programme information. There’s also a ‘learn remote control’ option which speaks out button features. In addition, the TVs offer enlarged text, high contrast menus, grayscale and colour invert options for those with visual impairment and colour blindness.
Multi-output Audio also enables the user to configure the television audio output when Bluetooth headphones are connected to the TV. You can choose to have audio directed to multiple devices with independent volume control. If one member of your family has hearing difficulties and needs to listen through their own headphones, Multi-output Audio facilitates this without automatically disabling the audio from the TV speakers.
The WeWalk Smart Cane is a technology which fixes to a traditional white cane and enhances its capabilities for people who are blind or visually impaired. The technology includes an ultrasonic sensor which detects obstacles above waist height and gives off a vibration to alert users of obstacles, as well as detecting obstructions below (in the same way a standard cane does).
When paired with the WeWALK mobile app via Bluetooth, users can access apps with WeWALK’s touchpad voice menu without holding their phone. For example, they can request rides and get navigation on the WeWALK device via apps such as Uber and LYFT. First orders of the cane are currently in production.
The AV1 telepresence robot was in the delegation at TechShare Pro on behalf of Lewis Hine. The small, portable robot can be used as a child’s eyes, voice and ears in the classroom in cases where the student has a long term health condition. It's popularly used by TechShare Pro Special Award winner 2018 Lewis Hine to attend college.
Lewis speaks to his classmates and listens to his teachers through the robot and did the same with delegates at TechShare Pro. The teenager created his charity Friend Finder Official to bring together isolated children through technology and is a big fan of the AV1.
Smart caption glasses are now enabling people with hearing loss to enjoy performances at the National Theatre in London. On the lenses of the augmented reality glasses users see a transcript of the dialogue and descriptions of the sound from a performance. The glasses, released this year, are the culmination of a four year collaboration between the National Theatre and speech and language experts led by Professor Andrew Lambourne, as well as Accenture and Epson. They've proved very popular, with 51 theatre goers using them in the first two weeks of release this year.
Current smart meters used to monitor home energy usage aren’t accessible to people who are blind. To rectify this, RNIB is working with Energy UK and a company called geo to create Accessible In-Home Smart Meter Displays. The displays are easy to use and include colourful and tactile buttons, along with speech output for more accessible interaction.
Storm Interface has created accessible keypad interfaces for public kiosks. Users with sensory impairments, reading difficulties or limited dexterity can access information, products and services via a headset, with audio feedback and highly tactile interfaces. The systems are used in fast food restaurants, shops and at airport check-in desks in the US and well as at US voting terminals.
Be My Eyes is a free smartphone app for blind people and those who are partially-sighted. It's for those times when a pair of eyes are needed briefly to, for example, check sell by dates on items or find something that's lost around the home. Using their phone camera and an internet connection, the person without sight can quickly access a network of more than one million sighted volunteers who will help them see the world around them by explaining what they see via their camera link-up.
Used in more than 150 countries, with help in 180 different languages, users can ask for support choosing what clothes to wear, reading a bus timetable and much more. Blind people and those who are partially-sighted also have the option to call certain companies through the app. Ie, they can call Microsoft for tech help and link up with their camera so the agent can, for example, see the blind person's computer and offer more targeted help.
Hatsumi Ink’s platform uses virtual reality to help people living with chronic pain and mental health conditions. It also offers participants the ability to visually translate emotions and sensations onto a life size body using 3D painting tools. By exploring the human experience in more depth Hatsumi hopes to create more understanding off illness and reduce the distress of those with illness.
Sigh Video provides British Sign Language (BSL) video interpreting services to enable communication between the community of over 150,000 deaf BSL users in the UK and hearing people. Sign Video’s relay service allows users to make and receive BSL interpreted video calls so that they can more effectively communicate with each other, in business or in personal conversations. This happens through a professional video interpreter who relays the call between BSL and English. This service is also used by the NHS.
Wayfindr enables people to receive audio instructions on their smartphone to help them navigate through public spaces, such as train stations. Wayfindr is an open code that can be used as a set of instructions and for example built into the Transport for London (TfL) app. When someone using the app passes a strategically-placed bluetooth beacon, they will get audio instructions and directions spoken via their smartphone to help get around their environment. The instructions are very detailed, so they tell a user how many steps they are about to walk down for example.
WaytoB has developed an integrated smartphone and smartwatch platform to help people with a learning disability navigate their environment independently.
To use WaytoB, a friend/ family member/ carer can add safe routes for a person with a learning disability to the platform with their smartphone. The person adding the routes is then able to track the location, heart rate and battery life of the person with the learning disability, as well as get notified of key journey events (e.g getting lost, stopping for a long time, showing high levels of anxiety, e.t.c). The person using WaytoB who has a learning disability follows icon-based instructions on their watch to more easily navigate their environment. The watch vibrates when there's a new instruction.
The TapSOS app is designed to help people who can’t hear or speak to communicate with emergency services when needed. At the tap of a few buttons, the app sends users’ location and medical history to the fire, police, ambulance services or coastguard. This was designed for people who are deaf or those who have hearing loss but can also be suitable for people experiencing breathing difficulties, allergies, or for situations involving domestic abuse or when someone being held against their will / unable to talk.
Clear Talents can be used by employers to assess the needs and requirement of all job applicants to ensure they offer equal opportunities to everyone. There is a wide spectrum of workplace adjustments that can be useful for different people and often such adjustments can benefit someone who is not classed as disabled too. With Clear Talents, everyone can be upfront about the best working environment for them and employers can create an environment where more staff and interviewees can flourish.
Submitted by dafydd.henke-reed on Mon, 24/12/2018 - 09:21
We audit a lot of inaccessible websites. Many are created by FTSE 100 companies that are committed to accessibility. This begs the question: why are the websites inaccessible?
Web standards provide the means for creating high-functioning, accessible websites. Not everything can be made accessible from standards-conformant HTML. Multimedia can be particularly challenging. Audio descriptions and captions require consideration. Nonetheless, well-structured, semantic HTML affords considerable accessibility.
For example, the best way to ensure that a link is accessible is simply to use a native anchor tag. Consider what is required for a native and custom link to be broadly accessibile. This is a native link:
Wrap the element in an anchor tag
Give it a valid href attribute
Ensure that it has a textual content
Native link example:
<a href=”http://www.acme.com”>Acme Home</a>
The alternative is much more complex. This is a custom link:
Wrap the element within a container
Add the element to the focus order
Define the element as a link
Use device-independent event handlers
Create a JavaScript function that loads a URL on request
Create a CSS class that styles the element as a link
The above can contribute a similar node on an accessibility tree. This is a behind-the-scene document that assistive technologies use to interface with websites. It catalogues properies such roles (e.g. link) and names (e.g. acme home). These can then be parsed by assistive technologies such as screen readers.
The work required is widely different, however. The custom solution also adds dependencies. It relies upon custom-made CSS and JavaScript. It requires more dev time, degrades less gracefully, and is more likely to break.
So why make development harder? It is the result of content creep. Simply put, organisations want too much on their websites. It is common to have accordions, tab panels, and modal dialogs on a single page. But all these do is inelegantly side-load content.
An accordion toggles the visibility of content. It is not available in the HTML specification. All it does is hide content that, if displayed by default, would clutter the page. At the same time, it can drastically hamper accessibility.
Ample effort is dedicated to fixing inaccessibility. However, it is slow-going to fix problems created by content-bloat. It is considerably more effective to champion accessible practices throughout development. The result is slimline, well-curated and performant websites.
The alternative is embedding complexity that engenders inaccessibility and user disengagement. User testing at AbilityNet indicates that users avoid anything complicated when simpler options are available.
This includes date pickers. It is easier for users to enter this sort of information manually. Give them a standard input field and they can complete the task in milliseconds. That will never be true of a date picker. Users wade through years, months, and days. The design pattern looks more visually fit-for-purpose. But it is functionally much more complex.
The same is true with content in general. The more content on a website, the more difficult it is to use. Consider screen magnification users. Zooming into a page that is bloated with content can be extremely disorientating. A client might ask: “How can we make blocks of text easier to perceive for screen magnification users?”. The answer is: “Have less of it.”
What makes matters worse is that complexity can require breaking the rules of accessibility. A cornerstone of keyboard accessibility is to never trap focus. Allow users to keyboard tab through everything. However, modal dialogs necessitate trapping focus whilst they are active. It would be confusing to tab behind one of them and onto background elements. Best practice for a complex pattern is to ignore best practice.
We often see developers attempting to remedy this with ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Application). This is code that can be added to boost the accessibility of patterns that cannot be made with semantic HTML.
However, as WebAIM states: Almost every report we write includes a section cautioning against ARIA abuse and outlining ARIA uses that need to be corrected or, most often, removed. Ironically, this is often followed by a list of issues that can only be addressed with ARIA. - John Whitling, WebAIM - To ARIA!
The more we allow content bloat and retrofitted ARIA, the harder it becomes to create robust and sustainable websites. A hack used to visually declutter a page can be broken by a single browser update. Of course, small updates will always be required. No solution works forever. However, the issues that we identify at AbilityNet are symptomatic of fragile websites, bloated, and committee-designed websites.
Inaccessibility is caused by a desire to add more content. The easiest way to create accessible websites is to say no. Create lean designs and stick to them. Cut your copy in half. Then, cut it in half again.
As a blind person I would describe myself as a moderately competent screenreader user. I use the internet every day, and as one of the co-authors of the Click-Away Pound Survey, I am keenly aware of the accessibility and usability barriers faced by many disabled internet users.
Many of you may have seen that the Amazon Echo; more affectionately referred to as 'Alexa' was an extremely popular Christmas present this year. In fact, so many units were sold that, as reported 
There is a good reason for an organization not being able to track down a11y professionals. Becoming an effective accessibility professional takes time and dedication to the field, which is one of the reasons why many IT related products still don’t include a11y as part of the development lifecycle. However, we have seen movement in the field through employees around the globe addressing the lack of internal a11y knowledge by engaging in professional development and certification on their own. In many cases these professionals are not being asked by their employer to pursue certification or being compensated for their extra time and dedication to equal access for all their customers. In many cases these dedicated professionals are making a personal and professional statement that a11y matters. Every time I have a chance to meet or work with one of these self-driven a11y professionals I am reminded of a quote I once read by Steve Krug, “The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives. How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?” 
The US are a much more litigious lot than we are in the UK. Sometimes that leads to unwelcome outcomes (such as MacDonald's customers around the world having to settle for luke-warm coffee), but sometimes it can be helpful too. One example is in the area of digital accessibility, where their level of litigation is orders of magnitude higher than ours – and nowhere higher than in New York State.
In Touch is a weekly programme aimed at listeners with visual impairments; covering topics such as technology, travel, dating, daily living and how to learn new skills if you're losing your vision later in life. Presenter Peter White often covers other important issues relating to laws and regulations that impact people with low or no vision, such as benefits, shared surfaces (where cars and pedestrians are forced to use the same spaces) and cases of poor customer service or outright discrimination.
