1 00:00:00,647 --> 00:00:02,612 The web is about information accessibility 2 00:00:02,612 --> 00:00:04,502 It's really a basic human freedom that we 3 00:00:04,503 --> 00:00:06,557 are just really beginning to talk about in 4 00:00:06,557 --> 00:00:09,017 the last decade. It's important 5 00:00:09,019 --> 00:00:11,369 therefore that everybody have this freedom 6 00:00:11,369 --> 00:00:13,519 any freedom that's only allocated to a few 7 00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:14,394 is not really a freedom. 8 00:00:14,414 --> 00:00:18,194 The web is about information and it's 9 00:00:18,234 --> 00:00:20,364 important that people can access the 10 00:00:20,374 --> 00:00:22,444 information that they need in order to 11 00:00:22,457 --> 00:00:24,477 complete a workflow or get their job done 12 00:00:24,489 --> 00:00:25,339 finish a task. 13 00:00:25,939 --> 00:00:27,945 I think the web should be accessible to 14 00:00:27,945 --> 00:00:30,230 everyone all the time. I grew up with it 15 00:00:30,230 --> 00:00:34,050 being easily accessible to me. It's how 16 00:00:34,068 --> 00:00:37,162 I learnt information easily. I can't 17 00:00:37,162 --> 00:00:38,882 imagine someone not being able to just 18 00:00:38,892 --> 00:00:41,103 google something instantly, and getting 19 00:00:41,117 --> 00:00:42,207 what they need. 20 00:00:42,955 --> 00:00:45,615 I think websites should be accessible 21 00:00:45,615 --> 00:00:49,063 because...the web is founded kinda on this 22 00:00:49,063 --> 00:00:50,973 idea of sharing information and if you 23 00:00:50,980 --> 00:00:53,300 can't share information or if some people 24 00:00:53,300 --> 00:00:55,230 can't see it , then it's not truly being shared. 25 00:00:55,271 --> 00:01:04,951 26 00:01:10,552 --> 00:01:12,249 We all have different abilities and 27 00:01:12,249 --> 00:01:14,247 disabilities, and if we're all going to be 28 00:01:14,247 --> 00:01:16,897 able to get the same content and interpret 29 00:01:16,897 --> 00:01:18,987 it in a somewhat similar fashion, it has 30 00:01:18,993 --> 00:01:21,054 to be given to us in that way and 31 00:01:21,054 --> 00:01:22,507 accessible so that we can actually reach it 32 00:01:22,517 --> 00:01:25,297 Accessibility is important for a number of 33 00:01:25,301 --> 00:01:28,351 reasons. For one, there are laws that 34 00:01:28,351 --> 00:01:32,824 apply.Another is, it can relate to our 35 00:01:32,824 --> 00:01:36,484 reputation. And a third is thatby 36 00:01:36,484 --> 00:01:39,107 paying attention to it, we create a more 37 00:01:39,107 --> 00:01:41,212 inclusive educational environment. 38 00:01:41,212 --> 00:01:43,502 I think we are really good as developers 39 00:01:43,502 --> 00:01:48,367 at being...focusing on the 80% case. 40 00:01:48,367 --> 00:01:50,657 Focusing on how do we make every 4 out of 41 00:01:50,657 --> 00:01:52,536 every 5 of our users happy. How do we 42 00:01:52,536 --> 00:01:54,353 build things for those group of people, 43 00:01:54,353 --> 00:01:58,046 because the last 20% is always hard. 44 00:01:58,046 --> 00:02:00,882 But I say that the web is for 100%. 45 00:02:00,882 --> 00:02:02,915 It's for everybody, which is what 46 00:02:02,915 --> 00:02:03,884 Tim Burners-Lee said. 47 00:02:03,994 --> 00:02:06,444 I'm definitely am very moved by this 48 00:02:06,464 --> 00:02:08,395 notion of inclusiveness. I mean I think 49 00:02:08,395 --> 00:02:11,066 that, for me it's a part of who I... 50 00:02:11,066 --> 00:02:14,296 this is important to me. But there's 51 00:02:14,296 --> 00:02:18,906 also just the sort of, the notion of 52 00:02:18,913 --> 00:02:24,034 of having everybody's contributions to the 53 00:02:24,034 --> 00:02:25,024 sort of...the knowledge. 54 00:02:25,232 --> 00:02:28,122 Big challenge is, to escape your own 55 00:02:28,122 --> 00:02:30,883 viewpoint. And to not make the assumption 56 00:02:30,903 --> 00:02:32,999 that everyone sees the web the way you see 57 00:02:32,999 --> 00:02:36,039 it, on the device you see, the way 58 00:02:36,039 --> 00:02:38,509 you use it. And so when you're creating 59 00:02:38,509 --> 00:02:40,664 web pages, that's the biggest challenge, 60 00:02:40,664 --> 00:02:43,564 is getting outside of where you're sitting. 61 00:02:43,610 --> 00:02:46,930 The biggest obstacle to accessibility, 62 00:02:46,950 --> 00:02:49,890 I think is...is pure knowledge. 63 00:02:49,890 --> 00:02:51,736 It's really about putting yourself in the 64 00:02:51,736 --> 00:02:53,430 mind of a person with disabilities. 65 00:02:53,430 --> 00:02:56,980 A person who has, who has no motor skills 66 00:02:56,980 --> 00:02:59,380 has no hands, has a lack of vision, has a 67 00:02:59,386 --> 00:03:02,206 lack of hearing. May have a 68 00:03:02,206 --> 00:03:04,488 cognitive disability. To be able to put 69 00:03:04,508 --> 00:03:06,091 yourselves in their shoes and understand 70 00:03:06,091 --> 00:03:08,302 how are they working with the thing that 71 00:03:08,302 --> 00:03:09,772 I'm building or designing right now, 72 00:03:09,772 --> 00:03:11,016 can they use it? 73 00:03:11,173 --> 00:03:14,063 The alternative is, you build something 74 00:03:14,074 --> 00:03:16,956 someone says "oh no it's not accessible!" 75 00:03:16,956 --> 00:03:20,576 and so you go back and try to fix it but 76 00:03:20,576 --> 00:03:22,489 you probably have been doing the wrong 77 00:03:22,489 --> 00:03:24,817 thing at many places you know you may 78 00:03:24,817 --> 00:03:27,597 have hundreds of images with no alt text, 79 00:03:27,606 --> 00:03:30,306 you may have navigation that's very confused 80 00:03:30,322 --> 00:03:32,633 or you are relying on libraries that... 81 00:03:32,633 --> 00:03:34,373 open internet explorer 82 00:03:34,373 --> 00:03:36,103 it's just that the technologies aren't 83 00:03:36,103 --> 00:03:39,031 going to figure out. And so that's 84 00:03:39,041 --> 00:03:40,546 when someone says, it's too much, 85 00:03:40,546 --> 00:03:42,886 too expensive, it's too much work. 86 00:03:42,886 --> 00:03:44,896 Well...just do it from the beginning and 87 00:03:44,896 --> 00:03:47,496 it'll...it'll probably get a 88 00:03:47,506 --> 00:03:50,026 quality product with less work. 89 00:03:50,592 --> 00:03:52,752 Accessibility is important to incorporate 90 00:03:52,752 --> 00:03:55,040 early on because if you don't 91 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,050 incorporate it early on, you will 92 00:03:57,050 --> 00:03:59,583 incorporate it later at greater expense, 93 00:03:59,583 --> 00:04:02,748 with a certain amount of time you don't have 94 00:04:02,748 --> 00:04:04,398 with a certain amount of money you 95 00:04:04,398 --> 00:04:05,798 don't have to try to make it better. 96 00:04:05,798 --> 00:04:07,478 Accessibility, unfortunately like 97 00:04:07,478 --> 00:04:09,127 everything else in design and web design 98 00:04:09,127 --> 00:04:10,767 has to be done from the very beginning. 99 00:04:10,776 --> 00:04:13,052 So whether you're designing for different 100 00:04:13,052 --> 00:04:15,193 devices, whether doing for different kinds 101 00:04:15,193 --> 00:04:17,603 of human abilities, all those things have 102 00:04:17,606 --> 00:04:19,738 to be thought of from the very beginning 103 00:04:19,738 --> 00:04:21,942 and built into your concept of what your 104 00:04:21,942 --> 00:04:23,451 your plan is. Of course nobody wants to 105 00:04:23,451 --> 00:04:24,991 take time at the end. We're almost there, 106 00:04:24,991 --> 00:04:26,794 we just want to get it out, and that's the 107 00:04:26,794 --> 00:04:28,617 mistake many of us make. It's like 108 00:04:28,617 --> 00:04:30,767 "I'll just get it out, then I'll go back and fix it." 109 00:04:30,767 --> 00:04:32,921 No. Doesn't ever happen. There's always 110 00:04:32,921 --> 00:04:33,341 a next project. 111 00:04:33,341 --> 00:04:35,987 The first step in getting an accessible 112 00:04:35,987 --> 00:04:38,455 site, is to work with the management, so 113 00:04:38,455 --> 00:04:40,243 they understand the value of making it 114 00:04:40,243 --> 00:04:43,458 accessible, and also helping them 115 00:04:43,458 --> 00:04:46,010 understand that we can do pretty 116 00:04:46,010 --> 00:04:48,680 much anything they want and be accesible. 117 00:04:48,684 --> 00:04:52,614 If you just talk about accessibility, it 118 00:04:52,614 --> 00:04:54,679 may not be immediately appreciated as 119 00:04:54,679 --> 00:04:56,924 something important to do. But if you 120 00:04:56,924 --> 00:05:01,216 start talking about quality and the 121 00:05:01,216 --> 00:05:10,045 overlap of search engine optimisation and 122 00:05:10,045 --> 00:05:15,005 accessibility and things of that nature 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that...that will tend to get people's 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 attention more. 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I started, I was a designer and I 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 wanted to make things look pretty. And you 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 don't think about anything besides the 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 aesthetics. And what I soon realised was 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that when you have something that works 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it already looks good, right, so that's 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where I started to move towards things 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 being functional then the beauty came 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 along after that. 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't believe that making a site 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accessible inhibits creativity. In fact 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I would argue it ..it helps creativity, it 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 improves creativity. 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Good accessible design often closely 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 relates to good usable design. And we 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 found a really close parallel between good 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 mobile design, mobile for mobile devices 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the simplicity and clarity of good 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accessible design. 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Safari 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 skip to primary content. 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In page link. Current Student. Future Student. 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Menu Item. Accessible Technology. 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So they are all inter-related 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and basically if you're making a really 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 complicated site with lots of stuff on it. 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When you're doing, using different methods 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all over the place. You're probably 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 not building that great a site anyway. 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The way we create websites today, has 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 improved from 10 years ago. We're not 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 using in-line styles, we're not only 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 designing for 1 screen size. So the 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 developers and designers are forced to 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 design for every person and every device. 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We can't go backwards, we can't become 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 limited again. 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Primarily what you can do as a designer 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to to check for accessibility is 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 making sure that you have good headings. 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Good proper headings and headings 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 structure good labels on inputs 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 good labels on buttons and links 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so making sure you're using the right tags 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the second best thing I would say, 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 at least that I do are checking 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with the keyboard, just looking to see 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 keyboard navigation, making sure there's 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you know there's good focus, indicators 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and that you don't get the focus trapped 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 anywhere. 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The heart of the challenge in sort of 178 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the development world is that many 179 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 developers you know look around and find 180 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 open source libraries with really cool 181 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 stuff. So they find ways to make things 182 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 bounce across the screen, or make things 183 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 get big and small and so on. And it just 184 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 doesn't enter their mind to evaluate them 185 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for accessibility. 186 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When you're looking at a java script 187 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 library or a content management system, 188 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 piece of code that you would like to use, 189 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you need to look both at, does it do what 190 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you want for the web and does it also, 191 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is it also accessible? In other words, 192 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 does it do it for you and for everybody. 193 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So as soon as you build something, you go 194 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 back and you check it and check it over 195 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and over again. On multiple browsers, on 196 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 multiple machines. You know I'll even call 197 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people you know overseas,and say "hey can 198 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can you find it, can you check it, is 199 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it working for you? Oh ok good you know. 200 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And now they have tools out there where 201 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can check on every single browser out 202 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there. In the past, that was really 203 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 important, it still is. We have a few 204 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 browsers out there, like a handful of 205 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 browsers that we use, but we need to check 206 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it on on every possible system and platform. 207 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The best thing that you can do ultimately 208 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to check a design be it, checking for 209 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 usability or accessibility is actually 210 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 putting it in front of users and seeing if 211 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they can use it. 212 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You know, no matter how great your site is 213 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you know you may think you're hitting all 214 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the standards, then you watch someone go 215 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through it and you say well, wow they had 216 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ...that didn't work out so well 217 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I think of what a university does at 218 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's core is to, not take everyone with 219 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 very similar ideas and turn out people 220 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with the same ideas, but it's to benefit 221 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from a broad range of abilities and skills 222 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and different perspectives. And I see 223 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accessibility and disability as being a 224 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 part of that spectrum. 225 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think accessibility needs to be talked 226 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about more, it needs to be taught in 227 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the institution, in schools, it needs to 228 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be enforced in institutions and commercial 229 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 environments. 230 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As new technology comes out, I think there 231 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will be some that just neglect it 232 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 completely, and others that champion it. 233 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And the ones that champion it will be more 234 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 user-friendly to everybody else, and they'll 235 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 win in the marketplace. 236 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think the future of the web is to 237 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be making fewer and fewer assumptions 238 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about how other people use it. We have 239 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 mobile devices, we have screen readers, 240 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we even have your web page or your 241 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 content might be used by another machine 242 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I think the fewer of the web is to 243 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 continue making fewer and fewer 244 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 assumptions and more universal content 245 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that is not restrictive or exclusive. 246 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think it can be very challenging for a 247 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 certain applications to serve people with disabilities 248 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but that's where the engineer needs to 249 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 think about "why did I become an engineer" 250 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to make the impossible, possible, to solve 251 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 big problems. And this is a big problem, 252 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so let's attack it, let's solve it. 253 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999