1. Can the Web be Made Accessible? John Richards IBM T. J Watson Research Center and University of Dundee New Directions for Work in Digital Scotland, May, 2012 Digital Work, May 2012 1

2. Reminder: 1 in 5 Have a Disability Digital Work, May 2012 2

3. Reminder: 1 in 5 Have a Disability Digital Work, May 2012 3 Most workers will need to use the Web

4. Main Approaches to Making the Web Accessible Guidelines (WCAG 1.0 1999, WCAG 2.0 2008) Government regulations In-house accessibility standards and checklists Tools (e.g., including alt tag field for images) Training Digital Work, May 2012 4

5. So … Digital Work, May 2012 5 How well are these working?

6. Web Accessibility Improving Digital Work, May 2012 6 alt tags on images

7. Web Accessibility Improving Digital Work, May 2012 7 alt tags on images

8. But Slowly Digital Work, May 2012 8 skip to main content

9. And Unevenly Digital Work, May 2012 9 page titles

10. And Unevenly Digital Work, May 2012 10 All government sites had page titles Over 99% of top sites had page titles page titles

11. Which Raises the Question: Digital Work, May 2012 11 If current approaches aren’t doing enough … what might help?

12. Two Possibilities Digital Work, May 2012 12 1.Change the economic incentives by broadening the base of people helped by accessible technologies 2.Design future Web technologies to have useful accessibility side effects

13. Examples Digital Work, May 2012 13 Change the economic incentives by broadening the base of people helped by accessible technologies

14. 1 in 5 People Have a Disability Digital Work, May 2012 14 compare

15. 1a. Broadening the Base Digital Work, May 2012 15 changing colors and contrast

16. 1b. Broadening the Base Digital Work, May 2012 16 smart zoom

17. Examples Digital Work, May 2012 17 Design future Web technologies to have useful accessibility side effects

18. 2a. Accessibility Side Effects Digital Work, May 2012 18 headings

19. 2a. Accessibility Side Effects Digital Work, May 2012 19 headings

20. 2b. Accessibility Side Effects Digital Work, May 2012 20 separating style from content

21. 2b. Accessibility Side Effects Digital Work, May 2012 21 separating style from content

22. 2b. Accessibility Side Effects Digital Work, May 2012 22 separating style from content dyslexia

23. Leaving Us To Consider … Digital Work, May 2012 23 How can we build on these examples?

24. More Generally … Shape policy around empirical results Adapt the Web as found whenever possible Leverage economic incentives Treat accessibility as part of usability Simplify and operationalize guidelines Create stronger testing and generation tools Digital Work, May 2012 24

25. Thank You Digital Work, May 2012 25