Thoughts on Design

There are two good accessibility discussions going on right now, and you need to be following them. The first is Glenda Watson Hyatt's Four Parties Contribute to an Accessible Blogosphere. Glenda is pushing for more accessibility in blogging platforms and on blogs themselves. This is an idea whose time has come. Blogs by design are dynamic and adaptable. Let's adapt them toward accessibility. The second discussion is accessibility in the US Government. This discussion is being driven by Jim Thatcher and Joe Dolson

• Accessibility of the White House Web Site
• Accessibility of Recovery.gov
• Postscript on Recovery.gov
• Obama’s Web Transparency: not for everybody.

I have also managed to put in my own two cents worth a couple of times.

• Accessible Recovery?
• NY Senate, Drupal, and Accessibility

The one tragic similarity that I'm seeing in these government site's being discussed is that they're all very close to being accessible, but they fall short. How close? Joe Dolson suggests that WhiteHouse.gov could be significantly improved by the addition of five short lines of CSS. By my count that's about 83 characters. The addition of that CSS wouldn't solve everything, but the other changes aren't much more significant. To come so close to being truly accessible, and still falling short. It's like running the perfect marathon and walking off the course a few feet short of the finish line.

I just noticed at Dries Buytaert's site that New York State Senate is using Drupal. It's now a very stylish looking Drupal site. Its' visual style is quite nice, but what lurks below the surface?

• No skip links to bypass blocks of content for screen readers or keyboard-only users
• Links not clearly identified
• No hover or focus effects on links to assist in navigation and link identification
• No level one header (h1) on home page to identify the page
• Drop down navigation is useless for keyboard-only navigation. It leaves some content extremely difficult to reach, if not completely beyond reach.

Why the half measures? Making a site accessible is more work. Making a site this un-accessible takes an active effort. The default CSS property for a link is to have an outline. This site has a focus outline property of zero. It's turned off so that a link with focus is not visible. An active effort to remove one property that identified focus, without adding another in its place. The default link property has an underline text-decoration. This site uses links with no text-decoration. A property helpful for identifying links was actively removed without replacement. I'm happy to see a very good platform like Drupal being more widely used, and this site is a good place for it. Dynamic content, multiple RSS feeds, press releases and more. All features with which Drupal excels. Unfortunately this is a bad example of Drupal theming. A good layout, a good overall design, but no thought to accessibility. What could have been a beautiful site, unfinished.

I was recently given the opportunity to review the Packt Publishing book Drupal 6 -  Social Networking by Michael Peacock.  I'm impressed. The book was well written and well organized. It starts with the basics of a Drupal installation, and quickly walks you through to the more complex configuration of a Drupal site with a social networking focus. While you might not be starting a new social media website, there are aspects of social media that can benefit almost any site. Blogs can drive traffic, and forums can aid with project discussions. Do you have a FAQ section on your site, maybe a well done WIKI would be a better choice. The possibilities for enhancing an existing site are huge. Like all good technical books, this one made me think. Michael Peacock made me reevaluate what a website is, and what it should be. I'm not yet planning a dedicated social media site, but I'm giving serious thought to how I can use social media function to improve my current projects.  If you're a designer or developer using Drupal, then you need to read Drupal 6 -  Social Networking.

I wrote a quick post on the lack of accessibility of Recovery.gov back in February. Jim Thatcher has now done an in depth study of that site as he recently did with WhiteHouse.gov. As I noted before, the Recovery site is surprisingly inaccessible. I'll let you read Mr. Thatcher's evaluation yourself, but I think there is one feature on recovery.gov that really shows how low a priority accessibility is on this site. The keyboard-only link to WhiteHouse.gov is a JavaScript based link that requires a followup mouse click to function. That sort of defeats the purpose now doesn't it?Go read Mr. Thatcher's Accessibility of Recovery.gov in full, it's worth the time.

There is an alarming trend in the art and design. Not in the artists and craftsmen, but in the clients.  The trend is, an insistence on mediocrity.  It is often an attempt to make something universally appealing. I honestly don't think that's possible. Both fine art and good design can evoke emotion, often strong emotion.  You have to realize though, that they induce both positive emotional responses, and negative ones.  Some people like them very much, but others will dislike them.  The only way to eliminate this negative response group is to lower or eliminate the emotional impact. This can only result in mediocrity. Let's consider this in terms of color. Can you name an intense, universally appealing color? The answer is no, you can't. Some people will love red, while others will hate it. Want to make it more universally appealing? Dilute the emotional response, by diluting the color.  Diluting and mixing the colors won't get a universally appealing color though. It will get you beige. The solution? Don't try for universally appealing. Try to please you. Not a personal design, but a design that appeals to you personally. Like red? Then use it. While you can't make something universally appealing, you can make it appealing. Don't be afraid to make a statement, even if it isn't a strong one. Concerned about that negative response? It is something to keep in mind, but don't let that fear define the design.  The only way to rule out the possibility of a negative emotional response, is to remove any chance of an emotional response. That path leads to emotional beige, it leads to mediocrity. Don't go down that path, don't insist on mediocrity.

Jim Thatcher has written what I hope will be the first of a series on the Accessibility of the White House Web Site. About a month ago I wrote a quick accessibility note about the new recovery.gov site. A pretty site, but not particularly accessible. As I summed it up then, "I see this site as a wonderful opportunity... missed." I wasn't pleased with my initial mechanical testing of recovery.gov, but I haven't had the time to follow up. Fortunately, Jim Thatcher has now taken the time do a quick audit of WhiteHouse.gov. It looks like the White House site isn't any more accessible than the Recovery site appears to be. The two sites share the same problems with the skip links, and the same poor use of headings. Serious accessibility issues with simple solutions. Another opportunity missed.

The obvious followup question to 9 Reasons Why Accessibility Matters is "How do I do that?" It's not really as difficult as it might seem. Answer these nine questions, and see how your site's accessibility can be improved.

1. Can you navigate your site easily? Are links and navigation obvious and intuitive? Look at it as if you'd never seen it before, would you understand how to get around quickly? Are your links visible or invisible?
2. Does your site use skip links? It should. This allows members of your audience to quickly jump over blocks of content to get to what they came for. This will benefit keyboard only navigation, various accessibility tools, and readers who use magnification or zoom a lot.
3. How much contrast does your site have? Use something like the Colour Contrast Analyser to see how your site rates. Good contrast can open up your site to people with a wide range of vision issues who otherwise might not otherwise be able to access it.
4. Is your site valid and standards compliant? A valid and standards compliant site will much more consistently displayed across browsers and accessibility tools. It's not a guarantee, but a good start. Try doing a site test to see where you stand with your site. I use tools like the ones on this list to do this sort of work.
5. How does your site look without CSS? Does it still make sense? CSS is a very powerful tool, but it can be abused. Screen readers and even your RSS feeds are going to display your site without CSS. If you use CSS to change one type of content to look like another, for instance to make a paragraph look like a unordered list, it's going to still look like a paragraph in your RSS feed.
6. Did you define your default language in the HTML element of your web page? This simple addition to you code let's people know what language to expect.
7. Did you define ALT text for your images? ALT, or alternative text, atributes will describe your images to your audience members that aren't viewing your images. Maybe they're using a screen reader, or maybe they just are saving download time while on dial-up. Without ALT text, they might not even notice they missed an important image.
8. Did you use headings to identify navigation lists? Using a H2-H6 heading before a navigation list will help with screen readers and with keyboard navigation. It helps break up the site into identifiable regions so that navigation is more intuitive. If you don't like the way these headings look, then change their appearance with CSS. This will allow you to keep the appearance you like, but keep the improved navigation too. Update: 52% of screen reader users navigate by headings whenever possible - WebAIM Screen Reader Survey .
9. Does your H1 heading at least partially match your page title? A simple thing, but it can significantly improve a viewers ability to identify where the are on your site, and to navigate. It also should improve your search engine results.

These items won't guarantee a perfectly accessible site, but they'll move you nine steps in the right direction. If you're interested in discussing how to improve the accessibility of your site, or accessibility in general, leave me a comment. Getting me to discuss accessibility is never a problem. To paraphrase Shrek, it's getting me to shut up that's the trick. Update: Thank you to Aankhen for checking my work.  Both of the errors you caught should now be corrected.

Why does making your site accessible matter? First let’s give a definition of accessibility, I like Jim Thatcher’s best. “Basically, technology is accessible if it can be used as effectively by people with disabilities as by those without.”

1. 12.8 percent of adults (21-64) are disabled in some way. Bjelland, M.J., Erickson, W. A., Lee, C. G. (2008, November 8). Disability Statistics from the American Community Survey (ACS). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics (StatsRRTC). Retrieved April 7, 2009 from www.disabilitystatistics.org
2. 8 to 12% of males of European origin have a color deficiency. Accessibility and the Web
3. 5.5 million people have obstructed vision because of cataracts. - Statistics on Blindness and Blinding Diseases in the United States
4. 4.2 million people have impaired vision because of corneal dystrophies. - Statistics on Blindness and Blinding Diseases in the United States
5. Worldwide, 42 million people are blind. - Statistics on Blindness and Blinding Diseases in the United States
6. Approximately 17 percent (36 million) of American adults report some degree of hearing loss - NIDCD Health Information
7. Only 1 out of 5 people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wears one - NIDCD Health Information
8. 5% of people have javascript turned off - W3 Schools
9. Internet Explorer 6 still has a 17% browser share - W3 Schools

Using IE6 isn't a disability, but it does fall into the realm of accessibility. Choices you make on your site platform and design can limit who has access to your site. Identify your links with only color? Did you eliminate 12% of the male population from seeing those links? Use sound without captions? Did you just remove 36 million Americans from your viewing audience? How many people do you remove from your audience if your site requires the use of a mouse and not just a keyboard? These all add up, and they add up quickly. Each accessibility problem you have removes people from your audience. Maybe the real reason that you haven't become a famous blogger is that the right people just haven't been able to see your site yet.

Interested in 9 Ways to Make Your Site More Accessible?

It is Day 1 of: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.  If you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late. Regardless of how long you've been blogging, you'll learn something new here.

Jim Thatcher has written a post on CAPTCHA accessibility. A must read if you're working in the accessibility field.

The whole CAPTCHA issue is a can of worms. They are appearing more frequently by the day, whether to sign up for email accounts or to play games. To avoid spam (they assert) some have added CAPTCHAs to the process of commenting on Blog entries. The letters stand for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".