Web accessibility for municipalities - How to meet compliance requirements and better engage all your citizens
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The document outlines the importance and requirements for municipal website accessibility, emphasizing the need to engage citizens with disabilities, who constitute a significant portion of the population. It details compliance deadlines with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and describes the four principles that make a website accessible: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Additionally, it offers tips for compliance and resources for municipalities to enhance their website accessibility.
Web accessibility for municipalities - How to meet compliance requirements and better engage all your citizens
- 1. Web Accessibility for Municipalities How to meet compliance requirements and better engage all your citizens July 2013
- 2. www.intelliware.com Overview It’s all about municipal website accessibility • Part 1: Why make your municipal website accessible? • Part 2: When do you have to make it accessible? • Part 3: What makes it accessible? • Part 4: How to make it accessible? 2
- 3. Part 1: Why make your municipal website accessible? 3
- 4. www.intelliware.com Accessible websites needed for people with disabilities • 15% of the world's population, or 1 billion people, live with a disability1 • They are the world's largest minority2 • Individuals spend on average 8 years living with a disability2 4 1 World Health Organization, World report on disability, http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/WHO_NMH_VIP_11.01_eng.pdf 2 United Nations Factsheet on Persons with Disabilities: http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=18 Note on 2: applies to countries with life expectancies over 70 years, such as Canada
- 5. www.intelliware.com Canada’s disabled population: increasing with age • 56% of seniors over 75 have a disability1 • Today 1 in 7 Ontarians have a disability 5 1 Public Health Agency of Canada, The Senior Audience: Large, Growing and Diverse http://www.phac- aspc.gc.ca/seniors-aines/publications/public/various-varies/afcomm-commavecaines/3-eng.php Source: 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey
- 6. www.intelliware.com Reach a growing and affluent group • By 2031, 6+ million Ontarians either be living with a disability or will be over age 55, accounting for 40% of all income1 6 1 Government of Ontario, Why Accessibility is good for Ontario http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/accessibility/Ont_InfoGraph-EN.pdf
- 7. www.intelliware.com Why change? The case for accessibility Save money • Lower cost to serve through better access to information and services • Comply with Ontario government legislation to avoid fines of upwards of $100,000 per day1 • Savings from improved server performance and decreased site maintenance2 7 1 9th Sphere, Ontario Website Owners Must Know – Make Your Website AODA Compliant http://www.9thsphere.com/blog/aoda-compliance/ 2 Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization: Overview http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/Overview.html
- 8. www.intelliware.com Why change? The case for accessibility Engage your citizens • Enable persons with disabilities and older users to interact with you online instead of more costly ways (offline) Provide better information • Accessible websites have better search results1 • Make it easier to inform your citizens of community events and issues 8 1 Government of Ontario, Making your website more accessible http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/publications/accessON/accessible_websites/make.aspx
- 9. www.intelliware.com Legislation Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) • AODA – Ontario Regulation 429/07 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act • Customer Service Standard came into effect January 1, 2012 • Applies to municipal websites 9
- 10. Part 2: When do you have to make it accessible? 10
- 11. www.intelliware.com Legislation timeline – when you need to comply 11 1 Ontario MEDTE, Make your website accessible, http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/info_sheets/info_comm/website.aspx • Applies to public sector organizations, businesses and non-profit organizations with 50+ staff1 Type of Content Compliance Requirements Deadline New public websites and web content WCAG 2.0 Level A 2014 All public websites and web content posted after January 1, 2012 WCAG 2.0 Level AA Excludes captions and pre-recorded audio descriptions 2021
- 12. www.intelliware.com What is a “new” website? 12 1 Ontario MEDTE, Making your website accessible, http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/accessibility/iasr_guides/website_en.pdf • A “new” website is1: o A website with a new domain name (e.g. www.newbusiness.ca) o A website undergoing a “significant refresh”: • Changing more than 50% of the content, design or technology of the website Content Design Technology Creating, rewriting or reorganizing more than 50% of the site’s content, such as graphics, text, widgets, etc. Changing more than 50% of the design elements, such as layout, navigation, placement and style. Changing more than 50% of the web publishing platform/model such as the content management system (CMS), Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) or HTML structure.
- 13. Part 3: What makes it accessible? 13
- 14. www.intelliware.com What is an accessible website? A website that is designed based on 4 principles1 1. Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presented to users in a way that are easy to perceive 2. Operable: User interface components and navigation must be functional and useful 3. Understandable: Information and the operation of the user interface must be easy to comprehend 4. Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies 14 1 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
- 15. www.intelliware.com Principle #1: Perceivable Information and user interface components must be presented to users in a way that is easy to perceive.1 • Barriers common to mobile device users and people with disabilities: o Information conveyed solely with color o Large pages or large images o Multimedia with no captions o Audio-only prompts (beeps) for important information (warnings, errors) o Non-text objects (images, sound, video) with no text alternative o Text entry o Content formatted using tables or CSS, and reading order not correct when linearized (for example when CSS or tables not rendered) o Information conveyed only using CSS (visual formatting) 15 1 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
- 16. www.intelliware.com Principle #2: Operable User interface components and navigation must be functional and useful.1 • Barriers common to mobile device users and people with disabilities: o Mouse required for interaction and navigation o Scripting required to operate content o Special plug-in required o Missing or inappropriate page title o Inconsistency between focus (tab) order and logical document content sequence o Non descriptive link label 16 1 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
- 17. www.intelliware.com Principle #3: Understandable Information and the operation of the user interface must be easy to comprehend. 1 • Barriers common to mobile device users and people with disabilities: o Long words, long and complex sentences, jargon o Content spawning new windows without warning user o Blinking, moving, scrolling or auto-updating content 17 1 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
- 18. www.intelliware.com Principle #4: Robust Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.1 • Barriers common to mobile device users and people with disabilities: o Invalid or unsupported markup o Scripting required to generate content 18 1 W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
- 19. www.intelliware.com Examples of conformance • A school board has posted a video on its website to explain their adult learning programs; the video is captioned for people with hearing loss1 • Textual equivalents provided for images – used for screen readers • Label, underline or differentiate hyperlinks for those who are colour-blind 19 1 Government of Ontario, The Accessibility Standard for Information and Communications http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/info_comm/index.aspx
- 20. www.intelliware.com Examples of conformance • Larger text and images, or the ability to enlarge text and images (screen magnification) • Clickable areas made larger to assist those who cannot maneuver a mouse easily • For content pages with time limits, users should be able to turn off, adjust or extend the time limit unless the limit is essential and would invalidate the activity 20 1 Government of Ontario, The Accessibility Standard for Information and Communications http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/info_comm/index.aspx
- 21. www.intelliware.com Examples of conformance • Include a mechanism to allow users to identify definitions of idioms, jargon and abbreviations • Use consistent navigational mechanisms on web pages – content appears and operates in predictable ways • Website content should be “conversion ready” – content must be readily convertible into an accessible format More information can be found here: WCAG 2.0 21
- 22. Part 4: How to make it accessible 22
- 23. www.intelliware.com AODA Compliance Wizard • This Government of Ontario tool helps you determine your municipality’s compliance requirements • Free to use • Takes less than 5 minutes to complete • AODA Compliance Wizard 23 AODA Compliance Wizard
- 24. www.intelliware.com Accessibility compliance tips 24 1 Government of Ontario, Make your website accessible http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/info_sheets/info_comm/website.aspx Tips from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade And Employment (MEDTE), the ministry responsible for the implementation of AODA1: • Talk to your organization’s web developer about complying with the requirements • Use MEDTE’s Making your website more accessible guide to help you work with web developers, whether they are in-house staff or external contractors
- 25. www.intelliware.com Accessibility compliance tips • Review the software used to support accessibility on your website • You may need to repair the software to meet the WCAG 2.0 requirements • Make your web content accessible at Level AA now • Reduces the amount of changes you’ll have to make to your website down the road • May reduce requests you receive for accessible formats or communications supports 25 1 Government of Ontario, Make your website accessible http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/info_sheets/info_comm/website.aspx
- 26. www.intelliware.com Resources to help you comply • The Government of Ontario: o Accessibility Standard for Customer Service: employer handbook o A Guide to the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, Section 14, Accessible Websites and Web Content • W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: o 12 guidelines that are organized under 4 principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust • Free Tools: o Achecker: checks single HTML pages for conformance with accessibility standards o ChromaNope: simulates how a website looks to one with a form of colour- blindness o WC3’s markup validator: checks Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and (X)HTML documents o Juicy Studio: tests the readability of a website o Complete list of web accessibility evaluation tools from WC3 26
- 27. www.intelliware.com Want to learn how the City of Kingston improved its municipal website with the help of Intelliware? 27 Check out: www.intelliware.com /intelliware- launches-hosted- portal-solution-for- municipalities/