I’ve been spending the past couple weeks sharing insights from attending both “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design” and a tour of IndependenceFirst. Tonight, I’ll wrap it up with one more post about the various things I learned walking around the facility.

I was really impressed by the extent to which a place like IndependenceFirst goes in making all aspects of their facilities accessible. Some examples didn’t surprise me, like having bathrooms and shower facilities that are fully usable by those with various disabilities, or a cafeteria with accessible appliances. Others were just things I’d have never thought of.

There is an extensive library of assistive technology devices available for use, some I recognized and others that were completely foreign to me. They were several cases with all manner of these devices — keyboards, telephones, calculators, clocks, measuring cups, to just name a few.

IndependenceFirst has a program in which they help people with disabilities get recycled computers. This includes training such as accessing the Internet. We got a glimpse of this Computing Recycling area. There are even local Milwaukee businesses that send volunteers over to get donated computers up and running.

I had never even considered the idea of an accessible copy machine, but we got to see one. Also, in the tour of the Wellness Center, Carol Voss pointed out a wheelchair-accessible weight scale, something that is very rare, even for hospitals.

It’s probably pretty obvious that I came away from visiting IndependenceFirst with a deep appreciation for their services. Four straight blog posts about my experience ought to prove it! After building a rapport with IndependenceFirst through social media, I was glad to finally see the place and meet people like Carol Voss.

I feel I’ve learned a lot in my first year of delving into web accessibility, but I’m coming to realize that there is a huge difference between reading insightful articles and online materials, and actually firsthand watching how disabled people interact with the world around them.

Watching Scott Mayer cruise — and occasionally stumble — through web sites, just trying to do basic tasks like pay bills online, really phased me, in a good way. Even someone who’d like to think of himself as enlightened to web accessibility has a lot to learn!

For me to call myself a true web accessibility expert, I’m going to need more direct contact with disabled web users. You can’t truly understand what they go through by solely checking web sites yourself and running automatic tests.

(Special shout to to friend and colleague Michael Seidel for sharing the photos of the assistive equipment and the computer refurbishing room)

Tags: assistive technology, disability, IndependenceFIRST, milwauCHI, milwaukee

Last week Monday when I attended “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design” at Milwaukee’s IndependenceFirst, I came away with a treasure trove of excellent material to share.

In my last couple posts, I recapped the insights of Shawn Henry and Scott Mayer. That was only part of the experience. After their presentations, we were treated to a tour of the IndependenceFirst facilities.

Carol Voss, the Public Relations and Marketing Director as well as the Twitter voice for IndependenceFirst, took our small group around the building. It was really great to finally meet Carol in person, after many months of Twitter conversations as well as the email interview she had done for this blog in summer. (See IndependenceFirst interview part one, two, and three)

It wasn’t news to me that constructing a building for an organization servicing the disabled requires special considerations. However, it was both surprising and deeply impressive to see the extent of it.

For example, consider the floors. In the hallways, the floors have darker borders, to serve as a visual waypoint where the halls continue and where they lead to doorways.

Also, no matter the flooring material — carpeting, tile, wood, whatever — all surface transitions are completely flat and even. This is very important for those traversing room to room via wheelchair or with difficulties walking. It also requires a tremendous level of attention and detail by the building constructors.

Something else that I hadn’t considered before but makes perfect sense — there are activation buttons for opening doors just about floor level, in addition to their typical higher location. This enables somebody unable to use their hands to open the door with their foot.

Similarly, door handles as well as scanners for security access are lower than you typically see at other offices, to further increase accessibility to wheelchair users.

This is the just the physical makeup of the building, but such details go a long way in making it easier for those with disabilities to fully utilize the facilities. If you think that’s impressive, in my next post, we’ll share even more examples. From copy machines and weight scales to cafeterias and library rooms, there are a whole lot more accessibility considerations within the walls of IndependenceFirst.

Tags: IndependenceFIRST, milwaukee, wheelchair accessibility

What does accessibility mean to me?

Accessibility is all about lack of restrictions. It is about opening pathways to all people regardless of any limitations. It is an even playing field.

(This is my response to an excellent project put forth by Glenda Watson Hyatt on her blog, Do it Myself Blog. I encourage everyone with a passion for accessibility to follow the instructions and share your thoughts as well!

In my last post, I began sharing many thoughts about my visit to IndependenceFirst on Monday, to attend “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design.” It was an excellent presentation facilitated by MilwauCHI.

I rambled so excitedly in my coverage of Shawn Henry’s presentation that I needed to split things up into multiple blog posts to do them justice.

The second presenter was Scott Mayer from American Family Insurance, a usability services specialist who became blind at the age of 24.

He led off with some interesting statistics about disabled people in the United States:

Scott then demonstrated how he uses the Internet via his JAWS screen reader. I’ve got to tell you, that was one of the most revealing experiences I’ve had since focusing on accessibility.

I’ve been tackling the subject in my own incremental way, and while I’ve watched a video here and there demonstrating screen readers, there was something completely different about seeing one in action.

Scott showed examples of good and bad accessibility using his screen reader. On one site, he showed how he was unable to pay a bill on a banking site because the actionable button for signing on was invisible to the screen reader.

Another interesting point – Scott talked about how many sites, particularly in the financial sector, tend to go through redesigns often. Some financial sites do it almost quarterly. While constant evolution and enhancement may seem like an all-around great idea, somebody like Scott has to completely re-learn how to get around that site each time they retool it.

Scott explained how automated accessibility testing is not enough. There is no replacement for usability testing with disabled users.

People tend to treat disabled consumers like Scott differently, thinking them to be less educated or poorer. He shared an experience in which he and his wife took their car in for repairs, and how the attendants didn’t even consider for a moment that a blind user may know something about car repairs. They barely acknowledged him.

Physical stores tend to be useless to somebody like Scott. He frequently utilizes the Internet to buy things and have them shipped to his home.

Just because somebody is blind, or deaf, or has some sort of disability, don’t assume they are less intelligent or some poor, destitute person. It may be easy for some businesses to dismiss what they assume is an insignificant minority of potential visitors to their web site, but there is an awful lot of ignorance steeped in that attitude.

And I haven’t even gotten to my first tour of IndependenceFirst! We’ll save that for next week’s posts!

Tags: assistive technology, IndependenceFIRST, jaws, milwauCHI, milwaukee, Scott Mayer, visually impaired

Last night, I was privileged to attend the great “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design” presentation conducted by MilwauCHI and hosted by IndependenceFirst (a place so amazing that I’ll be doing upcoming blog posts about the experience)

After a great introduction to the IndependenceFirst facility by Carol Voss, including a 5 minute video about their new building, we were treated with two very different but equally compelling presentations.

The first was “Unleashing Opportunities through Accessibility” from Shawn Henry. Shawn Henry needs no introduction in the web accessibility ranks, as the Outreach Coordinator of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and an all-around advocate and voice for accessibility awareness. She is also the author of Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design.

Shawn covered a lot of ground. She explained that accessibility doesn’t just pertain to those with visual disabilities — there are many more to varying degrees. There are also other “limitations”, such as technology, bandwidth, literacy, non-fluency in a certain language, etc.

She raised a point that has really been hitting home with me lately, as I discussed in my last post. There are easy things to do to improve the accessibility of a site. Sure, complexity increases when you deal with rich applications, Flash, and more complicated scripting, but many important obstacles can be cleared on the simple markup level — alt tags, page titles, headings, lists, to name just a few.

Shawn summed up accessibility poignantly by calling it, “an act of enlightened self-interest.” After all, any one of us may at any point become a disabled web user, through accident, illness, or just through the aging process.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Shawn further after the event. She is very down-to-earth and clearly passionate about accessibility. She gave us some very good advice and tactics on pursuading organizations to see both the business needs and obligations of ensuring their web presence is usable by all.

The second speaker was downright amazing. His name is Scott Mayer, a usability services specialist for American Family Insurance, who became blind at the age of 24. In my next post, later this week, I’ll share highlights from his powerful presentation.

Related Links:

• IndependenceFirst (@Independence1st on Twitter)
• MilwauCHI
• Shawn Henry (@shawn_slh on Twitter)
• Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design – online version

Tags: alt tags, assistive technology, IndependenceFIRST, milwauCHI, milwaukee, Scott Mayer, screen readers, shawn henry, W3C, wai, wai-aria