Beyond Accessibility Regulations
Craig Abbott
@abbott567
Hi, my name is Craig
I'm a Senior Product Designer at Elastic, and former Head of Accessibility for the Department for Work and Pensions in UK Government.
ADHD + Autism = Me
I have combined presentation ADHD and Autism
Terminology
- Neurotypical?
- Neurodivergent?
- Neurodiversity?
Neuro means to do with the brain.
So neurotypical pretty much means typical brain.
Divergent means different. So, different brain.
Neurodiversity is when you have a collection of people who all think differently.
Being non-typical is actually pretty typical
Around 15% of the population are neurodivergent.
As time goes on, more understanding, more diagnosis and more support is becoming available.
If neurodivergents made up more than 50% of the population, we’d probably be the ones considered neurotypical.
If you’re comfortable
Raise your hand if you identify as being Neurodivergent.
In the past you probably wouldn’t know you were neurodivergent…
unless you were diagnosed with a ‘disorder’.
Language matters
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Bipolar Disorder
- Learning Disorder (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia)
Almost every neurodivergent person is labelled with a disorder or a syndrome.
Disorder implies chaos
That you are not orderly, or that you don’t fit.
‘Disorder’ relies on context
Books ordered by colour are considered disordered.
Quote from Harvard Business Review
“many people with neurological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, dyspraxia, and dyslexia have extraordinary skills, including in pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics”
Pay close attention to the language
“many people with neurological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, dyspraxia, and dyslexia have extraordinary skills, including in pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics”
The stigma still bleeds through in the language.
There’s a thin line between exploitation and culture change
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quote from the World Economic Forum
“Many of the worlds biggest companies are now actively recruiting neurodiverse workers in order to benefit from their unique skills and abilities.”
Again, pay close attention to the language
“Many of the worlds biggest companies are now actively recruiting neurodiverse workers in order to benefit from their unique skills and abilities.”
This reads very much like exploitation to me.
Why am I telling you this?
Because accessibility regulations and standards are getting better, but culture and attitudes are not!
Accessibility Regulations
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Strap yourself in…
I’m going to cover regulations and standards at a high level.
Don’t worry if you get a bit lost, we all do!
United States of America
Crip Camp
Crip Camp is a really good documentary about how a lot of the American accessibility regulations came to be.
It's produced by Michelle and Barack Obama.
The background of this slide shows the Netflix imagery for Crip Camp. It shows two young men. One is in a wheelchair, the other is standing behind him with one hand on the chair and his other hand on the neck of a guitar which is is holding over his shoulder.
Accessible does not equal inclusive
This is important!
You can have a fully accessible product and still fail to meet the Equality Act on a poorly worded question about gender.
Design Justice
I'm not going to get into all of the protected characteristics in this talk, but I really recommend reading Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock. is a great book to learn more about designing for everybody, not just people who rely on accessibility.
The European Accessibility Act
Applies to:
- private sector
- digital services, like websites and mobile apps
- digital products, like e-books and office documents
- physical services, like transportation
- physical products, like phones, ticket machines, ATM’s and TV’s
Brexit complicates the UK’s position on the EAA
The European Accessibility Act cannot be enforced by the EU, but the UK may choose to adopt it anyway.
Reasonable Adjustments
Will continue to be a requirement under the Equality Act 2010. So it makes sense to adopt the European Accessibility Act anyway.
If you voluntarily adopt the European Accessibility Act:
- Easily meet the UK’s obligations for ‘reasonable adjustments’
- Products and services will not look inferior to EU competitors
- Easier to expand into European markets, meaning more customers and sales
The regulations are complex.
But their intentions are simple.
My summary of the regulations
We must not deliberately (or accidentally) exclude anybody.
We must actively work to be as inclusive as possible.
We must provide an equal level of service to everybody.
Accessibility Standards
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EN 301 549
European standard for accessibility requirements for ICT products and services
WCAG-ICT
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of Information Communications Technology.
All regulations lead to WCAG
Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act, and Section 508 references WCAG as the standard.
The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations is harmonised with the EU Web Accessibility Directive, and they both reference EN 301 549 as the standard, and EN 301 549 references WCAG as it's technical criteria.
The European Accessibility Act also references EN 301 549, which again references WCAG.
Finally, the Americans with Disability Act does not technically mention WCAG, but, WCAG has been the standard that is referred to in court cases where organisations are accused of not meeting the accessibility requirements.
WCAG aims to make digital products:
- Perceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
WCAG has 3 levels:
- A
- AA
- AAA
WCAG has 2 levels, if we're honest
- A
- AA
A lot of cognitive support is lost in AAA criteria:
For example:
Examples of affected impairments:
- 1.4.7 Low or no background audio - Auditory processing
- 2.2.4 Interruptions - Focus
- 2.4.8 Location - Memory
- 3.1.5 Reading level - Reading level
Examples of conditions helped by these criteria:
- 1.4.7 Low or no background audio - Autism
- 2.2.4 Interruptions - ADHD
- 2.4.8 Location - Anxiety
- 3.1.5 Reading level - Dyslexia
Accessibility is improving
But, there are still people left in the margins.
Statistics
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A common misconception:
Accessibility only affects a small number of people.
1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability…
the same number as those with brown eyes.
The prevalence of disability rises with age:
- 8% of children
- 19% of working-age adults
- 46% of adults over state pension age
The official statistics paint a bleak picture,
but it’s actually far worse.
Definitions and thresholds
Missing data.
Mental health issues
Missing data.
Non-visible disabilities
Missing data.
Hidden disabilities
Missing data.
1 in 3 people
Show unconscious bias towards people with disabilities.
The disability pay gap
Autistic people earn around
33% less than their colleagues
doing the same job.
The need for accessibility is massively underrepresented in the ‘official statistics’.
1 in 5 people is just the tip of the iceberg.
Impairment does not equal disability
This is important!
Impairment
An impairment is medical. It’s the condition or symptoms that a person experiences.
Disability
When a person finds it difficult to perform every-day tasks to a level that is considered comfortable for most people.
Medical Model of Disability
A persons ‘disability’ is due to their impairment. It is a condition to be ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’.
Example: Sam cannot enjoy the cinema because they are blind.
Social Model of Disability
A persons ‘disability’ is due to an environment or a society not accommodating their impairments.
Example: Sam cannot enjoy the cinema because audio descriptions are not available.
An impairment does not always mean a person has a disability
This is important!
Example
Imagine you’re colour blind and it’s your job to analyse pandemic statistics.
Pandemic statistics
This slide shows a heat map for hospitals with over 100 COVID-19 positive inpatients on 30 October.
It is a grid, which shows hospitals down the y axis, and days across the top axis.
Each square in the grid is coloured red, amber or green to show the risk at that hospital on that day.
There is a key, which states red means above previous peak, amber means over half the previous peak and green means below half the previous peak.
Pandemic statistics: filtered
This slide is the same as the previous slide, showing the pandemic grid. Only this time it has been filtered for red green colour blindness.
Now, every tile is yellow, and you cannot make out from the key which tile represents high, medium or low risk.
Colour blindness solution
This slide shows the BBC sport website which also uses a red and green status, to represent if a team won or lost.
In this example, the colour is accompanied with a W for a win and an L for a loss, so even if you cannot see the colour, you can get the correct information from it.
Colour blindness is a good example of impairment vs disability
1 in 12 men, and 1 in 200 women are colour blind.
People are not always disabled by their impairments
They’re disabled by poorly designed environments.
Around 67% of WCAG failures originate in the design
Anna E Cook
As designers, we must shoulder a lot of the blame.
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Accessibility Annotation Kits
help you fill in the blanks for developers
We often design things which fit with our own world-view
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Kings Cross Station
This photo shows a customer service desk at Kings Cross Station after a refurbishment.
The desk is around chest height for a man stood next to it, but a section of it drops down at a 45 degree angle onto a lower section of desk where wheelchair users and people of short stature can have face to face conversations.
After the refurbishment, a black sticker has been placed over the window to square the design off to match the height of the tall desk.
A woman in a wheelchair sits in front of the lower desk, completely obscured by the black sticker.
Accessible by design
Not ‘accessible because it passed an audit’.
Introducing CogA
Cognitive Accessibility Guidelines
CogA is a set of 8 principles
Spoiler: Most of them are just good design.
Caveat:
I’ll show 1 example for each principle, but there will be more things to consider.
1. Help users understand what things are and how to use them
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Use consistent labels and icons
It makes interactions predictable and learnable.
Questions:
Are delete and remove different?
If you saw the icon on it’s own, would you be confident you understood what it does?
2. Help users to find what they need
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Use a clear and understandable page structure
Use the correct headings to nest content in a way that makes sense.
h1: Stop the spread of COVID-19
h2: How to stay safe
h3: Wearing a mask
h3: Washing your hands
h3: Social distancing
h2: How to get a test
h3: Getting tests if you’re a key worker
h3: Getting tests for a care home
3. Use clear and understandable content
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Use plain language
If you need to use industry language or acronyms, explain what they mean.
4. Help users to avoid mistakes and know how to correct them
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Use clear labels and error messages
If you know what went wrong, explain it in a way the user can understand.
5. Help users focus
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Scope the current task clearly
Only present the user with what they need at each step.
6. Ensure processes do not rely on memory
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Replay information if it’s needed for the current task
Don’t rely on a user remembering information or data from previous tasks.
7. Provide help and support
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Make feedback and support easy to find
Provide tailored help, such as links to specific documentation, and contact information if they cannot fix the issue themselves.
8. Support adaptation and personalisation
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Design and build responsive interfaces
Support different devices, font sizes, colour modes, and accessibility settings.
The 8 principles of CogA
- Help users understand what things are and how to use them
- Help users to find what they need
- Use clear and understandable content
- Help users avoid mistakes and know how to correct them
- Help users focus
- Ensure processes do not rely on memory
- Provide help and support
- Support adaptation and personalisation
Wrap up…
The statistics are flawed
More people rely on accessibility than 1 in 5.
Humans are biased
Don’t assume you know what people need.
Don’t be the person that says:
“We don’t have any users with disabilities.”
Hire neurodivergent people
But make sure you support them properly!
Accessibility is a user need
Not a technical specification.
Design for accessibility
Consider it. Plan it. Annotate it.
Meet standards
At the very least, be compliant.
Go beyond standards
Do research, consider CogA and Design Justice.
Accessibility compliance is our starting block…
Inclusion is our finish line.
Thanks!
Craig Abbott
@abbott567