# Presentation: 157150

## Past work on Accessibility Guidelines & Lessons learned

- Accessible Interface andInformation Technology RERC
- Telecommunication RERC

## Basis of Comments

## RERC work on Standards

- RERC personnel worked on over 40 standards groups
- ISO
- IEC
- JTC1
- IEEE
- ITU
- IETF
- W3C
- HFES
- TIA
- CEA
- more

## RERC work on Access Guidelines

- Guidelines for Consumer Products (1992)
- Software Accessibility Guidelines for ITF (1994)
- Microsoft Accessibility Guidelines (1999)
- IBM Accessibility Guidelines  (1993)
- First Web Guidelines (HTML) (1995)
- TAAC work
- (complied over 1000 guidelines for TAAC Committee
- On-Line Design Tool - 255
- EITAAC work – and support
- Universal Design Principles
- Accessibility Essentials – Design tool 2
- User Requirements
- WCAG (W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

## Lessons learned

## Problems, Issues, Challenges

**Two requirements from Industry**
- Guidelines must be general
- -  to allow industry to innovate
- Guidelines must be specific
- or designers will not know when they have met them
- and you can’t require that they be met

## Where to focus for stable guidelines

- Over the decades, people and their disabilities do not change.
- Over the decades, technologies (barriers and solutions) change greatly.
-       Focus on Function – not technology

## Potential Approach	

- Use
- Bowtie approach
- Along with ‘sufficient techniques’ approach

## Bow Tie Approach

- A large number of user needs must be met
- Use a smaller number carefully defined requirements
- Allow companies to use a large (and open) number of solutions to meet the requirements

## “Sufficient Techniques” Approach

- Allows industry to have some detailed techniques that they CAN use with confidence without having to do detail investigations -- but allows other methods to be used as well.
- Allows what is “sufficient” to change over time to reflect advances in AT and mainstream technology.
- How
- General but **testable** guidelines are developed (as specific as possible)
- Very specific techniques that are known to meet the provisions are listed as “sufficient”
- May have multiple ‘sufficient techniques’
- May have different ‘sufficient’ techniques for different situations
- Sufficient techniques do not HAVE to be used. But provide easy clear way to conform.
- Techniques can be updated over time.

## Lessons (cont’d)

- There often is not a natural ‘bright line’ for accessibility.
- For some things the answer is
- People with disabilities have all levels and combinations of disabilities.
- Therefore one cannot say   **“this is what is needed to make things accessible.”**     Accessible to whom?
-  To address this
- standards groups have selected a minimum level of accessibility based on best available information.
- Sometimes different levels are identified for different situations.

## Advances since last round

## AT is Changing

- Much harder to say -  “direct access” or  AT access
- as  .31 does now
- AT may not be allowed
- Specific AT may be too expensive (public access)
- AT blending with UD (built-in)
- What is AT?
- Also – for pubic access – assumptions about AT need to be realistically inclusive
- Possible approach
- “Product must be accessible – when evaluated with AT that most users have and are allowed to use – when they encounter the product”.

## Cell phones & Wireless Phones

- ANSI C63.19 (cellphone/HA compatibility) completed.
- The existing 255 regs refer to ANSI C63.19  which applies to Cell phones
- Our work showed that Cordless phone interference is also a problem.
- Worked with TIA, collected data, and a new standard is now under development by TIA – almost complete.
- This new TIA standard – not C63.19 should be used for Cordless phones.
- "Magnetic Performance Requirements for Wireless Device/Hearing Aid Telecoil Mode Compatibility“ study completed.
- Stephen Julstrom (Etymotic Research)
- Linda Kozma-Spytek (RERC Telecom Access)
- Scott Isabelle (Motorola)
- The study was initiated last January in support of the ANSI C63.19 cellphone/HA compatibility working group and expanded to support the TIA TR41.3 cordless phone/HA compatibility working group.

## Voice technologies

- Voice Capability Becoming Ubiquitous
- ATMs   - even the small ones
- Phones -
- Cellular – inherent in hardware
- VoIP – inherent in hardware
- Computers – part of OS
- PDAs

## Security and Digital Rights Management 

## Closed Products

-  Any product where the user is prevented from installing or attaching adaptive assistive technology due to physical, electrical or policy restrictions.

## Closed Products

- Increasing prevalence
-  security
- Digital Rights  (DRM)
- New opportunities
-  But face adoption challenges
- Won’t overcome DRM policy problem

## Interoperability

- Accessibility API
- (requires installation of software – security issues)
- Universal Remote Console
- ANSI Standard
- USB- “keyclone” feature
- Realtime IPText Standards
- ITU
- IETF

## Two types of Harmonization

- Harmonization
- Two provisions can both be implemented at the same time.  They do not conflict.  Though they may differ –it is possible to conform to both.
- Interoperability
- Products that implement the two provisions/standards are able to work together as effectively as if they both followed the same standard.

## Resources Available From I&IT and Telecom    RERCs

- Collection of over 1000 accessibility guidelines
- Resource materials
- On-Line Design Tool
- Summary, compilation and analysis work
- Network of resource people internationally
- Collection of mistakes, false steps and red herrings (institutional memory)

## Funding for the Trace Center is provided by

**The National Institute on Disability and**
**Rehabilitation Research**
**      ****and**
**The National Science Foundation**