Relación entre accesibilidad y usabilidad

En el siguiente vídeo se explica la relación que existe entre estas dos dimensiones que son factores esenciales para la calidad de un sitio web:

Los captchas apestan

Los captchas son una gran barrera de accesibilidad. Incluso los captchas que se anuncian como accesibles suelen ser no accesibles.

En Catpchas Suck se muestran algunos ejemplos reales de lo terribles que pueden llegar a ser los captchas, tanto desde el punto de vista de la usabilidad como de la accesibilidad.

Además, se ofrecen algunas alternativas:

Check out these articles on Captcha alternatives:

9 Captcha Alternatives That Won’t Wreck Your UX (dtelepathy.com)
Not all of the 9 methods are accessible, so focus your attention on number 3 – “Biometric security”, number 4 – “Text message verification” and number 6 – “The honeypot method”.

Think Your Site Needs A CAPTCHA? (usertesting.com)
Same as with the previous article: not all alternatives they suggest are accessible. Focus your attention on “Honeypots”, “Timestamps” and “Verified sign in”.

Análisis de la accesibilidad de los sitios web de los colegios en Estados Unidos

En Accessibility in mind? A nationwide study of K-12 Web sites in the United States se ha publicado un estudio de la accesibilidad de los sitios web de los colegios en Estados Unidos.

El resumen del artículo dice:

Web site accessibility is a serious civil rights concern that has historically been difficult to measure and to establish success criteria for. By conducting automated accessibility analyses via the WAVE tool, we calculated accessibility norms of a statistically appropriate, random sample of K–12 school Web sites across the U.S. (n = 6,226) and merged results with national datasets to determine how school demographics influence accessibility. Results indicated that schools across all demographic groups generally struggle to make their Web sites fully accessible to their universe of diverse users and revealed that the concrete, highest-impact steps that schools nationwide need to take to improve accessibility include improving poor contrast between text and backgrounds, providing alternative text to images and other visual elements, and labeling form controls.

La importancia de usar etiquetas (labels) en los formularios

El artículo Labels Required explica por qué es importante identificar los controles de los formularios:

Using the label element checks all of the boxes for inclusivity when properly formatted: it's directly associated with a form element (either with the for attribute or by nesting the element inside the label), displayed as text by standard browsers, and spoken by screen readers. Clicking or tapping on a label will focus the associated element (or select the checkbox or radio option), and when you focus directly on the element, screen readers will read the label. Ensuring that both visual and auditory cues are present and intelligible are critical when you consider that in WebAIM's annual screen reader study screen reader users report relying on a mix of both, with the majority using audio exclusively.

Hay otras alternativas a label, pero en este artículo se explica que no siempre funcionan:

It's possible to use markup other than label, but when you do, users may see or hear blank form elements and have no idea what to enter. 

At first glance, placeholder does a very similar job to label: it's displayed as text (within text inputs, specifically) and read aloud by screen readers. The placeholder has a purpose, though, that diverges from that of a label. It's meant to be a suggestion, formatting guideline, or hint that is ultimately replaced by user input. So while a placeholder may seem like a worthy label alternate on the first pass through a form, once a data value is entered, that label is gone. And that's just one of several reasons why placeholder is an inadequate substitute label. It's much more valuable when used as a guide. 

The aria-label attribute provides label text to screen readers for identifying interactive elements, or elements with ARIA roles, and it produces the same audio feedback as the label element. There's no reason to use both on the same form field, and we actually recommend against trying.

La conclusión es clara:

Out of the box, the label element is all we need to indentify fields in an accessible way. Used in combination with accessible hiding and other helper elements, like placeholder or icons, we can ensure that a form element's purpose is clearly communicated to all users.

Consejos para el rediseño de la web de Renfe

Renfe ha sacado a contratación el rediseño de su sitio web.

En Twitter podemos encontrar muchas sugerencias para su mejora, por ejemplo, este hilo:

La noticia de que Renfe invertirá 700.000€ en mejorar su web nos ha alegrado tanto a @marcborras y a mi que hemos decidido hacer un hilo con 17 predicciones de cosas que esta vez, ya sí que sí, seguro que van a arreglar. Empezamos 👇 pic.twitter.com/y4SR7fFSgZ

— Carlos Sánchez (@chocotuits) 3 de febrero de 2019

La web de Renfe será accesible... o quizás no

La semana pasada se publicó la noticia Renfe invertirá 700.000 euros para arreglar su web de una vez por todas:

Renfe ha pisado el acelerador nada más aprobar su plan estratégico. Si el mismo día en el que se puso en marcha la operadora anunció la licitación del primer paquete de trenes para renovar su flota, hoy es el día de su página web. La operadora ferroviaria ha licitado el contrato, valorado en 700.000 euros, para renovar su principal canal digital de contacto con sus clientes.
La mejora de la web de Renfe es una de las medidas más demandadas por sus usuarios desde hace años. Esto ha provocado que esta licitación haya sido una de las primeras en ponerse en marcha. Una decisión muy simbólica que tanto el presidente de la compañía, Isaías Táboas, como su director de estrategia, Manel Villalante, han querido priorizar para ponerla en marcha lo antes posible.
El proyecto licitado tiene por objetivo mejorar la usabilidad de la web de Renfe. Uno de los elementos más destacados en el plan estratégico de la operadora. En el caso de la web la intención es desterrar todos los actuales problemas que genera la actual y dotarla de las capacidades que permitan mejorar el rendimiento y el posicionamiento de los contenidos.
Hay que recordar que la última gran renovación del principal canal digital de Renfe se realizó hace 10 años. Un periodo en el que regularmente se han ido introduciendo mejoras pero que el tiempo ha dejado anticuado.

Y sorprendente este dato:

En concreto, entre enero y agosto el 46,8% del total de billetes se vendió a través de la web. Renfe comercializó 16,8 millones de plazas de tren a través de su portal de Internet.

Y todo ello, a pesar de los problemas de usabilidad y accesibilidad que tiene la web de Renfe.

Accesibilidad web y discapacidad cognitiva

La discapacidad cognitiva es una de las menos tratadas en la información sobre accesibilidad web. Por ejemplo, con la publicación de WCAG 2.1 se ha empezado a contemplar en WCAG, antes "se olvidaba" porque es más difícil.

El artículo Web accessibility for cognitive, learning and neurological impairment ofrece una lista de condiciones que se engloban dentro de la discapacidad cognitiva:

• ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) — difficulty focusing (e.g., on a single task, for longer periods, easy to be distracted etc.).
• Autism — difficulty in interacting with social communication.
• Mental health disabilities (mood disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia, delirium) — people with this disabilities can be affected in their day-by-day activities by the medications’ side effects (e.g., blurred vision, memory impairments, tremors etc.).
• Memory impairments — both short and long-term memory impairment.
• Perceptual disabilities (learning disabilities) — difficulty in processing sensory information (auditory, tactile and visual information).
• Seizure disorders (migraines, epilepsy) — reaction to audio and visual stimulation.

Y ofrece unos consejos para mejorar la accesibilidad web:

1. Using headings, subheadings, and lists for structuring the information. Structuring information in this way will help people to easily scan the page, to see the essential information of that all content and, in the same time, will help the machine to skim a page with a screen reader. What does it mean to skim a page? Is to jump from heading to heading, in this way reading just the main information presented in that whole.
2. Make sure that the line length doesn’t exceed 70–80 characters. Short sentences are easy to read by any kind of users.
3. Using more white space in your Webpage. Having a spatiality in your Webpage will help users with different cognitive, learning and neurological impairment to structure the information and to understand it easier.
4. Consistency in colors, font, and locations of the elements in the Webpage. Consistency is one of the principles of user experience and it’s very important that your product has it. A lot of users are following a pattern while navigating on a Website, and changing their pattern can put them into the difficulty of using it.
5. Implementing keyboard support. For those people with impairment it easy to have implemented the keyboard navigation (through shortcuts, commands) than the mouse navigation because, in that way, they will not need to follow the cursor of the mouse on the screen, an activity that for their condition requires a lot of focus. Also, this method will help not just this category of people, but users in general because the keyboard using while navigation increased in the last couple of years.
6. Offering alternatives for multimedia content. Having a description for non-text content, it will not only help the screen-reader software to transmit de correct information to the user (to not skip an image, just because it does not have a description) but the users, too. When a Web page can’t open all the images, it’s recommended that in that place to have a short description, in this way, the user will know what that image is about. Also, this behavior needs to be implemented for video and audio elements, too.

¿Sitio web accesible para las personas ciegas?

Me he topado con el sitio web Paths to Literacy. Se supone que debe ser accesible para las personas ciegas porque pone "for students who are blind or visually impaired". Sin embargo, me encuentro esto:

Las tres imágenes debajo de "Latest Posts" son enlaces a los respectivos artículos publicados. El texto alternativo de esas imágenes es:

• Collage of book covers showing characters who are blind
• Male adult's hands reading braille
• Blurred image of cars on a street

El texto alternativo representa el contenido de la imagen, pero para nada representa la función de la imagen que en este caso es enlazar con cada uno de los artículos. Ese texto artículo es inútil.

Enseñando a programar a niños ciegos

En Microsoft's pods teach blind children how to code se comenta una experiencia de programación con niños ciegos y un sistema  llamado Code Jumper desarrollado por Microsoft.

Newsletters para estar al día sobre accesibilidad web

En Digital Accessibility Newsletters se recogen algunos de los newsletters sobre accesibilidad web que conozco. Para mí, los mejores son:

WebAIM
Accessibility Weekly
Frontend Focus

También recomiendo el siguiente, que no aparece en esa lista:

https://mediaaccess.org.au/

Cómo escribir un buen texto alternativo

En Considerations when writing alt text se dan algunos consejos para escribir un buen texto alternativo.

Formularios de búsqueda no accesibles

En Unlabelled search fields se explica cómo etiquetar correctamente un formulario de búsqueda para que sea accesible.

La típica implementación como la siguiente está mal:

<input type="search" placeholder="…">
<button type="submit">
Search
</button>

Algunas alternativas son:

<input aria-labelledby="searchtext" type="search" placeholder="…">
<button type="submit" id="searchtext">
Search
</button>

O también:

<input type="text" name="search" aria-label="Search">
<button type="submit">Search</button>

En el artículo también se repasan las implementaciones de BBC, Medium, Google, Twitter y otros sitios web populares.

El sitio web de Domino's Pizza tiene que ser accesible en EEUU

En BIG WIN FOR WEB ACCESSIBILITY IN DOMINO’S PIZZA CASE podemos leer:

the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app because the Act mandates that places of public accommodation, like Domino’s, provide auxiliary aids and services to make visual materials available to individuals who are blind.

El juicio contra Domino's Pizza.

Versión texto, NO, NUNCA

Es bastante sorprendente que todavía haya gente que ofrezca una "versión texto" o "versión solo texto" como solución para la accesibilidad de un sitio web. Pensaba que ya nunca más me encontraría con ello, pero me equivoqué.

La Universidad Miguel Hernández:

Tiene en el pie de página un enlace Versión texto que muestra esta página:

Podemos ver que el URL de esa página es https://www.umh.es/acc/, supongo que "acc" debe ser por "accesible".

Denuncias por falta de accesibilidad web en EEUU en el año 2018

En 2018 ADA Web Accessibility Lawsuit Recap Report han publicado un resumen de las denuncias por falta de accesibilidad web que ha habido en EEUU durante el año 2018.

Se contabilizan 2285 denuncias, un incremento del 181% sobre las 814 presentadas en el año 2017:

The UsableNet research team has been tracking 2018 federally filed ADA web accessibility-related lawsuits. In 2018, we tracked 2285 lawsuits—up 181% over 2017 which had 814.

Igualito, igualito, igualito que en España.

Existe un patrón de los sitios web denunciados, principalmente están relacionados con el comercio, los servicios de alimentación, viajes y hospitales, banca y finanzas, entretenimiento y diversión y autoservicio (máquinas tipo cajero automático):

Although many industries are involved across the cases, six stand out for the additional attention they get. Retail, food service, travel/hospitality, banking/financial, entertainment and leisure, and self-service, have the majority of cases, reflecting a general pattern over 2017 and 2018 toward these types of organizations.

¿Qué herramienta de evaluación de la accesibilidad web debería usar?

En Which accessibility testing tool should you use? proponen:

Browser extensions (I’m using Chrome for the purposes of this post)
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation ToolLighthouseaXe browser extensionWCAG Accessibility Audit Developer UISiteImprove Accessibility Checker
Other tools
Tenon.io (free and paid plans available)

Crear un sitio web accesible alternativo no es una buena solución

Lo de crear un sitio web "versión solo texto" pensaba que era algo que había pasado a la historia, pero parece que no es así...

En Airline Fined for Separate Disabled-Accessible Website podemos leer que la compañía aérea SAS ha sido sancionada con una multa de $200,000 porque creó una versión accesible separada de su sitio web principal:

Offering a separate website for those with disabilities does not comply with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) website accessibility requirements, the agency made clear with a $200,000 fine to the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS).

The DOT established website accessibility requirements that require any U.S. or foreign air carrier that has a website and that operates at least one aircraft seating more than 60 passengers to ensure that its public-facing webpages on its primary website are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Set forth at 14 CFR Part 382, the rule had two phases of implementation.

By December 12, 2015, covered entities needed to ensure that core travel information and services on the airline’s primary website met the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA Standard. Airlines had until December 12, 2016, to achieve compliance for all remaining webpages on the primary site.

But in February 2017, the DOT’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings discovered that SAS’ primary website was not accessible to persons with disabilities. Instead, the airline created an “assistive version” of its primary website at a separate and distinct URL.

This separate site violated the DOT rule, the agency said.

“In the preamble to the rule the Department explained that to create a separate accessible website would ‘likely perpetuate the problem of unequal access as carriers allot fewer resources than needed over time to properly maintain the second site,’” according to the DOT consent order with SAS. “The Department also stated that it is a ‘well-established principle of disability non-discrimination law that separate or different aids, benefits or services can only be provided to individuals with disabilities (or a class of such individuals) when necessary to provide aids, benefits or service that are as effective as those provided to others.’”

SAS’ failure to comply also constituted unfair and deceptive practices and an unfair method of competition, the agency said.

In response, SAS argued it “held a good faith belief” that the assistive version of its website was a conforming alternate version that brought its primary site into compliance, pointing the finger at a third-party vendor that “assured” the airline the alternative site met the requirements of the DOT rule. SAS no longer has an alternative separate website designed for individuals with disabilities, and its primary website is accessible.

The DOT Enforcement Office and SAS reached an agreement over the charges. While the airline did not admit to the violations asserted by the agency, it agreed to cease and desist from future similar violations and pay a compromise civil penalty of $200,000. Of the total amount, $100,000 was due immediately, with the remaining $100,000 due and payable if SAS violates the consent order within one year.

“This compromise assessment is appropriate considering the nature and extent of the violations described herein and serves the public interest,” according to the consent order. “It represents a strong deterrent to future similar unlawful practices by SAS and other carriers.”

Beyoncé denunciada por falta de accesibilidad web

En Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment sued over website accessibility podemos leer:

A class action lawsuit claims that Beyoncé’s official website violates the Americans With Disabilities Act (1990) by denying visually impaired users equal access to its products and services, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Web accessibility requires photos to be coded with alt-text so that screen-readers used by visually impaired users can speak the alternative text. Dan Shaked, attorney for plaintiff Mary Conner, said: “There are many important pictures on beyonce.com that lack a text equivalent … As a result, Plaintiff and blind beyonce.com customers are unable to determine what is on the website, browse the website or investigate and/or make purchases.”

The Guardian has contacted representatives for Beyoncé for comment.

Conner is described in the suit as having “no vision whatsoever”. Shaked describes music as “the one and only form of entertainment that truly presents an even playing field between the visually impaired and the sighted”. Conner’s hopes of attending a Beyoncé concert were restricted by her lack of access to the website, the suit claims.

The complaint lists further issues including the lack of accessible drop-down menus and navigation links, and the inability to navigate using a keyboard instead of a mouse.

The proposed lawsuit includes “all legally blind individuals in the United States who have attempted to access Beyonce.com and as a result have been denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services offered by Beyonce.com, during the relevant statutory period.”

Conner seeks a court injunction that would require Beyoncé’s company to make the site accessible to blind and visually impaired customers in accordance with ADA rules, and is pursuing damages for those who have “been subject to unlawful discrimination”.

La accesibilidad empieza con un buen uso de HTML

En HTML: A good basis for accessibility se explica:

A great deal of web content can be made accessible just by making sure the correct HTML elements are used for the correct purpose at all times. This article looks in detail at how HTML can be used to ensure maximum accessibility.

Semantic HTML doesn't take longer to write than non-semantic (bad) markup if you do it consistently from the start of your project, and it also has other benefits beyond accessibility:

1. Easier to develop with — as mentioned above, you get some functionality for free, plus it is arguably easier to understand.
2. Better on mobile — semantic HTML is arguably lighter in file size than non-semantic spaghetti code, and easier to make responsive.
3. Good for SEO — search engines give more importance to keywords inside headings, links, etc., than keywords included in non-semantic <div>s, etc., so your documents will be more findable by customers.

Experiencias en desarrollos tecnológicos accesibles: Experiencia Ecuador

Conferencia impartida en la III Jornada de Accesibilidad Digital organizada por el Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC) del 25 al 28 de octubre de 2016 en San José (Costa Rica):