EMERGING PARADIGMS, ACCESSIBILITY

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Human Computer Interaction (CS408)

Lecture

Lecture 44. Emerging Paradigms

Learning Goals

As the aim of this lecture is to introduce you the study of Human Computer

Interaction, so that after studying this you will be able to:

· Understand the role of information architecture

· Understand the importance of accessibility

Metadata

A web site is a collection of interconnected systems with complex dependencies. A

single link on a page can simultaneously be part of the site's structure, organization,

labeling, navigation, and searching systems. It's useful to study these systems inde-

pendently, but it's also crucial to consider how they interact. Reductionism will not

tell us the whole truth.

Metadata and controlled vocabularies present a fascinating lens through which to

view the network of relationships between systems. In many large metadata-driven

web sites, controlled vocabularies have become the glue that holds the systems

together. A thesaurus on the back end can enable a more seamless and satisfying user

experience on the front end.

In addition, the practice of thesaurus design can help bridge the gap between past and

present. The first thesauri were developed for libraries, museums, and government

agencies long before the invention of the World Wide Web. As information architects

we can draw upon these decades of experience, but we can't copy indiscriminately.

The web sites and intranets we design present new challenges and demand creative

solutions.

When it comes to definitions, metadata is a slippery fish. Describing it as "data about

data" isn't very helpful. The following excerpt from Dictionary.com takes us 2 little

further:

In data processing, meta-data is definitional data that provides information about or

documentation of other data managed within an application or environment. For

example, meta-data would document data about data elements or attributes (name,

size, data type, etc) and data about records or data structures (length, fields, columns,

etc) and data about data (where it is located, how it is associated, ownership, etc.).

Meta-data may include descriptive information about the context, quality and

condi¬tion, or characteristics of the data.

While these tautological explanations could lead us into the realms of epistemology

and metaphysics, we won't go there. Instead, let's focus on the role that metadata plays

in the practical realm of information architecture.

Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and

audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and

retrieval. The HTML keyword meta tag used by many web sites provides a simple

example. Authors can freely enter words and phrases that describe the content. These

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keywords are not displayed in the interface, but are available for use by search

engines.

knowledge management, user experience">

Many companies today are using metadata in more sophisticated ways. Leveraging

content management software and controlled vocabularies, they create dynamic meta

data-driven web sites that support distributed authoring and powerful navigation. This

metadata-driven model represents a profound change in how web sites are created and

managed. Instead of asking, "Where do I place this document in the taxaonomy?" we

can now ask, "How do I describe this document?" The software and vocabulary

systems take care of the rest.

Controlled Vocabularies

Vocabulary control comes in many shapes and sizes. At its most vague, a controlled

vocabulary is any defined subset of natural language. At its simplest, a controlled

vocabulary is a list of equivalent terms in the form of a synonym ring, or a list of

preferred terms in the form of an authority file. Define hierarchical relationships

between terms (e.g., broader, narrower) and you've got a classification scheme. Model

associative relationships between concepts (e.g., see also, see related) and

Since a full-blown thesaurus integrates all the relationships and capabilities of the

simpler forms, let's explore each of these building blocks before taking a close look at

the "Swiss Army Knife" of controlled vocabularies.

Classification schemes can also be used in the context of searching. Yahoo! does this

very effectively. Yahoo!'s search results present "Category Matches," which

reinforces users' familiarity with Yahoo!'s classification scheme.

Pel$:find Hamsters in Yahoo! Pets

Bizarre Humor> Hamster Dance

Humor> Hamsters

Rodents> Hamsters

List "hamsters"_by location

The above are Category Matches at Yahoo!

The important point here is that classification schemes are not tied to a single view or

instance. They can be used on both the back end and the front end in all sorts of ways.

We'll explore types of classification schemes in more detail later in this chapter, but

first let's take a look at the "Swiss Army Knife" of vocabulary control, the thesaurus.

Thesauri

Dictionary.com defines thesaurus as a "book of synonyms, often including related and

contrasting words and antonyms." This usage harkens back to our high school English

classes, when we chose big words from the thesaurus to impress our teachers.

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Our species of thesaurus, the one integrated within a web site or intranet to improve

navigation and retrieval, shares a common heritage with the familiar reference text but

has a different form and function. Like the reference book, our thesaurus is a semantic

network of concepts, connecting words to their synonyms, homonyms, antonyms,

broader and narrower terms, and related terms.

However, our thesaurus takes the form of an online database, tightly integrated with

the user interface of a web site or intranet. And while the traditional thesaurus helps

people go from one word to many words, our thesaurus does the opposite. Its most

important goal is synonym management, the mapping of many synonyms or word

variants onto one preferred term or concept, so the ambiguities of language don't

prevent people from finding what they need.

So, for the purposes of this book, a thesaurus is:

A controlled vocabulary in which equivalence, hierarchical, and associative

relationships are identified for purposes of improved retrieval..

--ANSI/NISO Z39.19 -1993 (R1998). Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and

Management of Monolingual Thesauri.

A thesaurus builds upon the constructs of the simpler controlled vocabularies,

modeling these three fundamental types of semantic relationships.

Each preferred term becomes the center of its own semantic network. The equivalence

relationship is focused on synonym management. The hierarchical relationship

enables the classification of preferred terms into categories and subcategories. The

associative relationship provides for meaningful connections that are not handled by

the hierarchical or equivalence relationships. All three relationships can be useful in

different ways for the purposes of information retrieval and navigation.

44.1

Accessibility

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable

by as many people as possible without modification. It is not to be confused with

usability which is used to describe how easily a thing can be used by any type of user.

One meaning of accessibility specifically focuses on people with disabilities and their

use of assistive devices such as screen-reading web browsers or wheelchairs. Other

meanings are discussed below.

Accessibility is strongly related to universal design in that it is about making things as

accessible as possible to as wide a group of people as possible. However, products

marketed as having benefited from a Universal Design process are often actually the

same devices customized specifically for use by people with disabilities. It is rare to

find a Universally Designed product at the mass-market level that is used mostly by

non-disabled people.

The disability rights movement advocates equal access to social, political and

economic life which includes not only physical access but access to the same tools,

organisations and facilities which we all pay for.

A typical sign for wheelchair accessibilityAccessibility is about giving equal access to

everyone.

While it is often used to describe facilities or amenities to assist people with

disabilities, as in "wheelchair accessible", the term can extend to Braille signage,

wheelchair ramps, audio signals at pedestrian crossings, walkway contours, website

design, and so on.

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Various countries have legislation requiring physical accessibility:

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has numerous provisions for

accessibility.

In the US, under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, new public and private

business construction generally must be accessible. Existing private businesses are

required to increase the accessibility of their facilities when making any other

renovations in proportion to the cost of the other renovations. The U.S. Access Board

is "A Federal Agency Committed to Accessible Design for People with Disabilities."

Many states in the US have their own disability laws.

In Ontario, Canada, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act of 2001 is meant to "improve

the identification, removal and prevention of barriers faced by persons with

disabilities..."

Introduction to Web Accessibility

Introduction

Most people today can hardly conceive of life without the Internet. It provides access

to information, news, email, shopping, and entertainment. The Internet, with its ability

to serve out information at any hour of the day or night about practically any topic

conceivable, has become a way of life for an impatient, information-hungry

generation. Some have argued that no other single invention has been more

revolutionary since that of Gutenberg's original printing press in the mid 1400s. Now,

at the click of a mouse, the world can be "at your fingertips"--that is, if you can use a

mouse... and if you can see the screen... and if you can hear the audio--in other

words, if you don't have a disability of any kind.

Before focusing on the challenges that people with disabilities face when trying to

access web content, it makes more sense to discuss the ways in which the Internet

offers incredible opportunities to people with disabilities that were never before

possible. The web's potential for people with disabilities is truly remarkable.

The Web Offers Unprecedented Opportunities

The Internet is one of the best things that ever happened to people with disabilities.

You may not have thought about it that way, but all you have to do is think back to

the days before the Internet was as ubiquitous as it is today to see why this is so.

For example, without the Internet, how did blind people read newspapers? The answer

is that they mostly didn't. At best, they could ask a family member or friend to read

the newspaper to them. This method works, but it makes blind people dependent upon

others. They could never read the newspaper themselves. You might think that

audiotapes or Braille printouts of newspapers could offer a reasonable solution, but

both options are expensive and slow compared to the rate at which publishers create

and distribute newspapers. Blind people wouldn't receive the news until after it was

no longer new. Not only that, but a Braille version of the Sunday New York Times

would be so big and bulky with the extra large and thick Braille embossed paper that

you'd practically have to use a forklift to move it around. None of these methods of

reading newspapers are ideal. They're too slow, expensive, and too dependent upon

other people.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, many newspapers now publish their content

electronically in a format that can be read by text-to-speech synthesizer software

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programs (often called "screen readers") used by the blind. These software programs

read text out loud so that blind people can use computers and access any text content

through the computer. Suddenly, blind people don't have to rely on the kindness of

other people to read the newspaper to them. They don't have to wait for expensive

audio tapes or expensive, bulky Braille printouts. They simply open a web browser

and listen to their screen reader as it reads the newspaper to them, and they do it when

they want to do it. The Internet affords a whole new level of independence and

opportunity to blind people. When you understand the impact that the Internet can

have in the lives of blind people, the concept of web accessibility takes on a whole

new level of significance.

Similarly, people with motor disabilities who cannot pick up a newspaper or turn its

pages can access online newspapers through their computer, using certain assistive

technologies that adapt the computer interface to their own disabilities. Sometimes the

adaptations are crude, such as having the person place a stick in the mouth, and to use

that stick to type keyboard commands. In other cases, the adaptations are more

sophisticated, as in the use of eye-tracking software that allows people to use a

computer with nothing more than eye movements. People with tremors may use a

special keyboard with raised ridges in-between the keys so that they can place their

hand down on the keyboard and then type the letters, rather than risk typing the wrong

keys. Most of these people would not be able to use a mouse with much accuracy.

Regardless of the level of sophistication, many of these adaptations have one thing in

common: they make use of the keyboard, or emulate the use of a keyboard, rather

than the use of a mouse. As with people who are blind, the Internet allows people with

motor disabilities to access information in ways that they never could before.

People who are deaf always had the possibility of reading newspapers on their own,

so it may seem that the Internet does not offer the same type of emancipation that it

does to those who are blind or to those with motor disabilities, but there are a few

cases in which the Internet can still have a large impact. For example, they can read

online transcripts of important speeches, or view multimedia content that has been

fully captioned.

Falling Short of the Web's Potential

Despite the Web's great potential for people with disabilities, this potential is still

largely unrealized. Where can you find web-based video or multimedia content that

has been fully captioned for the deaf? What if the Internet content is only accessible

by using a mouse? What do people do if they can't use a mouse? And what if web

developers use all graphics instead of text? If screen readers can only read text, how

would they read the graphics to people who are blind? As soon as you start asking

these types of questions, you begin to see that there are a few potential glitches in the

accessibility of the Internet to people with disabilities. The Internet has the potential

to revolutionize disability access to information, but if we're not careful, we can place

obstacles along the way that destroy that potential, and which leave people with

disabilities just as discouraged and dependent upon others as before.

People with Disabilities on the Web

Though estimates vary, most studies find that about one fifth (20%) of the population

has some kind of disability. Not all of these people have disabilities that make it

difficult for them to access the Internet. For example, a person whose legs are

paralyzed can still navigate a web site without any disability-related difficulty. Still, if

only half--or even a quarter--of these individuals have disabilities that affect their

ability to access the Internet, this is a significant portion of the population. Businesses

would be unwise to purposely exclude 20, 10 or even 5 percent of their potential

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customers from their Web sites. Schools, universities, and government entities would

be not only unwise, but, in many countries, they would also be breaking the law if

they did so.

Each of the major categories of disabilities require certain types of adaptations in the

design of the web content. Most of the time, these adaptations benefit nearly

everyone, not just people with disabilities. For example, people with cognitive

disabilities benefit from illustrations and graphics, as well as from properly-organized

content with headings, lists, and visual cues in the navigation. Similarly, though

captioned video content is meant to benefit people who are deaf, it can also benefit

those who do not have sound on their computers, or who do not want to turn the

sound on in public places such as libraries, airplanes, or computer labs.

Occasionally, Web developers must implement accommodations that are more

specific to people with disabilities. For example, developers can add links that allow

blind users or people with motor disabilities who cannot use a mouse to skip past the

navigational links at the top of the page. People without disabilities may choose to use

this feature as well, but they will usually ignore it. In almost every case, even these

disability-specific adaptations can be integrated into the site's design with little or no

impact to its overall visual "look and feel." Unfortunately, too many web developers

are convinced that the opposite is true. They worry that their sites will become less

appealing to their larger audience of people without disabilities. This faulty perception

has led to countless circular debates, that tend to cause unnecessary friction between

web designers and people with disabilities.

From the perspective of people with disabilities, inaccessible web content is an

obstacle that prevents them from participating fully in the information revolution that

has begun unfolding on the Internet. To them, it is a matter of basic human rights.

When web developers truly understand this perspective, most of them realize the

importance of the issue, and are willing to do what they can to make their Web

content more accessible.

Comprehensive Solutions

There are two key components to any effort to achieve web accessibility:

· Commitment and accountability

· Training and technical support

Either of these by itself is insufficient.

Commitment and accountability

Awareness. The foundation of any kind of commitment to web accessibility is

awareness of the issues. Most Web developers are not personally opposed to the

concept of making the Internet accessible to people with disabilities. In fact, most

accessibility errors on web sites are the result of ignorance, rather than malice or

apathy. A large proportion of developers have simply never even thought about the

issue. Even if they have heard of web accessibility, they may not understand what's at

stake. Their ignorance leads them to ask questions such as, "Why would a blind

person want to access the Internet?" After hearing an explanation of the ways in

which blind people can access the Internet and the reasons why they have difficulties

with some sites, most of these same developers understand the importance of the

issue, and most are willing to do something about it, at least in the abstract.

Leadership. Understanding the issues is an important first step, but it does not solve

the problem, especially in large organizations. If the leadership of an organization

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does not express commitment to web accessibility, chances are low that the

organization's web content will be accessible. Oftentimes, a handful of developers

make their own content accessible while the majority don't bother to, since it is not

expected of them.

Policies and Procedures. Even when leaders express their commitment to an idea, if

the idea is not backed up by policies, the idea tends to get lost among the day-to-day

routines. The best approach for a large organization is to create an internal policy that

outlines specific standards, procedures, and methods for monitoring compliance with

the standards and procedures. For example, an organization's policy could be that

Web developers will create content that complies with the web Content Accessibility

Guidelines of the W3C, that no content is allowed to go live on the web site until it

has been verified to meet this standard, and that the site will be re-examined quarterly

for accessibility errors. This example won't fit every situation or every organization,

but it does at least provide a simplified theoretical model from which to create

standards, procedures, and monitoring methods within organizations.

Training and technical support

Sometimes web developers fear that it is more expensive and time-consuming to

create accessible web sites than it is to create inaccessible ones. This fear is largely

untrue. On a page-by-page basis, the extra time required by a knowledgeable

developer to make the content accessible is so minimal as to be almost negligible.

Once developers know the concepts, implementing them becomes second-nature, and

does not add significantly to the total development time.

However, it does take time to become a knowledgeable developer. A developer can

learn the basics of Web accessibility in just a few days, but, as with any technical

skill, it often takes months to internalize the mindset as well as the techniques.

Organizations should ensure that their developers have access to training materials,

workshops, books, or courses which explain the details of accessible web design.

Some of these resources are available for free, such as the WebAIM web site.

However, not everyone learns best in an online environment. Sometimes the best

approach is to invite an outside consultant to provide training through presentations,

workshops, or one-on-one tutoring.

Ongoing technical support can be offered through outside consultants, discussion

groups, internal workshops, classes or other methods. Some organizations have set up

their own internal discussion groups to provide a forum for talking about accessibility

issues. If a developers forum already exists at an organization, it may be unnecessary

to create a new one specifically for accessibility if the existing one can serve the same

purpose. The WebAIM forum consists of people from all over the world who are

interested in Web accessibility issues, many of whom are highly knowledgeable about

the topic and willing to share their knowledge with others.

Conclusion

The web offers so many new opportunities to people with disabilities that are

unavailable through any other medium. It provides a method for accessing

information, making purchases, communicating with the world, and accessing

entertainment that does not depend on the responsiveness of other people. The

Internet offers independence and freedom. But this independence and freedom is only

partially a reality. Too many web sites are not created with web accessibility in mind.

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Whether purposefully or not, they exclude the segment of the population that in many

ways stands to gain the most from the Internet. Only by committing to accessibility

and providing for accountability, training, and technical assistance, can the web's full

potential for people with disabilities become a reality.

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