Universal Design for
Digital Document
Creation and
Publication
Dónal Rice
Senior Design Advisor,
ICT
Camden Court Hotel, 29
December 2012
Who we are and what we do
Universal Design aims:
to maximize the number of people who can readily use
a product, building or service which may be achieved
by:
(i) designing products, services and environments that are
readily usable by most users without any modification,
(ii) by making products or services adaptable to different
users (adapting user interfaces), and
(iii) by having standardized interfaces to be compatible
with special products for persons with disabilities.
(Standards: ISO, CEN, NSAI)
Centre For Excellence in Universal Design
(CEUD)
Standards
– Stimulate research
– Participate in Standardisation work nationally and
internationally
– Provide advice to stakeholders
– Encourage compliance
Education and Professional Development
– Incorporate UD content into design curriculum
– Guidance on Universal Design for teaching, examinations
and accreditation
Awareness
– Maintain a best practice database (website)
– Promote awareness and understanding
Universal Design Buildings Guidelines
Environment
Shared Spaces,
Shared Surfaces
and Home Zones
Research and
Recommendations
for Ireland
National Standard: Universal Design for Energy
Suppliers 2012
This standard provides
all Irish Energy
Suppliers with
practical methods to
improve how they
communicate with
their 1.6 million
customers.
New toolkit in
development.
Size Data for Universal Design in Ireland
(Anthropometry Research, Penn State, USA)
Information Communication Technologies
1)National Universal Design Guidelines for
Digital TV Equipment and Services
2) Research and National guidelines on
the Lived experience of people
using public sector websites
3)Trialing Universal Design Assessment Tool for assessing
use/nonuse of Technology by Older People
WHAT IS UNIVERSAL DESIGN
FOR THE WEB
Legislation and policy - Ireland
• Disability Act 2005
– Electronic communications to be accessible, as far as
practicable
– Code of Practice: Compliance with WCAG 2.0 (AA)
• NDA Monitoring: 2008
– About half have had their website audited for
accessibility
– WCAG 2.0 - AA or AAA level (32.5% at Level AA
and 17.0% at Level AAA).
• Equality Acts, Education for Persons with
Special Needs education Acts
Legislation and policy - Ireland
• “Opportunities for users to provide
feedback should be integrated into the
design of new electronic systems to
facilitate suggestions from those that
use the systems with a view to ensuring
continuous improvement.”
– “eGovernment 2012 – 2015” Action no. 14
United Nations Convention on the Rights of
People with Disabilities
• Universal Design:
– Governments are: “to undertake or promote research
and development of universally designed goods,
services, equipment and facilities…”
• Early Stage Accessibility Definitions:
– “Promote the design, development, production and
distribution of accessible information and
communications technologies and systems at an
early stage, so that these technologies and systems
become accessible at minimum cost” (Art. 9)
European Level – current developments
• Digital Agenda for Europe
– Web Accessibility Directive
• Disability Action Plan
– European Accessibility Act
How? - Public procurement
• Standardisation
– Mandate 376
DOCUMENT WORKFLOW AND
CREATION: PART 1
Welcome and Agenda
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9.15 – 9.35: Peter McKevitt (Chairperson, NDA), Dónal Rice
9.35-10.45: Document workflow and creation 1
“A Universal Design process for document creation” - Dónal Rice / Alan Dalton
(Access Officer and Accessibility Development Advisor)
“Creating accessible source document in MS Word” – Andrew Macadam
(Microsoft)
“Importance of workflow” – Charlie Pike (The Paciello Group)
10.45-11.00: Questions and answers
11.00 – 11.15: Coffee
11.15 – 12.15 : Document workflow and creation 2
“Supporting and checking the accessibility in the document conversion process”
- Kiran Kaja (Adobe)
Panel discussion: “Working with contractors – asking for (and getting) what you
want” – Dara Stokes (Catalysto), Charlie Pike (TPG), Kiran Kaja (Adobe)
12.15–12.45: Keynote presentation: “Inclusive Publishing in the Educational
Environment.” – Bernhard Heinser (DAISY consortium)
12.45-1.00: Closing remarks
Main questions and topics
• What are accessible documents and
publications?
• Any benefits to (accessible) electronic
publication?
• How can you create them?
• How can your organisation increase the
quantity and quality of its documents
and publications?
DISCLAIMER
• Not only about accessibility for blind
people
• Not technology specific
• We don’t have all the answers
• Not about:
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Web design
Web accessibility
WCAG 2.0, ATAG 2.0
Newsletters
Writing for the web
Online forms
Apps
PUBLICATION PROCESS
What are accessible documents and
publications?
• Advice/information to the public (schemes,
leaflet)
• Newsletters
• Forms (download, print, fill, return)
• Instructions for forms
• Reports (research, corporate)
• Applications (e.g. Planning)
• Maps
• Anything else?
1. Source
document
2. Intermediary
formats
3. Publication
format
Benefits of the web
“Servicing queries via the website
requires no staff time as it's self-service,
compared with:
 4 minutes over the phone
 11 minutes face to face
 15 minutes by email”
• - Public sector web manager
What formats?
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Shorter content that is a core part of the website should usually be
provided as a webpage in HTML
For all documents, a summary should be provided in HTML, plus a note
of the document format and file size.
Use pre-set formats such as headings, bullets etc in your source
document (e.g. MS Word) to format and structure your document. This
structure will be carried over into other formats such as PDF and
HTML, making it more navigable and accessible.
Ensure accessibility is considered when creating and publishing
content in document formats such as MS Word or PDF. This goes for
documents created internally as well as documents created by external
researchers or print design companies.
Where a document is not accessible, clearly state how someone may
request this document in an accessible format.
Considerations
• Your audience
– General public
– People more likely to benefit from
accessible formats
• Your internal process
– Content created
• In-house
• Syndicated
• Contracted out
Considerations 2: existing praqctices
• Existing policies
– Style guide
– Corporate identity guidelines
– Publication processes – how much control do yuo
have
• Distributed authoring environment
• Centralised authoring environment
New guidance from Centre for Excellence in Universal Design
UNIVERSAL DESIGN
GUIDANCE FOR ONLINE
PUBLIC SERVICES
Who are your customers?
New research – out soon
• What are the experiences of Irish
people in using Irish websites?
• What are the design features and
practices that most enable/hinder
people from achieving specified goals
with effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction regardless of their age, size,
ability or disability?
Key findings
• Just less than half the people surveyed (48%)
do not use the 11 most commonly used
public sector websites evaluated in the study.
• In spite of this apparently low figure, a
majority of people (80%) who use these
websites reported no problem in their use.
• However when questioned in more detail and
observed in using these websites, the level of
difficulty would appear to be greater that what
people first report.
Key findings 2
• Main obstacles include the ‘finadability’ and ‘readability’
of information
• Public sector web managers face significant challenges in
providing content and services online that are both
comprehensive, and easy to read and use.
• Disparity between how public sector bodies perceive the
level of accessibility of their websites and what this and
other studies found to be the actual case.
– This may be as a result of web accessibility being considered a
‘once off’ activity rather than a matter of ongoing quality assurance.
• There would appear to be significant cost benefits to the public
sector by interacting with citizens online versus other channels
such as over the phone, in person, via email etc.
Who are your customers – NDA
research
• 48% of people surveyed (n=1200) do
not use any of the 10 most commonly
used public sector websites
• Of those that do, 80% reported no
difficulty
• Persons with disabilities, who do use
public sector websites, are 3 times more
likely to encounter a difficulty
Universal Design Guidance for Online
Public Services
Section 6: Links and microcontent
Links are a defining characteristic of the web
and have a major impact on usability. Good
links:
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Are two to five words long
Occur naturally in the sentence
Describe the target that they link to
Invite the user to do something with a call to action
Are not “click here”
Are simple and direct rather than clever or smart
Getting to the document
Examples of linking text and text surrounding it
Poor
Better
The latest press releases are in the News section
Check out our latest press releases
of this website
The annual report can be downloaded
Download the annual report (PDF, 530KB)
The rules document is at
Read the rules of the scheme
http://www.mysite.ie/schemes/rules.htm
• Links that present a “fork in the road” away from the
current page are probably best shown inline.
Example: “You can read case studies of these
projects or watch the introductory video”
• Links to background or supporting information can be
shown separately
Universal Design for
Digital Document
Creation and
Publication
Alan Dalton
Access Officer, Access
Development Officer
Camden Court Hotel, 29
December 2012
Making documents
accessible:
what we do and
how we do it
Our process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Write clear content
Use Microsoft Word for structuring
Use Microsoft Word to convert to PDF
Use YAWC to convert to HTML
Publish Word, PDF, and HTML
(usually)
Issues
• Habits
• People think they can write clearly
• People think they can use
Word properly
• Urgency: sometimes time is limited
• Most people don’t know HTML
• Most people don’t know WCAG.
Make sure the author writes clearly
Key resources 1
• www.universaldesign.ie/ict/web /
– Web guidance for
Key resources 2:
• www.accessibility.ie
• Universal Design for Energy Suppliers