managing accessibility compliance in the enterprise
DESCRIPTION
From my CSUN 2011 presentation A lecture style session discussing ways to approach management of accessibility compliance at the enterprise level including project/ program management and procurement.TRANSCRIPT
One Accessible World
Managing Accessibility Compliance in the Enterprise
Karl Groves
Director of Training, Deque Systems
Phone: 443-517-9280
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @karlgroves
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Download These Slides
• Shortened URL: http://goo.gl/7UsEF• Long Form URL:
http://www.slideshare.net/karlgroves/managing-accessibility-compliance
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Agenda
• Defining the problem• Solving the Problem
– 20 Questions: or, Gauging Organizational Maturity– Managing Compliance
• Project Management Approaches– Waterfall– Agile
• Training• Center of Excellence
• Recap & Questions
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DEFINING THE PROBLEM
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Defining the Problem
• Objective: Understand the ways in which accessibility is often mishandled in large organizations, thus leading to risk exposure
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Defining the Problem
• Accessibility compliance is often backwards– Testing & compliance
efforts often happen after the fact
– Post-deployment remediation is often expensive, time-consuming, and incapable of addressing high impact issues
– This damages profitability, timelines, and quality
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Defining the Problem
• Accessibility is often not part of the process– Should be included in all phases of the lifecycle
• Planning• Requirements• Procurement/ Design & Development• Release• Maintenance
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Defining the Problem
• Staff often lack training on accessibility– Executives– Human Resources– Project Managers– Developers– Content Creators– QA
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Defining the Problem
• Accessibility policy & procedure not formalized– Not part of ELC/ SDLC– No formal conformance criteria– No teeth to acceptance process– No enterprise tools provided to staff
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GAUGING ORGANIZATIONAL MATURITY
Solving the Problem
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Where does the organization stand now with respect to Accessibility Policy & Procedure?– This gives us our path moving forward.
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Is there a formal program in place to manage accessibility compliance?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Who is tasked with coordinating accessibility compliance?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Does the org. have a PMO (Project Management Office)?– PMO might also be Program Management Office
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Does the organization have a documented SDLC/ ELC?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Has accessibility been placed into your ELC/ SDLC processes?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Does language exist in your procurement/ specification development documents which discuss accessibility compliance?– If so, is it specific enough to be followed
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Are deliverables validated for accessibility before acceptance?
• Is code validated for accessibility before acceptance into source control?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• What internal training is in place to educate QA/ development staff in accessibility?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• What technologies are under development by the company?– Web?– Software?– Documents?– Multimedia?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• For Web: What technologies are used on the web?– JavaScript/ DOM Scripting?– Ajax?– Flash?– Flex?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Who performs testing to ensure accessibility?– Developers?– QA Dept.?– UX staff?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• What software/ tools are in use by the development team to assess accessibility?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• If they use an enterprise-class tool, have they had any formal training in how to use the product?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Is there a formalized (documented) accessibility auditing methodology in place?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• To what standards are the company’s products developed/ tested against?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• What formal training does the typical developer have in accessibility?
• What formal training does the typical QA tester have in accessibility?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Do the testers use assistive technologies to perform tests?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Have they documented the conformance criteria for the standards against which they’ve chosen to comply?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Does the company test their system(s) using users with disabilities?
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Gauging Organizational Maturity
• Does the company test for functional performance?
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Organizational Maturity: A Customer Story
Conducted an Accessibility Skills Assessment Survey for a client with about 200 staff representing Content Creators, Design/UI, QA and Project Management members. The client’s goal was to determine their accessibility related knowledge. The results were:
• 79% had formal Computer Science training• 55% of the skills questions were answered
incorrectly across all 4 areas• 23% of the respondents had some formal training
in accessibility • 22% had training* in the workplace on
Accessibility (not formal training)• 21% seek out accessibility knowledge online
through web sites and blogs• 3% of those tested attended an accessibility
related event• 0% have purchased books on the topic
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MANAGING COMPLIANCESolving the Problem
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Managing Compliance
• How can we address the shortcomings found in our organization’s level of maturity with regard to accessibility?
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Managing Compliance: High Level
• Train, train, train• Institutionalize conformance• Plan compliance a head of time• Include a SME throughout all project phases• Monitor compliance at all phases• Implement Center of Excellence
• Prevention is preferable to inspection & rework.– Remediation can add up to 40% more time to front-end
development if not done right in the first place
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Remediation vs. Doing it Right
Avg. cost per defect = (num of devs * num of hours) * cost per dev per hour -------------------------------------------------- (number of fixed defects)
• Some estimates in QA community calculate cost around $500 per defect to find & fix defects and deploy remediated code– Dependent upon #of bugs, etc.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
Managing Compliance
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Project Management Approaches
• Remember this: It is hard to stop a moving train.– Accessibility must be managed early and closely.
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WATERFALL MODEL
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Planning Phase
• Determine what risk is involved re: accessibility• Determine the overall impact accessibility may
have on project timeline• Determine whether any extra funding or
resources are needed for accessibility• Include accessibility assets needed for project• Determine what accessibility related activities
are necessary in each phase
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Requirements Phase
• Identify accessibility stakeholders• For each feature/ technology in use, determine
what standards and guidelines will apply• Include typical use cases/ user stories to
generate accessibility requirements
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Procurement
• Investigate what conformance requirements exist for deliverable– Communicate this in all solicitations
• Research available market offerings• Determine which product/ service offers highest
level of compliance while fitting business need• Validate vendor claims of conformance, they will
often be inaccurate or incomplete• Ensure final award documents cite conformance
requirements
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Design Phase
• Utilize deliverables from planning & requirements phases to inform design phase– Revisit/ revise conformance criteria based on
technologies in use
• Validate design prototypes and comps with stakeholders and SMEs
• Audit functional mockups for accessibility– Utilize formal best practices to gauge compliance
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Development Phase
• Get ahead of accessibility issues. This is the last viable chance to prevent problems
• Revisit/ revise conformance criteria based on technologies in use
• Perform iterative testing as system is developed• Developers should test code as they develop,
just as they would for browser compatibility
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Testing
• Thorough testing required• Test against formal standard with well-defined
conformance criteria• Ensure testing involves functional performance
with assistive technologies
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Deployment Phase
• Ensure system is deployed with any accessibility-related configuration in place
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Maintenance Phase
• Provide a method to identify and track accessibility-related problems (pref. as bugs)
• Assign appropriate priority to issues
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Accessibility Compliance Approach
Applicable Provision Evaluation
Initial FinalUpdate Update
Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Milestone 3 Milestone 4A Milestone 4B Milestone 5
FinalInitial
Initial Final
Initial FinalUpdate Update
Initial FinalUpdate
Initial FinalUpdate UpdateAccessibility Risk Information Document
Integration Plan forAccessible Support
Accessibility Test
PlanAccessibility Test
Results
Create a Test PlanIdentify the Applicable
508 ProvisionIdentify 508 Issues
and Make Corrections
Work ProductComponent
Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) Section 508 Work Product - to - Milestone Cross-Reference Matrix
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AGILE MODEL
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Agile vs. Waterfall
• Both methodologies have:– Planning– Requirements– Design– Develop– Implementation
• Difference is in approach• No difference regarding accessibility
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Agile - Planning
• Develop accessibility user stories– “I want to be able to access audio description for
online videos”– “I want to be able to compare products”…”using a
screen reader”
• Identify disabled Customer Representative– “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
(Agile Manifesto)
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Agile – Planning
• Based on features under development this cycle:– Identify any applicable standards.– For those standards, identify conformance criteria– For each conformance criteria, identify best practices
to develop requirements– Include these requirements in Definition of Done
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Agile - Development
• Developers should create accessibility tests during test development
• Developers should utilize automated testing (inc. tools like FireEyes) during development prior to committing changes
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Agile - Development
• Ensure any unmet accessibility requirements are put into sprint backlog for reinclusion next iteration
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Remediation
• Treat accessibility errors as you would any other bug
• Prioritize based on impact, time to fix
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Remediation Matrix
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TRAININGManaging Compliance
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Benefits of Training
• Addresses disparities in level of understanding• Addresses inaccuracies/ deficiencies in
understanding• Reduces risk of non-compliant interfaces &
content• Avoids costly post release remediation• Protects project timelines and budgets
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Training Philosophy
• Train people to understand disabilities– A firm grasp of “Why” can always lead you to discover
“how”. Technology is always changing. Challenges faced by disabled users do not change.
• Train people to understand their specific impact on end users
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Training
• All involved in design & dev, plus HR & execs should get high level understanding of:– Laws– Standards– Understanding Disability
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Training
• Executives– Policy & Risk
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Training
• Human Resources– Skill set(s) to look for in future applicants– Training requirements for current staff
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Training
• Procurement– Legal implications of accessibility compliance– How different technologies impact accessibility– How, when, and which standards apply
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Training
• Project Management– Understanding requirements & how to define them– Integrating accessibility into lifecycle: what & where
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Training
• Designers– Specific BPs relating to interaction & visual design– What they design gets implemented
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Training
• Developers– Specific BPs relating to production of accessible
interfaces– Specific advanced techniques based on technologies
under development.
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Training
• Content Creators– Specific BPs relating to production of accessible
content– Techniques & Procedures on use of content creation
tools (i.e. content management systems) so accessible output is ensured
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Training
• QA– Need to understand how to test for accessibility– Need to understand how to use accessibility testing
tools & interpret their output
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ACCESSIBILITY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Managing Compliance
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Center of Excellence: What it is
• Centralized location for knowledge, training, support, and expertise in accessibility.
• Provides communication between knowledge domains
• Develops, maintains, and shares accessibility resources, and assets– Sample deliverables, test plans, conformance guides,
code samples, etc.
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COE: The Promise
• Support for individuals and enterprise • Standards for consistent implementation• Training to improve individual and enterprise
execution• Measurements to the expectation• Governance for consistent implementation by
the agency and contractors
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COE: Support
• Design Support– Prototype Validation
• Development Support– Accessibility User Stories– Customer Advocate– Subject matter expertise
• Testing Support– Testing/ Conformance– Continuous Monitoring– Use Case/ Usability Test Support
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COE: Standards
• Broad, Organizational Standards• Interpretation of Ind. Standards• Development Guides• Global Testing to determine areas of
improvement
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COE: Training
• Establish an agency/corporate curriculum• Testing/ Conformance guides based on
technologies in use• New hire assets
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COE: Measurements
• Dashboard reporting throughout all levels of the enterprise
• Establish your benchmark and measure improvements
• Assist PM in measuring success• Gather metrics
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COE: Governance
• Ensure consistent contract language• Ensure compliance of deliverables by
vendors• Gatekeeper to acceptance/ release/
milestone exit
Rules which are not enforced don’t get followed
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RECAP
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Recap
• The Problem– Accessibility
Compliance is Backwards
– Accessibility Not Part of the Process
– Staff are not trained– Accessibility Policy &
Procedure not formalized
• The Solution– Train, train, train– Institutionalize
conformance– Plan compliance– Include a SME
throughout all project phases
– Monitor compliance– Implement Center of
Excellence
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QUESTIONS?