hw6: Accessibility Implementation

Last revised: October 30, 2023

Assigned

• November 1, 2023

Due

• November 6, 2023
• Two day grace period, November 8, 2023

• Overview
• Details

Overview

The goal of this homework is to build something that is accessible. Specifically, you should create a more accessible version of a user interface you’ve already made for a class or for fun.

Learning Goals / Competencies

This homework may contribute to your competency grade on

• Accessible Document Creation
• Accessibility Problem Fixes
• Your participation grade, as a percentage of:
• completeness (are all the required parts present)
• consistency: are you applying the skills you’ve learned so far consistently as relevant

In addition, you can optionally ask us to assess the following things to your homework:

• Automated Accessibility Checking (requires writing up UARs)
• AT-Based Accessibility Checking (requires writing up UARs)
• Image Description (you have to provide alt text anyway, so just tell us if we should assess it)
• Familiarity with a Range of Accessibility technologies
• Presenting Accessibly

Length and Difficulty

This is a new assignment, so we are still figuring this out! Please bear with us and reach out if you have trouble!

Details

To complete this assignment, please do the following

1. Select a specific interface or web app that you will make more accessible

You should identify a technology you have implemented for general use (i.e. not an accessibility technology). Ideally this should be an interactive technology (some kind of user interface, app, etc). If you have no such thing, you can ask us about using a website or other static content that you have generated as an alternative.

Possible examples (this list is still unders construction)

• A class assignment that has an interface
• A web app
• A mobile app (e.g. final project for 340)
• An interface wrapped around some machine learning program
• An educational game for young children
• Tools for learning programming
• A visualization
• A password or CAPTCHA interface
• VR/AR: A game or game control interface.

Also be clear about what task you want to accomplish. If you don’t have any interactive application that you can do this with you can use a static website or content, however in this case you need to get our approval by submitting the content you will focus on to us before class on Friday.

2. Select an accessibility technology and test your app with it

Be clear about which accessibility aid (such a screen reader, magnifier or single switch input) or which perceptual concern (such as color blindness) your modifications will be addressing.

Be clear about what task your are testing.

Test out your app with that accessibility aid and identify any problems with completing that task.

Note UARs are not required unless you want to be assessed on competencies that require them (Automated Accessibility Checking & AT-Based Accessibility Checking)

3. Fix the problem

Once you have identified problems, it is time to fix them. The expectations here will depend partly on the details of the task you select (which must be instructor approved) but it needs to include at least two different areas of POUR (i.e. address issues with both percievability and operability) or otherwise demonstrate that you have not done something overly simple.

4. Turn in the following information for us-

• An accessible 1 page document stating
  • What app or website did you pick and what is it’s main purpose
  • What task you picked
  • What you had to do to make the app or website more accessible
  • What was hardest about this assignment
  • Your document should be accessible, including using headers for each section, and images to illustrate your text.

Note: do not submit a PDF. We expect your submission to be a Word or Google Doc.

5. Present about it in Section

Be prepared to demonstrate the problems you found and the fix you created in section. This should be a “before & after” style presentation, where you show what your subject looked like before & how it wasn’t appropriately accessible, followed by an explanation or demonstration of what you did about it.

The format of this presentation is flexible, but should take about 3 minutes (and no more than 5). You can choose to do a live demo of your before & after, do a classic live presentation with slides (which ideally would include screenshots or recordings), you can pre-record a slide presentation video, or you could narrate a recording of interacting with your system (again, focusing on the before & after). To meaningfully demonstrate your system’s accessibility, we recommend using at least one accessibility technology in your presentation or demo.