Slide 1
Hi! Thanks for joining us. IÕm Amelia Guimarin and also hosting this webinar is my colleague Anushka Agrawal. I see some familiar names on the call, which means that some of you may already know a bit about Spatial.  We are a research and design consulting firm operating out of Vancouver, Canada. We have clients across the country, across the US, and further abroad as well. We focus mainly on the user experience of digital products and services, but we also do a lot of strategy and development work. My personal background is in Anthropology, Human Computer Interaction and Media Production and IÕm a UX Researcher and Anushka is also a UX Researcher and Designer.
Today weÕre going to be discussing digital accessibility and weÕre hosting this webinar this week because it is National AccessAbility Week. National AccessAbility Week is an initiative led by Government Canada. Òto promote inclusion and accessibility in our communities and workplaces, to celebrate our progress and to be inspired to further break down accessibility barriers.Ó
What weÕre discussing today isnÕt only relevant to Canada though. Digital accessibility is based on some international standards that weÕll get into later so itÕs really important around the world, but today we are going to look mainly at Canada and the US.
I think itÕs also a very critical time to be examining accessibility and inclusion right now given the COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing issues of police brutality. From a digital experience perspective, itÕs crucial that everyone be able to access information, resources and services whether it be for healthcare or legal aide or even just connecting with and supporting their communities.
So, thanks again, one more time, for joining us today and letÕs get started with some housekeeping.

Slide 2
So, first we are using Rev to provide live captions for this webinar. To access live captions, go up to the top of your screen and click that live icon and then select ÔView stream on Rev live captions.Õ
We ask that you please remain muted with your video off for the duration of the presentation. 
If you have any questions, please post them in the chat for everyone to see and Anushka will respond to them there as we go, or if possible, I will address them as they come up.
Any remaining questions or comments can be addressed at end of session and then we can unmute and have a discussion.
And a link to the recording of the webinar with the Rev transcript will be sent via email by Tuesday, June 9.
 
Slide 3
Today weÕre going to start with an introduction to digital accessibility Ð what it is and why it matters. WeÕll talk about legislation that effects digital accessibility and and give some examples of some best practices.
WeÕll cover the 5 categories that Spatial has outlined as crucial for digital accessibility and talk about opportunities for actually implementing these practices. After that we can chat about ways to get more involved and address anything else youÕd like to discuss.
Slide 4
The main goal of this webinar is to share information with you about digital accessibility, including the basics of assessments, and we hope that you come out of this webinar with some ideas for how to make your digital products and services more accessible.

Slide 5
So, first off, what is digital accessibility and why does it matter?

Slide 6
To understand digital accessibility, itÕs important to understand accessibility in general
Accessibility ensures that an experience can be used by all people, taking care to incorporate best practices for common user considerations.
Typically, accessibility aims to provide users with disabilities access to experiences that are often built without them in mind.
So, this is what we mean by accessibility and common user considerations, accommodations for people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, accessibility is often a modification or after-thought to an existing design.
As you can see here, this ramp was obviously just slapped on and is a complete fail. And this is why accessibility should be properly incorporated into every product or service.

Slide 7
Now, why does accessibility matter? 1 in 5 Canadians and 1 in 4 Americans have a disability. Between 30-40% of the population over age 65 has one of more disability and the purchase power of people with disabilities is $55 billion dollars in Canada and $490 billion in the US. And these demographic segments are comparable to other minorities like Black Canadians and Asian Americans. So there are actually a lot of people with disabilities in our communities.
Now, beyond the numbers, accessibility is important because technology designed for disabled people can help everyone. This is known as the curb cut effect. A curb cut is simply a dip in the sidewalk to allow wheelchairs to cross the road.
Curb cuts were designed for wheelchair users, but also benefit parents with strollers, delivery people with carts, bicyclists, travelers with rolling luggage Ð and even basic pedestrians will go out of their way to use curb cuts. 
Also, the tactile paving (bumps) on this curb cut help people who are sight impaired (blind or maybe even on their phone) as well as children or others who may need help understanding road safety.

Slide 8
A few other examples of the curb cut effect, here for digital technologies, include closed captioning, text messaging and predictive text.
Closed captioning
Designed for people who are hard of hearing, also benefits language learners, people on transit, in bars, in airports, etc.
Text messaging
Began for users with hearing issues.
Predictive text
Began for users with motor issues.
So, how does this relate to digital accessibility?

Slide 9
Digital accessibility is basically just accessibility for digital experiences. So, improving access to digital experiences for people with disabilities.
And, when we talk about digital accessibility, we are often referring to a specific set of standards and legislation. WeÕre going to focus mainly on whatÕs close to home for us here in Vancouver, however, like I mentioned before, digital accessibility is typically measured against some international standards so these apply elsewhere as well.
So, first, get ready for some alphabet soup, W3C WAI WCAG. The WCAG is the only one you really need to remember because weÕll be referring to it more in this presentation and this is the standard that is used almost universally to gauge the accessibility of a website or other digital product or service, such as an app or whatnot. 
So, for Canada, just last year, in 2019 Bill C81 the Accessible Canada Act was passed, and among other provisions in this act, is the requirement that all websites and digital technologies be WCAG compliant as this legislation roles out.
Closer to home here is the Accessibility 2024 plan put forward by the BC government in 2014 to make BC the most accessible province in Canada. Part of this plan was to require all gov.bc.ca websites to be WCAG compliant by 2016. So far, from Anushka and I have seen (and weÕll show you some of this later), most of the domain does a good job with accessibility but there are still some issues. And for legislation, BC introduced Bill M219 in 2018 to get the province better aligned with the 2024 goals.
There are several other provincial acts in Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, with varying rules to those acts, including fines up to $100k, $250k dollars for non compliance. So this is another reason why accessibility really matters for an organizationÕs products and services.
And if we look elsewhere, there are many other similar initiatives and legislation around the world, such as the ADA (the Americans with Disabilities Act) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities UNCRPD - 2008
Americans with Disabilities Act - 1990
Ontario (AODA) Ð deadline 2021 Ð all public, all private and non-profit over 50 employees Ð max $100,000/day fine
Manitoba (AMA) Ð deadline 2023 Ð standards tbd
Nova Scotia (Accessibility Act) Ð deadline & standards differ Ð max $250k/day fine

Slide 10
OK, but who does digital accessibility actually help? Like we said before, accessibility considerations can help everyone, but who are we really looking out for...
Visual disabilities include no or low visions (so being blind), colour blindness and even sensitive to light and flashing images that could cause seizures.
Auditory disabilities include no or low hearing (or perhaps using hearing aides) and even sensitivity to sound.
Mobility issues include any issues someone might have due to congenital or acquired lack of fine motor control (so things like arthritis).
And cognitive issues include any development or learning disabilities so that might be dyslexia or even dementia.
These examples represent just a small range of users who benefit from accessibility measures. In actuality, there is a large spectrum, from permanent, to temporary to situational disabilities. 

Slide 11
This chart demonstrates different types of abilities across a spectrum of permanent, temporary and situational disabilities. A person may be blind (a permanent disability) or they may have recently had eye surgery (a temporary disability), they can also just be wearing dark glasses making it harder for them to see (imagine walking down a shady sidewalk in the summer, a bump in the pavement might catch you be surprise) and this is a situational disability.
Often designs for permanent disabilities can help temporary and situational disabilities as well Ð ex: automatic doors, clearly-written instructions and like we talked about earlier, closed captioning.
Understanding this spectrum of abilities help us understand why we should practice accessibility.

Slide 12
WeÕve gathered some examples here to show how digital accessibility actually helps. First, the image and html tag on the right demonstrate how alt text is used to describe an image and allow users with sight impairments to experience the content via a screen reader.
In might seem unnecessary, but in this example Ògreen salad with hardboiled egg and avocado slices,Ó it could be very beneficial to someone looking for healthy meal plans or something like that. And, another main goal of accessibility is to provide an equivalent experience for people with disabilities, so leaving this out, or even just using the word ÒsaladÓ as the alt text doesnÕt really do that for them, it would be providing a really sub-standard experience.
And now IÕm going to show you some examples of adaptive tech.

Slide 13
First, this is an example of a screen reader processing the BC Gov homepage. ItÕs reading at full speed, but can also be slowed down as needed while browsing. This is just a short 40 second clip and it starts out pretty quickly so heads up.

Slide 14
And now IÕll take you through navigation and zooming using the keyboard. Give me a moment to open this webpage. And now you can see that IÕm a the top of the page and there are links that would enable me to skip to the main navigation and content. I just use the keyboard tab and arrow keys to move around and enter to select, and I can shift/tab to go back. Also, using the Command and +/- keys, I can zoom in up to 200% without losing any content.

Slide 15
And finally, though digital accessibility focuses on what is on the screen, I just wanted to share with you what physical accessibility devices actually look like. Photo captions
And now weÕll take some time to talk about how you actually practice digital accessibility.

Slide 16
How do you practice digital accessibility?

Slide 17
So, a few of the best practices for digital accessibility include assessments. These are heuristic reviews and tech audits and are typically performed on existing or near complete products and services.
Inclusive design is another method that can inform research and design across the lifecycle, and research considerations are important for ensuring inclusive and accessible information gathering.
Today weÕre going to focus primarily on accessibility assessments and IÕll outline guidelines in each of the 5 categories weÕve defined for review.

Slide 18
These categories are Visual Design, Content, UX, Tech and Mobile. They all have heuristic components and a few also rely on tech validation using special digital accessibility tools.
In the following slides, we've used examples from the either BC Gov websites or Crown Corporations.Ê
Let's now look at them in detail.

Slide 19
The first category, Visual Design, includes considerations around layout, colour contrast and text sizeÉ
The example on the right is the SeniorsBC website.
The text is embedded in an image, which means a screen-reader will be unable to read the text. The text gets blurry when zoomed in at 200% and there is no available alt-text for the text in the image.Ê

Slide 20
Content includes the accessibility and inclusivity of the information presented and how easy or difficult it is to access and understand.
The example here shows information about teens in foster care from the BC Gov website. The way the content is phrased makes it difficult to understand the qualifications for acceptance into this agreement system.

Slide 21
UX includes whether or not the interfaces are accessible. Are they obscured or perhaps only available on hover? Do they actually work with adaptive tech? And do they effectively communicate information for all users to understand and access?
This form does not have labels outside the text input box.ÊOnce a user starts typing, the label disappears. It relies on the users' ability of recall.Ê
The text hint inside the box also won't be read by some screen-readers; the screen reader would point out that it's an input field but won't read the text inside it. Best practice would be to have form labels.

Slide 22
Tech considerations are mainly that, is everything properly coded for digital accessibility functions and accessibility tools.
Evaluation tools are available that highlight code elements that may be redundant or missing. The errors above are on the StudentAid BC website. Typically a combination of tools and human quality checks are required.Ê

Slide 23
Mobile issues, like many other digital accessibility issues, should be considered whether from a disability perspective or not, and mainly focus on the ability to access an experience on a mobile device. They focus on the size of the UI elements, the orientation of the device and the required gestures of the interaction.
This is how the BC Ferries website is displayed on a mobile device. Beyond the readability issues, the buttons are also small and it's very easy to navigate to an unintended page.Ê

Slide 24
And now IÕm going to talk about the assessment process that Spatial has developed. IÕll just give a quick overview of potential opportunities for actually implementing some of these digital accessibility practices.

Slide 25
First, the most straightforward approach is a simple, yet thorough accessibility assessment. The way weÕve designed the process is to provide a heuristic review of accessibility issues and an audit for WCAG compliance. Our assessments also include recommendations for how to resolve those issues or compliance problems. And we try to focus on quick wins, but also identify steps that can be taken to further improve accessibility and inclusivity.
The whole process takes about 5 working days, and we start by identifying the most critical parts of your website because we canÕt review every single page in that time frame and because most websites are templated now, so resolving issues on one page can be replicated across other pages as well. Then by day 3 weÕve completed the assessment and on day 5 we present our findings and recommendations.

Slide 26
Our methodology for this process is based on our background in human-centered research and design and again on the 5 categories as outlined by Anushka.
For each of these categories we have a checklist of questions and standards with criteria, methods and tools for checking those standards. We analyze the website and then deliver that completed checklist with pass/fail and some number scores and notes as well as recommendations for how to improve anything that needs work.
While our assessments do identify compliance issues and provide recommendations for resolving those issues, final legal compliance is ultimately the responsibility of the organization itself.
And if an organization wants to also go beyond an accessibility assessment, there are other techniques we can employ as well.

Slide 27
We can take a broader perspective and think about how accessibility and inclusivity fit into the entire lifecycle of a product or service. 

Slide 28
A lot of these techniques are things that youÕre probably already doing, things that are common UX strategies, but we should be doing these things from the position of accessibility and inclusivity, from the start. 
So, talking to a range of people with diverse perspectives and abilities as you engage in creating personas, building prototypes, and running usability tests. 
And, then, when it comes to circulating your work, running trainings (even something like this webinar) can be crucial to gaining stakeholder buy in for accessibility and inclusivity initiatives. 
A lot of people might say ÔWell, we need to focus on our target market, we canÕt worry about edge cases.Õ But actually Ôedge casesÕ are where you can find innovation, and you can always explore the range of users within certain target markets. Maybe you know that only half a percent of your users are over the age of 65, alright, maybe you donÕt need to address an older demographic, but within that under 65 age group, who are you leaving out?
And that brings us to our next pointÉ

Slide 29
Understand who, where, how and why people are excluded. This is a crucial principle of inclusive design. Identifying the issues that prevent people from equal access will help you design other and often better ways for everyone to participate.
But, you cannot do this without first recognizing your own bias. We all come from different backgrounds and we all assume that our way of doing things is the default. WeÕve all also learned that this is not true. Do you squeeze your toothpaste from the top or bottom of the tube? Does the toilet paper hang over or under the roll? These things are trivial - unless there is someone in your household who insists on doing it the wrong way - joking, kind of, but if we expand this self examination out to other spheres and really listen to other people, we can start to design things that work for everyone - maybe we switch over to toothpaste in a pump bottle or toilet paper stacked in pre cut sheets. 
But, seriouslyÉ these are important considerations for anyone who is responsible for the delivery of products or services, including researchers, which brings us to our next pointÉ

Slide 30
What if youÕre just a researcher. How does this all effect you? Well, we have some tips for you.
First, itÕs important to actively recruit people with disabilities. You should do this by allowing (but not requiring) users to disclose information regarding their abilities. And never automatically disqualify someone with a disability.
Because, you should be making sure your materials, facilities and processes are accessible. The language of your information, questions and instructions should be easy to understand. And you should be prepared to assist using simplified or alternate language and giving more context if needed. And, when appropriate, send documents before the sessions to give users time to review and try to use WCAG compliant testing materials. Also, you should inform all participants of any issues/special instructions before the sessions (where is the ramp entrance, etc)
If youÕre doing these things, you should be able to run inclusive sessions, but youÕll also need to be prepared for unexpected situations. IÕve interviewed participants with visual, hearing and neuropathy issues that I didnÕt know about beforehand. The best thing you can do is ask people if they need anything and give them space to reply. Build breaks into your sessions, some people will say if they need a break and sometimes it will be obvious to you, but other times you might not know, so askÉ
These are all things you can do to perform more accessible and inclusive research which will in turn help inform better design.
So, thatÕs it, weÕre at the end of the presentation, and I hate the research was just tacked on at the end (like it often unfortunately is), but I really wanted to let you all know what you can be doing right now for digital accessibility and why you should be doing it. So, I hope this has been informative and IÕm going to take a look at the chat and see if there are any outstanding questions or commentsÉ

Slide 31
Now we have time some discussion.

Slide 32
Thank you to everyone for joining and participating today and a big thank you to Anushka for facilitating the conversation.