National AccessAbility Week

National Accessibility Week is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Canadians with disabilities, as well as to promote accessibility and inclusion in all aspects of life. In honour of National AccessAbility Week 2024, we posted daily to share resources, information and stories on accessibility tools and technology.

Monday, May 27, 2024 

Accessible design benefits all – Closed captions 

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A 1974 photo of Julia Child, taken by her husband, Paul. Source:  https://alexprudhomme.com/

In 1972, "The French Chef" with Julia Child became the first regularly captioned TV program.  

430 million people worldwide require rehabilitation to address their disabling hearing loss. Many people are born with hearing loss and deafness; however, the prevalence of hearing loss also increases with age. Among those older than 60 years, over 25% are affected by disabling hearing loss. Young adults are also becoming increasingly at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. 

While closed captions were designed for those with hearing difficulties, they also benefit a much larger group of individuals. This technology allows us to enjoy movies and TV shows in different languages. It also enables us to watch videos in noisy and crowded environments, like public transit, or in environments where sound would be unwelcome, like in a waiting room.  

In fact, it is popular for short-form video authors to include open captioning (where captions cannot be turned off) in the content they post to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Closed captioning makes audio and video media accessible to all. 

For more information, please see the following resources: 

Deafness and hearing loss (who.int) 

Captions/Subtitles | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C 

Tuesday, May 28, 2024 

Accessible design benefits all – Curb cut 

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Image of a curb cut by Sergei Albaev via Shutterstock. 

Curb cuts are ramps that are cut into a curb to provide access between the sidewalk and the street. Did you know that these accessibility features were not born from a government mandate, but rather from an act of revolution by a motivated group of student activists?

Ed Roberts was an activist and graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s. At a young age, Ed became sick with polio and was left paralyzed from the neck down. He was the first student with a serious disability to attend UC Berkeley. One night, Ed and other student disability activists demolished curbs and laid asphalt to create curb cuts. This act of defiance was a call to the Federal government to eliminate barriers to access for people with disabilities. 

Curb cuts are now part a of architectural accessibility standards in the Unites States and Canada. These cuts are beneficial not just to people with mobility disabilities, but also to people pushing strollers, using grocery carts, or rolling a suitcase. Interestingly, a study of pedestrian behavior at a Sarasota, Florida shopping mall revealed that nine out of 10 ”unencumbered pedestrians" go out of their way to use a curb cut. 

This example of universal design was so impactful that it inspired the term “curb cut effect”. The curb cut effect states that when you design for disabilities, you make things better for everyone in the process.   

For more information, please see the following resources: 

Curb Cuts: A Brief History – Accessibility Digest – Carleton College 

Curb ramps liberate Americans with disabilities—and everyone else | McClatchy Washington Bureau (mcclatchydc.com) 

Wednesday, May 29, 2024 

Everyone loves a pie chart 

Data visualizations are a powerful tool for communicating large amounts of information in a way that can be easily consumed. When we are integrating data visualizations into our applications, we can be mindful of selecting an accessible library. However, what can we do to create accessible visualizations when using a third-party tool, like Tableau or Power BI? 

Alternative text: Make sure to provide a description of the visualization as text in an alt attribute, as a caption, or in surrounding text. Include information about the type of data visualization used, a summary of the data and what the data shows.  

Colour alone: Do not use colour alone to distinguish one segment of data from another as this will not be meaningful for users with colourblindness. Instead, consider using different fill types, such as vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, diagonal stripes, or cross-hatching. Another option is to label data directly within the image. This will help both users with colourblindness, as well as those with cognitive disabilities, as they will not need to reference back and forth between a legend and the image. 

Colour contrast: When creating data visualizations, it is important to consider not only the colour contrast between the image and the background, but also the contrast between adjoining segments. This can be challenging depending on the number of colours in your palette. One way of mitigating this problem is to apply space or a border between the segments that has sufficient contrast. 

For more information, please see the following resources: 

Making data visualizations accessible - TPGi 

Creating accessible reports in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn 

How To Use Color Blind Friendly Palettes in Your Design - Venngage 

Thursday, May 30, 2024 

Running accessible virtual workshops   

As public servants, we work with staff, partners and members of the Canadian public across the country. This allows us to include diverse voices and skillsets in the products and services we build. Unfortunately, some of the tools we use for online meetings and workshops, like Miro, are not accessible for all users. How do we create equitable opportunities for everyone to share their voice? 

When running a virtual workshop: 

Give options for providing input: Allow participants to contribute in the way that works best for them. This can include encouraging participants to verbalize their thoughts or use the chat. In larger meetings, it can be helpful to have a second moderator facilitate the chat and add these items to the board. 

Consider participants with visual impairments: Screen readers often do not work well with whiteboard tools. Read out content for participants who may not be able to see the board. 

Consider alternative tools: Be creative. Tools like Microsoft PowerPoint and Word have helpful accessibility features. When presenting or collaborating with your team, stakeholders or users, consider whether one of these tools could be used. 

When planning to host a virtual event, ask participants in advance what accommodations they need. We do not need to be accessibility experts to run more equitable meetings and workshops. Often, we just need to start the conversation and ask people what they need to fully participate. 

For more information, please see the following resources: 

How to run an inclusive virtual workshop | by Here I Am | Medium 

Best practices for accessible virtual events - Digital Accessibility Toolkit (canada.ca) 

Friday, May 31, 2024 

Accessible design benefits all – Voice commands

The history of voice and accessibility started as early as the 1930s, with the very first audiobooks. While assistive voice technologies have long been a necessity for people with mobility or sight impairments, these tools have become a common convenience for many of us with the rise of smart assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant.

These tools also help to address what is known as situational disabilities. A situational disability is a temporary disability. These disabilities are not related to someone’s mental or physical condition, but rather occur when someone’s circumstances or environment make it difficult for them to perform tasks. 

Assistive voice commands can help to address a situational disability for:  

• Someone who needs to turn the lights on in a room while carrying their child;  

• Someone who needs to convert a measurement while cooking; 

• Someone who needs to get directions while driving; or 

• Someone who needs to make a phone call in the winter while wearing gloves. 

Whenever we are in a circumstance or environment that inhibits our senses, we may experience a situational disability. 

For more information, please see the following resources: 

Situational Disabilities & Accessibility: Learn It All Here (userway.org) 

What is Situational Disability & How Accessibly Makes a Difference - Accessibly (accessiblyapp.com)