A11y Bytes 2024 Melbourne Sketch

Sketch created by Stacey Waters, an attendee of A11y Bytes Melbourne 2024.

Long text alternative of sketch – 2024 Melbourne A11y Bytes

Biggest Accessibility Issue: Low Literacy

Presenters: Cathy Basterfield & Damian Basterfield

• Users with low to no digital skills are being forgotten
• Websites written in ‘plain languages’ are not meeting needs
• 1 in 4 Australians are not connected online
• Only 2-5 Australians can effectively use a “Typical website”

What can we do better with websites?

• Clear information
• Little to no navigation
• A way to ask for help, like a phone number
• As few steps as possible
• Don’t make the reader analyse and infer

VoiceOver Experience of an Interactive Graph in a Mobile App

Presenter: Allison Ravenhall

• Apple introduced Axcharts in iOS 15.0 (@Protocol AXChart <NSObject>)
• Allows you to create an accessible chart

There are 3 interactive options for people using screen readers

• Describes the chart
• Plays an audio version of the chart in Tones and Noises
• Generates a new screen & gives all details

What platforms have it?

• Swift UI has it
• UI Kit does not have it
• Android may or may not have it

Inclusive design research

Presenter: Michelle Chu

Timeline:

1. 2 years ago we were focusing a lot on accessibility in the design phase in ABC
2. Realized that talking to people had to come first
3. 2022: Engaged with a external vendor to understand best practices and user expectations
4. 2023: in-house research learning from previous research and testing the solution with users
5. 2024: Created training and resources to equip us with practical ‘how to’ guides

You don’t need to be perfect when starting your design journey. You just need to start thinking about it.

5 fundamental principles of inclusive research

Presenter: Irith Williams

1. Immersion. Personal commitment towards continual & direct engagement with lived experiences
2. Piloting. Everything needs to be piloted with the users first
3. Safety. General, physical cognitive, and psychosocial. All have the aim of reducing risk for researches and participants
4. Diversity. Understanding there’s a lot of diversities in the experiences of disability
5. Recognising that we don’t all start from the same place

Tabindex “but I don’t support IE6”

Presenter: Andrew Nevins

• It was createdto solve a bug in Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7
• What is tabindex? A HTML attribute that allows an element to be focusable
• tabindex helps assistive tech users get to non-interactive content
• But without it, some people with disabilities can get disoriented
• We should start using it again on skip links and local navigation links
• The solution is simple, just use it