0:00:00.647,0:00:02.612 The web is about information accessibility 0:00:02.612,0:00:04.502 It's really a basic human freedom that we 0:00:04.503,0:00:06.557 are just really beginning to talk about in 0:00:06.557,0:00:09.017 the last decade. It's important 0:00:09.019,0:00:11.369 therefore that everybody have this freedom 0:00:11.369,0:00:13.519 any freedom that's only allocated to a few 0:00:13.519,0:00:14.394 is not really a freedom. 0:00:14.414,0:00:18.194 The web is about information and it's 0:00:18.234,0:00:20.364 important that people can access the 0:00:20.374,0:00:22.444 information that they need in order to 0:00:22.457,0:00:24.477 complete a workflow or get their job done 0:00:24.489,0:00:25.339 finish a task. 0:00:25.939,0:00:27.945 I think the web should be accessible to 0:00:27.945,0:00:30.230 everyone all the time. I grew up with it 0:00:30.230,0:00:34.050 being easily accessible to me. It's how 0:00:34.068,0:00:37.162 I learnt information easily. I can't 0:00:37.162,0:00:38.882 imagine someone not being able to just 0:00:38.892,0:00:41.103 google something instantly, and getting 0:00:41.117,0:00:42.207 what they need. 0:00:42.955,0:00:45.615 I think websites should be accessible 0:00:45.615,0:00:49.063 because...the web is founded kinda on this 0:00:49.063,0:00:50.973 idea of sharing information and if you 0:00:50.980,0:00:53.300 can't share information or if some people 0:00:53.300,0:00:55.230 can't see it , then it's not truly being shared. 0:00:55.271,0:01:04.951 0:01:10.552,0:01:12.249 We all have different abilities and 0:01:12.249,0:01:14.247 disabilities, and if we're all going to be 0:01:14.247,0:01:16.897 able to get the same content and interpret 0:01:16.897,0:01:18.987 it in a somewhat similar fashion, it has 0:01:18.993,0:01:21.054 to be given to us in that way and 0:01:21.054,0:01:22.507 accessible so that we can actually reach it 0:01:22.517,0:01:25.297 Accessibility is important for a number of 0:01:25.301,0:01:28.351 reasons. For one, there are laws that 0:01:28.351,0:01:32.824 apply.Another is, it can relate to our 0:01:32.824,0:01:36.034 reputation. And a third is thatby 0:01:36.034,0:01:39.107 paying attention to it, we create a more 0:01:39.107,0:01:41.212 inclusive educational environment. 0:01:41.212,0:01:43.502 I think we are really good as developers 0:01:43.502,0:01:48.367 at being...focusing on the 80% case. 0:01:48.367,0:01:50.657 Focusing on how do we make every 4 out of 0:01:50.657,0:01:52.536 every 5 of our users happy. How do we 0:01:52.536,0:01:54.353 build things for those group of people, 0:01:54.353,0:01:58.046 because the last 20% is always hard. 0:01:58.046,0:02:00.882 But I say that the web is for 100%. 0:02:00.882,0:02:02.915 It's for everybody, which is what 0:02:02.915,0:02:03.884 Tim Burners-Lee said. 0:02:03.994,0:02:06.444 I'm definitely am very moved by this 0:02:06.464,0:02:08.395 notion of inclusiveness. I mean I think 0:02:08.395,0:02:11.066 that, for me it's a part of who I... 0:02:11.066,0:02:14.296 this is important to me. But there's 0:02:14.296,0:02:18.906 also just the sort of, the notion of 0:02:18.913,0:02:24.034 of having everybody's contributions to the 0:02:24.034,0:02:25.024 sort of...the knowledge. 0:02:25.232,0:02:28.122 Big challenge is, to escape your own 0:02:28.122,0:02:30.883 viewpoint. And to not make the assumption 0:02:30.903,0:02:32.999 that everyone sees the web the way you see 0:02:32.999,0:02:36.039 it, on the device you see, the way 0:02:36.039,0:02:38.509 you use it. And so when you're creating 0:02:38.509,0:02:40.664 web pages, that's the biggest challenge, 0:02:40.664,0:02:43.564 is getting outside of where you're sitting. 0:02:43.610,0:02:46.930 The biggest obstacle to accessibility, 0:02:46.950,0:02:49.890 I think is...is pure knowledge. 0:02:49.890,0:02:51.736 It's really about putting yourself in the 0:02:51.736,0:02:53.430 mind of a person with disabilities. 0:02:53.430,0:02:56.980 A person who has, who has no motor skills 0:02:56.980,0:02:59.380 has no hands, has a lack of vision, has a 0:02:59.386,0:03:02.206 lack of hearing. May have a 0:03:02.206,0:03:04.488 cognitive disability. To be able to put 0:03:04.508,0:03:06.091 yourselves in their shoes and understand 0:03:06.091,0:03:08.302 how are they working with the thing that 0:03:08.302,0:03:09.772 I'm building or designing right now, 0:03:09.772,0:03:11.016 can they use it? 0:03:11.173,0:03:14.063 The alternative is, you build something 0:03:14.074,0:03:16.956 someone says "oh no it's not accessible!" 0:03:16.956,0:03:20.576 and so you go back and try to fix it but 0:03:20.576,0:03:22.489 you probably have been doing the wrong 0:03:22.489,0:03:24.817 thing at many places you know you may 0:03:24.817,0:03:27.597 have hundreds of images with no alt text, 0:03:27.606,0:03:30.306 you may have navigation that's very confused 0:03:30.322,0:03:32.633 or you are relying on libraries that... 0:03:32.633,0:03:34.373 open internet explorer 0:03:34.373,0:03:36.103 it's just that the technologies aren't 0:03:36.103,0:03:39.031 going to figure out. And so that's 0:03:39.041,0:03:40.546 when someone says, it's too much, 0:03:40.546,0:03:42.886 too expensive, it's too much work. 0:03:42.886,0:03:44.896 Well...just do it from the beginning and 0:03:44.896,0:03:47.496 it'll...it'll probably get a 0:03:47.506,0:03:50.026 quality product with less work. 0:03:50.592,0:03:52.752 Accessibility is important to incorporate 0:03:52.752,0:03:55.040 early on because if you don't 0:03:55.040,0:03:57.050 incorporate it early on, you will 0:03:57.050,0:03:59.583 incorporate it later at greater expense, 0:03:59.583,0:04:02.748 with a certain amount of time you don't have 0:04:02.748,0:04:04.398 with a certain amount of money you 0:04:04.398,0:04:05.798 don't have to try to make it better. 0:04:05.798,0:04:07.478 Accessibility, unfortunately like 0:04:07.478,0:04:09.127 everything else in design and web design 0:04:09.127,0:04:10.767 has to be done from the very beginning. 0:04:10.776,0:04:13.052 So whether you're designing for different 0:04:13.052,0:04:15.193 devices, whether doing for different kinds 0:04:15.193,0:04:17.603 of human abilities, all those things have 0:04:17.606,0:04:19.738 to be thought of from the very beginning 0:04:19.738,0:04:21.852 and built into your concept of what your 0:04:21.852,0:04:23.451 your plan is. Of course nobody wants to 0:04:23.451,0:04:24.991 take time at the end. We're almost there, 0:04:24.991,0:04:26.794 we just want to get it out, and that's the 0:04:26.794,0:04:28.617 mistake many of us make. It's like 0:04:28.617,0:04:30.767 "I'll just get it out, then I'll go back and fix it." 0:04:30.767,0:04:32.921 No. Doesn't ever happen. There's always 0:04:32.921,0:04:33.341 a next project. 0:04:33.341,0:04:35.987 The first step in getting an accessible 0:04:35.987,0:04:38.455 site, is to work with the management, so 0:04:38.455,0:04:40.243 they understand the value of making it 0:04:40.243,0:04:43.458 accessible, and also helping them 0:04:43.458,0:04:46.010 understand that we can do pretty 0:04:46.010,0:04:48.680 much anything they want and be accesible. 0:04:48.684,0:04:52.614 If you just talk about accessibility, it 0:04:52.614,0:04:54.679 may not be immediately appreciated as 0:04:54.679,0:04:56.924 something important to do. But if you 0:04:56.924,0:05:01.216 start talking about quality and the 0:05:01.216,0:05:03.445 overlap of search engine optimisation and 0:05:03.445,0:05:05.502 accessibility and things of that nature 0:05:05.502,0:05:07.373 that...that will tend to get people's 0:05:07.373,0:05:08.253 attention more. 0:05:08.273,0:05:11.628 When I started, I was a designer and I 0:05:11.628,0:05:13.514 wanted to make things look pretty. And you 0:05:13.514,0:05:16.334 don't think about anything besides the 0:05:16.334,0:05:19.737 aesthetics. And what I soon realised was 0:05:19.737,0:05:22.466 that when you have something that works 0:05:22.466,0:05:26.146 it already looks good, right, so 0:05:26.146,0:05:27.662 that's where I started to move towards 0:05:27.662,0:05:30.029 things being functional then the beauty 0:05:30.029,0:05:31.650 came along after that. 0:05:31.650,0:05:35.046 I don't believe that making a site 0:05:35.046,0:05:38.472 accessible inhibits creativity. In fact 0:05:38.472,0:05:41.482 I would argue it...it...helps creativity, 0:05:41.482,0:05:43.069 it improves creativity. 0:05:43.069,0:05:44.979 Good accessible design often closely 0:05:44.980,0:05:48.597 relates to good usable design. And we 0:05:48.597,0:05:50.397 found a really close parallel between good 0:05:50.400,0:05:53.533 mobile design, mobile for mobile devices 0:05:53.533,0:05:56.141 and the simplicity and clarity of good 0:05:56.141,0:05:57.427 accessible design. 0:05:57.427,0:05:58.247 Safari 0:05:58.247,0:05:59.750 skip to primary content. 0:05:59.750,0:06:00.760 0:06:00.760,0:06:04.557 In page link. Current Student. Future Student. 0:06:04.557,0:06:07.647 Menu Item. Accessible Technology. 0:06:07.797,0:06:10.216 So they are all inter-related 0:06:10.216,0:06:11.827 and basically if you're making a really 0:06:11.827,0:06:13.896 complicated site with lots of stuff on it. 0:06:13.896,0:06:15.820 When you're doing, using different methods 0:06:15.820,0:06:18.063 all over the place. You're probably 0:06:18.083,0:06:19.833 not building that great a site anyway. 0:06:19.943,0:06:22.303 The way we create websites today, has 0:06:22.342,0:06:24.374 improved from 10 years ago. We're not 0:06:24.374,0:06:26.881 using in-line styles, we're not only 0:06:26.881,0:06:30.667 designing for 1 screen size. So the 0:06:30.667,0:06:33.101 developers and designers are forced to 0:06:33.101,0:06:35.086 design for every person and every device. 0:06:35.086,0:06:39.938 We can't go backwards, we can't become 0:06:39.938,0:06:40.878 limited again. 0:06:40.942,0:06:44.592 Primarily what you can do as a designer 0:06:44.592,0:06:46.531 to to check for accessibility is 0:06:46.531,0:06:48.858 making sure that you have good headings. 0:06:48.858,0:06:51.033 Good proper headings and headings 0:06:51.033,0:06:55.023 structure good labels on inputs 0:06:55.031,0:06:57.201 good labels on buttons and links 0:06:57.210,0:06:59.436 so making sure you're using the right tags 0:06:59.436,0:07:01.966 and the second best thing I would say, 0:07:01.978,0:07:04.298 at least that I do are checking 0:07:04.323,0:07:05.863 with the keyboard, just looking to see 0:07:05.863,0:07:08.714 keyboard navigation, making sure there's 0:07:08.714,0:07:10.355 you know there's good focus, indicators 0:07:10.355,0:07:11.997 and that you don't get the focus trapped 0:07:11.997,0:07:12.900 anywhere. 0:07:12.900,0:07:16.590 The heart of the challenge in sort of 0:07:16.590,0:07:18.570 the development world is that many 0:07:18.570,0:07:21.403 developers you know look around and find 0:07:21.403,0:07:23.523 open source libraries with really cool 0:07:23.523,0:07:26.567 stuff. So they find ways to make things 0:07:26.581,0:07:28.528 bounce across the screen, or make things 0:07:28.528,0:07:30.411 get big and small and so on. And it just 0:07:30.411,0:07:32.491 doesn't enter their mind to evaluate them 0:07:32.491,0:07:33.161 for accessibility. 0:07:33.404,0:07:34.969 When you're looking at a java script 0:07:34.969,0:07:36.698 library or a content management system, 0:07:36.698,0:07:38.146 piece of code that you would like to use, 0:07:38.146,0:07:40.636 you need to look both at, does it do what 0:07:40.646,0:07:43.406 you want for the web and does it also, 0:07:43.406,0:07:45.911 is it also accessible? In other words, 0:07:45.972,0:07:46.662 does it do it for you and for everybody. 0:07:46.832,0:07:48.683 So as soon as you build something, you go 0:07:48.683,0:07:50.122 back and you check it and check it over 0:07:50.122,0:07:52.348 and over again. On multiple browsers, on 0:07:52.348,0:07:55.163 multiple machines. You know I'll even call 0:07:55.163,0:07:57.453 people you know overseas,and say "hey can 0:07:57.468,0:07:59.044 you can you find it, can you check it, is 0:07:59.044,0:08:01.286 it working for you? Oh ok good you know. 0:08:01.286,0:08:03.184 And now they have tools out there where 0:08:03.184,0:08:05.378 you can check on every single browser out 0:08:05.378,0:08:07.278 there. In the past, that was really 0:08:07.303,0:08:09.124 important, it still is. We have a few 0:08:09.124,0:08:10.663 browsers out there, like a handful of 0:08:10.663,0:08:12.831 browsers that we use, but we need to check 0:08:12.831,0:08:15.281 it on on every possible system and platform. 0:08:15.281,0:08:17.815 The best thing that you can do ultimately 0:08:17.815,0:08:19.625 to check a design be it, checking for 0:08:19.625,0:08:22.635 usability or accessibility is actually 0:08:22.635,0:08:23.981 putting it in front of users and seeing if 0:08:23.981,0:08:24.555 they can use it. 0:08:24.555,0:08:26.695 You know, no matter how great your site is 0:08:26.695,0:08:28.115 you know you may think you're hitting all 0:08:28.123,0:08:29.513 the standards, then you watch someone go 0:08:29.513,0:08:32.267 through it and you say well, wow they had 0:08:32.267,0:08:33.635 ...that didn't work out so well 0:08:33.635,0:08:37.605 When I think of what a university does at 0:08:37.605,0:08:43.356 it's core is to, not take everyone with 0:08:43.356,0:08:46.197 very similar ideas and turn out people 0:08:46.197,0:08:49.287 with the same ideas, but it's to benefit 0:08:49.287,0:08:52.418 from a broad range of abilities and skills 0:08:52.418,0:08:55.516 and different perspectives. And I see 0:08:55.516,0:08:57.660 accessibility and disability as being a 0:08:57.660,0:08:58.750 part of that spectrum. 0:08:58.762,0:09:00.932 I think accessibility needs to be talked 0:09:00.944,0:09:02.846 about more, it needs to be taught in 0:09:02.846,0:09:04.885 the institution, in schools, it needs to 0:09:04.885,0:09:07.302 be enforced in institutions and commercial 0:09:07.302,0:09:08.092 environments. 0:09:08.100,0:09:10.479 As new technology comes out, I think there 0:09:10.479,0:09:12.427 will be some there just neglect it 0:09:12.427,0:09:14.746 completely, and others that champion it. 0:09:14.746,0:09:17.226 And the ones that champion it will be more 0:09:17.237,0:09:19.271 user-friendly to everybody else, and they'll 0:09:19.271,0:09:20.131 win in the marketplace. 0:09:20.219,0:09:23.709 I think the future of the web is to 0:09:23.709,0:09:25.192 be making fewer and fewer assumptions 0:09:25.192,0:09:27.076 about how other people use it. We have 0:09:27.076,0:09:32.096 mobile devices, we have screen readers, 0:09:32.096,0:09:34.389 and we even have your web page or your 0:09:34.390,0:09:36.443 content might be used by another machine 0:09:36.443,0:09:38.305 so I think the fewer of the web is to 0:09:38.305,0:09:40.227 continue making fewer and fewer 0:09:40.227,0:09:42.537 assumptions and more universal content 0:09:42.537,0:09:45.607 that is not restrictive or exclusive. 0:09:46.036,0:09:48.626 I think it can be very challenging for a 0:09:48.626,0:09:54.085 certain applications to serve people with disabilities 0:09:54.085,0:09:56.785 but that's where the engineer needs to 0:09:56.785,0:09:59.202 think about "why did I become an engineer" 0:09:59.202,0:10:02.462 to make the impossible, possible, to solve 0:10:02.477,0:10:04.643 big problems. And this is a big problem, 0:10:04.643,0:10:06.331 so let's attack it, let's solve it. 0:10:06.331,0:10:07.251