STAR Point Transcript - Web Accessibility
Guest: Phil Kragnes
Host: Earle Harrison
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From the depths of ingenuity to the heart and soul of assistive technology for people with disabilities, STAR is a System of Technology to Achieve Results!
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EH: The University of Minnesota's Computer Accommodations Program, CAP, is a partnership of Academic and Distributed Computing Services and Disability Services at the University of Minnesota. The program exists to assist students, staff and faculty with disabilities in accessing computers and information through use of adaptive technology. The focus of today's program is Web accessibility, who is bound by federal legislation and who is not. Joining us in the studio is Mr. Phil Kragnes, the Assistive Technology Specialist for the University of Minnesota. Welcome, Phil, and thank you so much for joining us today.
PK: Glad to be here, Earle.
EH: Let's talk a little bit about how you got involved with assistive technology and what it is you do at the U.
PK: Well, Earle, my background is in cognitive psychology, which is the study of human information processing. That's not only studying how people acquire information, store it and process it, but ways of conveying information. When I coupled my education with the fact that I myself have a disability, being totally blind, it was a great fit. How can I take technology and teach people to use it to make the most of accessing information, processing information, storing it, retrieving it and expressing it with others?
EH: We're talking about Web accessibility in particular today, and I was out on your Web page earlier and I did manage to grab some frequently asked questions, which were very conveniently placed out there on the site. What exactly is the accessibility of information technology policies that have been put into place at the University?
PK: Well, the idea for the policy grew out of some fairly recent legislation at the federal level -- that is, Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, and part of Section 508 directly addresses the accessibility of websites for people with disabilities. The University, although a state University, most people would think we're state government, and because state government must be in compliance with Section 508, therefore, the University must be. Well, as a land grant institution, there's some question as to whether we're really required to comply with Section 508. When we thought about it, the goal was not simply the comply with any statutes. I mean, we definitely want to protect ourselves from any litigation, but the real idea or the spirit was to make Web pages, and therefore the University, accessible to everyone.
EH: And just who's affected by access issues?
PK: Well, that can be a very complex question. An answer that might surprise your listeners would be "Everyone," because Web accessibility is not just about people with disabilities. At the University there are roughly a thousand students with disabilities registered with our office. I'm not sure what the number is of employees with disabilities at the U. That is just the number of people who are actually registered with the Disability Services office at the U. Estimates can range as high as 4,000 students with disabilities. Some of those do not need special accommodations, or others may be able to provide their accommodations themselves or through state rehab agencies from the state they come from.
EH: What are the types of barriers that students, disabled students at the University, encounter with respect to Web access?
PK: Well, these days more and more is done using Web pages, Web services and Web applications. Students register for on-line courses, do library research, find out about activities on campus, gain materials from professors, take their courses on-line, et cetera. And when a student with a disability comes to a website that wasn't designed properly, there may be, let's say, graphical images on the site which a blind person's screen reader cannot read to them and they miss out on that information, or perhaps graphical controls are too small for someone with a mobility impairment to hold a mouse pointer on accurately, or there may be audio files that do not have text captioning, so students who are deaf or hard of hearing would lose out on that information. So students at the University with disabilities may not have an equal opportunity for education.
EH: And how does Accessibility of Information Technology policy requirements affect usability and the appearance of Web pages for people who are not disabled?
PK: Well, that's an interesting question. A lot of Web designers think, "Oh, I've got to make my page accessible, therefore I have to take out all the bells and whistles or present a text-only version or something that would require a lot more work." Well, this isn't true. I tend to think of Web accessibility standards or requirements not as limits to design or creativity, but in fact a challenge to be more creative in the design. So if something on a website is not accessible, the first goal is to make that feature of the Web page accessible; and if that cannot be done, the standards and the policy do not require or ask that that element be eliminated from the page, but simply that an accessible alternative be available on the page.
EH: So the idea of Web accessibility doesn't mean just throwing up a text-only page that a screen reader can use?
PK: No. In fact, if you do something like make a text-only page to accommodate someone who is blind, you may in fact be presenting problems for someone with an information-processing disability such as dyslexia. Section 508 says that text-only pages shall be used as an absolute last resort after every effort to make the main page accessible has been tried. The way I like to think of it is, back in the sixties we had this idea of separate but equal -- separate lunch counters, separate sections of the bus, separate water fountains, et cetera. That didn't work then, and, as a result, civil rights laws developed. Well, accessibility to information for people with disabilities is a civil rights law, and if it didn't work in the sixties with physical structures, we don't want to revisit those issues by invoking "separate but equal" on websites.
EH: Okay. That's interesting. I've never thought of it along those lines. What recommendations would you make for people who are interested in meeting these guidelines with respect to off-the-shelf authoring tools for Web design?
PK: Well, I think the tool isn't as big an issue as the lack of knowledge. Any tool in the hands of a person who doesn't have the knowledge is a dangerous thing. There are many automated tools out there for helping people with website accessibility, some that work directly in conjunction with Web page editors. In fact, you can find a list of some tools and more information on website accessibility and related statutes and things of that nature from the Accessibility of Information Technology site, and simply visit the Web Resources and Tools page.
The Accessibility of Information Technology site can be found at http://cap.umn.edu/ait. In that address, of course, the "cap" stands for Computer Accommodations Program, and the "ait" is Accessibility of Information Technology. As I was saying, with the tools with automated Web page accessibility checkers, we have to be careful. If you think of an automated Web accessibility checker such as Bobbi, which goes through the page and tries to identify accessibility issues, it's much like using a spell checker. We can get the correct spelling of words, but we don't know if the word is necessarily correct in the context.
EH: And how would we check the application of Bobby against our Web page and make sure that it is being used in the right context?
PK: Well, that takes knowledge about why a particular feature is or is not an accessibility issue, and that's part of the reason I developed the Accessibility of Information Technology site. I not only want to give people at the University information on what our requirements are, but I want to give the user some background as to why certain features are accessibility issues or may be helpful in improving accessibility. I had done this with a previous document which I call "Guidelines For Accessible Web Page Design" that had been available from the Computer Accommodations Program main page, and what I did with that original document is expand it into the Web accessibility standards on the Accessibility of Information Technology site. I expanded it by adding some examples to the different standards or the different pages. So if I wanted to know about adding ALT text to a graphic --
EH: Why don't you go ahead and let the listeners know what exactly ALT text is.
PK: ALT text stands for alternative text, and when you specify a graphic on a website, you can include text to represent that graphic. This has several benefits. One is for screen reader users who are listening to a page. Their technology can pick up on that alternative text and read it to them. In the absence of that alternative text, the screen reader will read the only information available to it, which is generally the path and/or file name of the graphic.
Well, ALT text has several other benefits. Imagine you're a person whose native language is not English or you're in a foreign country and examining, say, the University of Minnesota as a potential place to get your education. You may be using a language translation application. Those applications cannot do anything with graphical images, but they can interpret the alternative text which accompanies those graphics.
There's also what I often call the largest disability group of all, and that's people who are using dial-in modem connections. Often these people will turn off picture learning in their browser in order to speed up surfing of the Web. Graphics take a long time to download, and the slower your connection, the longer a heavily graphics-intensive page will take to display.
Well, normally if a person turns off picture learning and there are no ALT tags for graphics, the person will find a number of gray rectangles or gray boxes on the Web page where the graphics would appear. The person would then begin to think to themselves, "Am I missing some important information?" or, worse yet, if the images are navigational buttons, they won't be able to navigate the site. Well, if that ALT text is present, then they have at least the information they need to use the site.
EH: And that goes for everybody.
PK: Correct. Even mouse users, when they place a mouse pointer over a graphic and a text description pops up briefly, that's a double- check as to what they really think that graphic means, and that text they're seeing is indeed the ALT tag.
EH: Okay. So ALT tags are -- it essentially is an element of a Web page, isn't it?
PK: Correct, and many graphical browsers when a designer/Web page developer places a graphical image on their page, when the graphic is placed on the Web page, a box will generally appear prompting the developer to enter a text description.
EH: You're listening to STAR Point, a production of the Minnesota STAR Program. My name is Earle Harrison and my guest today is Phil Kragnes, Assistive Technology Specialist for the University of Minnesota. We're going to take a short break, and we'll be right back to continue our discussion on Web accessibility.
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EH: Welcome back to STAR Point. Our guest today is Phil Kragnes, Assistive Technology Specialist at the University of Minnesota. Phil, talk to us about what might be considered some cardinal sins of Web design with regard to accessibility.
PK: If we think about Web design just as we would think of writing a paper back in grade school, many of the same rules apply. You want to provide enough information to be informative and descriptive without being burdensome. So, for instance, take a single word link, you know, a text link or a single-word ALT tag for a graphical link. Single words rarely provide enough information to be clear and easily understood. That can be an issue for people using screen readers. It can also be an issue for persons with cognitive impairments or information processing disabilities.
What people don't often think of is that single-word links also represent very small targets for people who may have mobility impairments and have trouble controlling a mouse with great dexterity. Take the word "home," for instance, at the University especially, "home" on a certain page could mean the home page for that department, it could mean the home page for the particular campus, whether that be the Twin Cities, Crookston, Duluth, Morris or Rochester campus, or it could mean the University systemwide home page. So, as you can see, "home" is a very ambiguous text for a link. But "home" is also a four-letter-wide target. If a person has much of a tremor, it may be difficult or impossible for them to actually click on that link.
EH: And what about dynamic frames and marquees and things along those lines?
PK: Well marquees/blinking text can be especially problematic for many reasons. With blinking text this can often cause a screen reader to lock on and simply keep repeating the text which is blinking. If it's a marquee which is scrolling back and forth on the page, this is often accomplished by refreshing the page. Well, every time the page is refreshed, a screen reader will begin reading again from the top, so the person may never get to the information further down on the page.
Blinking text/scrolling marquees can also be a health risk for people with photosensitive epilepsy. The flashing, blinking or scrolling of an object on the screen can actually trigger a seizure in some people.
EH: Wow! What about dynamic frames?
PK: Well, frames can cause problems for many types of adaptive technologies and for people with varying types of disabilities, or even people using older equipment. If you are clicking on a link in one frame, say the navigation frame, and information is changing in the content frame based on your activating that link, it may not be readily apparent to someone with an information-tracking disability that their action actually caused that information to change.
For screen reader users, moving back and forth between navigation buttons or the navigation frame and the content in the content or mainframe involves a great deal of work and may not be readily apparent to them unless they're familiar with the way out of the page to begin with. Older persons specially, people who didn't grow up with computers, certainly did not grow up with the Web, will often be confused by frames, and their idea of the Web is when you click a link, you get a new page. Now what they're finding is, you click on a link and the page remains the same but a portion of the page has changed.
And, finally, as I mentioned, there are people using older technologies. Maybe they're using text-only Web browsers, such as Lynx -- that's L-Y-N-X -- Mosaic and some of these others. Or perhaps it's a newer technology, such as a handheld device that will not work with frames -- that is, it's not frames capable. The rules of thumb or the standards at the University that exist when it comes to frames are to make sure that frames are well-labeled. Having a frame that says "top frame, side frame, bottom frame," et cetera, is not greatly informative for a screen reader user.
EH: Oftentimes, as a blind person myself, I find myself navigating Web pages where I'm informed by my screen reader that I am in a table, when in fact the sighted person who might be looking over my shoulder says that I'm not in a table at all. What's going on there?
PK: Well, tables can be used to format the layout of a page. So if I want information presented in multiple columns or multiple text columns much like we would see in a newspaper or magazine, the Web developer will often use the HTML table element to lay that text out. When a Windows screen reader such as JAWS for Windows or Window-Eyes encounters a table tag, it will tell the user they're reading the table and, generally, how many rows and columns there are in that table. So we are encountering a table, but to the sighted Web user it simply appears as multiple-column text.
This can be very problematic for some people, certainly people with information-tracking difficulties. Some forms of spastic cerebral palsy may have trouble tracking information that appears in a column. Similarly, some people still use DOS-based string readers, and, as I mentioned earlier, a text-only browser such as Lynx. When this happens, the screen reader cannot access any of the HTML information that the newer Windows-based screen readers will. It doesn't know there's a table there, and so it begins reading the multiple-column text as a standard paragraph, that is, reading the first line of the first column, the first line of the second column, the first line of the third column, and so on, then coming back and reading the second line of the first column, the second line of the second column, the second of the third, and so on. As you can probably tell, the information isn't going to make much sense to those people.
EH: June 21st, 2001, was a pretty important day, huh?
PK: For the federal government, certainly.
EH: For the federal government, yes, it certainly was, because accessibility guidelines dictate that any technology procured or Web pages developed since June 21st need to be accessible now. It's my understanding as well that state agencies who received funding, as such, are required to actually abide by those accessibility guidelines. Does that include the University of Minnesota as well -- aside from the fact that it's just the right thing to do?
PK: Well, we put that question to the Office of the General Counsel, and their opinion is that the University, because we are a land grant institution -- the University of Minnesota was founded in 1851. Minnesota became a state in 1858. So the University actually existed before the state. And in this case it was the feeling of the Office of General Counsel that we probably are not bound by Section 508. However, there may be other statutes, other legislation down the road that will impact the University in a similar way. And, as you noted, accessibility is just the right thing to do.
EH: Do you think we're headed down the right path in terms of -- as times goes on, it just seems that technology is getting better and better and that screen readers and technology for people with learning disabilities seem to be keeping pace quite nicely with the new operating systems and so forth. Do you see this as a continuing trend, or do you see us coming up against some barriers down the line?
PK: Well, I think we're doing fairly well, but remember that adaptive technology is often one step behind the mainstream technology. So if someone develops a new HTML technology, it may take another generation, say of a screen reader, to be able to process and handle that particular feature, and that's why accessibility really has to do with providing accessible alternatives when the main element or feature cannot be directly accessed. New technologies in the future may actually be of benefit to people with disabilities who use adaptive technology. You may have heard of XHTML. This is a divorcing of content from the layout. If we think about it, it may be possible to design a page which visually looks as though a screen reader would never be able to convey the information on the page in any meaningful way, but, in fact, because the content is separate from the layout, screen reader technology may be able to go in and get the content as a separate element. So the information remains accessible while the layout is quite flashy.
EH: And what advice do you have for aspiring Web designers with respect to authoring accessible Web pages?
PK: My advice to people who wish to begin a career in Web development, website design, is to become familiar with Web accessibility issues, standards, methods for making pages accessible, and if they have access to it, then even becoming familiar with some of the adaptive technology. It's very easy to go out and read information about Web accessibility and attempt to implement it, think that you've done so correctly, but not really know how adaptive technology may handle the layout you've created. If people are getting involved in Web development and there's even a remote possibility that they'll do work for a state agency or a federal agency or work under a state or federal contract, then they will be required to know at least the Section 508 accessibility information.
EH: Now, where can people read up more on accessibility -- Web accessibility issues?
PK: Well, certainly the Accessibility of Information Technology site is one place to begin. You can learn about the issues involved in website accessibility. If you click on the Web Resources and Tools, there are links to a number of resources on that location. If you want to learn more about the Section 508 requirements, you can go to www.section508.gov and www.access-org.gov. For information on Web accessibility from the Worldwide Web Consortium, or W3C, and the Web Accessibility Initiative, or W-A-I, you can go to www.w3c.org/wai.
EH: We've been talking to Phil Kragnes, the Assistive Technology Specialist for the University of Minnesota. And I'd like to thank you for joining us today.
PK: Well, thank you.
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You've been listening to a broadcast of STAR Point, a production of the MN STAR Program, a System of Technology to Achieve Results. If you would like to provide feedback, be a guest on our show, or if you'd like to find out more about the STAR Program, please visit our Web site at www.admin.state.mn.us/assistivetechnology. My name is Earle Harrison. Thank you for listening.