Manchester Java Community talk on accessibility, using Swing and Java Wicket. What accessibility is. Why accessibility matters. How we implement accessibility. We accessibility can be tested. June 2014

1. ACCESS
ABILITY
@EChesters
culture / mobility / disability

2. ACCESS
ABILITY
Why accessibility is important
What accessibility means
How we implement
accessibility
How to test accessibility

3. WHY DOES IT MATTER?

4. WHAT THE STATISTICS SHOW
15% people suffer with a disability (~ 1 billion people)
285 million people are visually impaired
~70 million people audio impaired
GLOBALLY:
11 million+ have a long-term illness or a disability
~2 million people are visually impaired
~9 million people are audio impaired
UK:
2020 prediction; 2,250,000 people will suffer from sight loss
Disability increases with age

6. WHAT IT MEANS TO USERS
Empowering
Independence
Confidence
Self-esteem
Equal Footing

7. WHAT IS ACCESSIBILITY?

8. DISABILITY
Mental & physical impairments
Screen-readers
Magnifiers
Specific functionality
Tailored usability
Readability
Cognitive

9. MOBILITY
Low bandwidth
Low resources
Limited time
Multiple devices
Fluid
Independent of users’tools
Anytime -Anywhere

10. CULTURALLY
Interfaces that fit the language
Readability
Internationalisation
Validations
Different attitudes & focuses
Understanding customs

11. IMPLEMENTATION

12. IT’S NOT ALLABOUT ALT TAGS!
but you do still need them…

13. ATTITUDES
Accessibility is high cost
There’s no real benefit
It’s not my responsibility

14. APPROACHES
Bring Accessibility in earlier
User requirements
Widen your target audience
Reduces the cost
Functional requirements
Design around communities

15. TESTING

16. AUTOMATIC
CODE SNIFFERS
- http://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/
- http://www.pa11y.org/
COLOUR CONTRAST
- http://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-
simulator/
TRANSLATIONS
- Components need to fit languages
X PLATFORM
- Multiple browsers
- Multiple devices

19. MANUAL
SCREEN-READERS
- JAWS (Windows)
- VoiceOver (Mac)
MEDIA CONTENT
- Without CSS can you still use it?
- Muted, can you understand videos?
TRANSLATIONS
- Components need to fit languages
X PLATFORM
- Multiple browsers
- Multiple devices

20. USERS

21. javax.accessibility

22. JAVA SWING
All components supporting accessibility must
implement the accessible package:
class MyFrame implements Accessible {
Every component must return its accessible context

23. wicket.WebApplication

24. android.accessibility

25. ANDROID CHECKLIST
TalkBack audio prompts
TalkBack gestures
Explore By Touch prompts
Touchable control sizes
No audio only content
Android’s
Accessibility Apps

26. ACCESS
ABILITY
Thank you!
¡Gracias!
Obrigado!
Merci!
Dank u!
Dankeschön!
Tack!
Dakujem!
Mulțumesc!
Dziękuję!

27. McDonald’s’ different cultural focuses –
http://blog.usabilla.com/designing-for-a-cross-cultural-user-experience-part1/
Different meanings in cultures –
http://importexport.about.com/od/MarketingAndSellingGlobally/a/Designing-For-Foreign-
Cultures.htm
Going blind for a week – http://blog.silktide.com/2013/01/things-learned-pretending-to-be-
blind-for-a-week/
24 Accessible CSS Practices –
http://24ways.org/2007/css-for-accessibility/
Uppercase text –
http://uxmovement.com/content/all-caps-hard-for-users-to-read/
ARIA-ROLES – https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Web_applications_and_ARIA_FAQ
RESOURCES