Accessibility Capability Maturity Model

Accessibility Maturity Model

Maturity Models have been around since the mid-80’s as a way of measuring an organization’s level of performance in terms of both formal capability and practices, from ad-hoc to policy-driven to a level of innovation and refinement. While Maturity Models were originally used in software development companies, they can be applied to a wide range of practices and industries.

Typical structure of maturity models include defined levels of maturity, essential processes, organization and strategy, goals and optimization. Even though many of the maturity models are presented in linear terms, it is not uncommon for an organization to be involved in several different areas concurrently. Accessibility Maturity Models are no exception in this regard.

From “Model” to “Process”

While the term “model” might infer a static state, Accessibility Maturity Models typically refer to an ongoing process for the institution employing the model. Typically, the models describe a process including the following five steps:

- Initial awareness
- Managed efforts
- Defined strategy
- Regularly Assessed/Adjusted
- Optimization

Most organizations can define their practices according to one or more of these steps. Ultimately nobody really “matures” completely, as nobody can ever be completely optimized in the face of non-stop technological advances and the constant innovation in the digital information space.

Capability for Maturity

Truly, these models are actually measuring the CAPABILITY of your organization more than the current state of your digital accessibility maturity, as in what you could determine based on an audit of your digital media.

More than a measure of your product, it is an inventory of your tools, materials, policies, practices, quality control, training, research and development, and strategic plan and outlook. Your Accessibility Capability Maturity is a measure of your ability to function and perform as a member of your professional industry and community, as well as in modern society as a whole.

Measuring Your Own Maturity

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides a robust framework for an Accessibility Maturity Model, which encompasses many excellent considerations. They encourage organizations to make use of it as a starting point for their own models, customizing it to match your structure and needs. You can check it out at: https://www.w3.org/TR/maturity-model/.

Accessibility Capability Maturity Models will vary in specifics across organizations, but most will have levels similar to the following:

Initial/Ad Hoc

All organizations begin here, even if they are past this point when they learn about Accessibility Maturity Models. At this level results are sporadic and inconsistent, as are any efforts towards accessibility.

Awareness

At this stage organizations begin to recognize the significance and importance of accessibility. Some sort of effort to raise awareness is made, typically with some introductory training. Guidelines for accessibility might also be introduced.

Compliance

At this level, organizations begin to introduce accessible workflows and focus on satisfying the basic accessibility requirements of different legal and regulatory frameworks. Accessibility audits may be performed, as well as a focused formal effort to address accessibility concerns.

Integration

Accessibility is integrated into the organization’s processes, considered from the beginning of a project’s lifecycle. This is done through formalizing accessibility requirements into the design and development standards, developing the relevant accessibility testing procedures, and providing training to staff.

Optimization

Focusing on continuous improvements in accessibility across the board. Accessibility testing is thorough and robust, combining automated and manual testing with specific usability testing with individuals with disabilities. Accessibility metrics are tracked alongside proactive efforts to discover and address accessibility challenges.

Innovation

At the highest level of maturity, organizations are leading the way with accessibility practices, and go beyond the basic minimum requirements of legal and technical conformance. Organizations at this level seek innovative solutions to accessibility challenges and contribute to accessibility standards and best practices, continuously pushing the boundaries of accessible design and technology.

Benefits of Using an Accessibility Capability Maturity Model

By providing a roadmap for organizations to follow as they evolve from basic reactive approaches to accessibility challenges, the Accessibility Capability Maturity Model helps organizations achieve a more comprehensive, proactive, and effective approach to accessibility.

When an organization progresses through the stages of the Accessibility Capability Maturity Model, they can improve their digital accessibility, increase their customer base, enhance user experiences for people with disabilities, as well as mitigate legal and reputational risks associated with inaccessible content.

Applying the Accessibility Capability Maturity Model to Higher Education

There are many different methods of administration being practiced at the various higher education institutions in the U.S., but the needs of accessibility often lead to similar concerns and challenges.

While most higher educational institutions have unique considerations separate from those of software developers, there are many similarities which make following an Accessibility Maturity Model an effective way to achieve the same goals, and progress through the stages of accessibility improvement.

Following are some of the typical approaches followed by higher educational institutions.

Create Accessibility Policies

Most institutions have established policies requiring all digital content and electronic information systems to meet accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.1 and Section 508.

Providing Training

Faculty and Staff must be given accessibility training in an ongoing basis to ensure currency with new innovations in technology, and with legal standards as more accessibility cases make their way through the courts.

Accessible Procurement

Enforcing requirements for accessibility in the purchase of technology and digital media makes an enormous difference in the ability of an institution to satisfy the legal requirements for accessibility. Effective training on how to evaluate the accessibility of products and media allows institutions to avoid being suckered with a false or misleading VPAT. Establishing penalty structures for accessibility issues discovered in the first year after a purchase can be a great incentive for vendors to provide more accessible products and services.

Collaborate with Disability Services

Engage your local campus Disability Services Office. Most higher education institutions have a wealth of expertise and experience helping students with disabilities every day. Make sure their knowledge and expertise isn’t being ignored or wasted, include them in relevant efforts and activities, include them on procurement committees, accreditation reviews, strategic planning initiatives, etc. Get to know these people, take them out to lunch, listen to what they have to say.

Leverage Accessibility Standards

Most higher education institutions have some sort of legal requirements to follow accessibility standards. Even if they aren’t legally required to follow an accessibility standard, they probably still like to consider themselves as moral and ethical institutions, at the very least. Accessibility standards are not only a roadmap for testing and ensuring accessibility, the implication is that people who follow the standards are good people, and people who do not follow the standards are bad – and probably lazy, immoral, selfish, greedy, puppy-kicking monsters. Let’s be honest here.

Student Involvement

Another invaluable asset all higher education institutions have available to them are students. Students tend to be interested in opportunities to get experience, to make a difference, and to help people. Connecting students with your accessibility efforts is not only a great way to get cheap labor in exchange for valuable life-enriching work, it is a valuable way to increase the likelihood those student workers will carry forth their newly-gained knowledge and concern for accessibility, and spread it around as they live their lives. What a great life-long lesson.

Take-Aways

Awareness is the first step to maturity. With a little guidance, your natural desire to be excellent can lead you to new heights and empower you to make substantive changes that benefit everyone. Our world grows more wonderful and more worth living in, the more people take on the responsibility of doing good work and looking out for each other. Accessibility Capability Maturity Models are a great way to drive positive change in whatever type of organization you want to lead.

Where is Your Organization on the Accessibility Capability Maturity Model?

Sources

https://www.w3.org/TR/maturity-model/

https://www.levelaccess.com/blog/the-digital-accessibility-maturity-model-introduction-to-damm/

https://www.cccaccessibility.org/acmm

https://www.tpgi.com/the-accessibility-maturity-lifecycle/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Maturity_Model

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020

The Plain Truth of Accessibility

Magnifying glass lies on pages of opened bible. — Photo by Blake Cheek on Unsplash

Digital text is the foundation of accessible online communications. It is the primary structure of meaning that comprises the message being communicated.

Headings are then added to text, enhancing accessibility through increased usability.

Sure, but what does that MEAN?

To explore what this means, let’s take a trip back in time to when you were a seven year old child. Let’s pretend you’re writing a letter to Santa Claus in an effort to convince him you’ve been good this year.

The fact that you’ve been good and learning about accessibility is the essence of the message. This must get through, above all else.

However, the presentation of the letter matters too. Plain words can’t possibly convey the emotional significance of your message. You enhance your communication with sophisticated layout!

You might use colored markers or pencils – or both!

You could add glue and glitter, construction paper cut-outs, ribbons, stickers, gold stars and lipstick kisses. The creative arsenal of your seven year old self is truly impressive.

Whatever makes you happy – no judgment.

The point is that all manner of adornment could be added to your letter in an effort to make it more appealing, engaging, and ultimately successful at winning over Mr. Claus’ affection.

The one condition being, that at the root of it all is the meaning of your carefully worded message. The underlying meaning is something you want to be as simple, unmistakable, and straight forward as possible.

This way, when Santa runs all his mail through the new Anti-viral Sterilizer 9000 Spam Filter (with optional De-Glittering module), the main message remains intact.

Digital information can be styled to appear in many different ways, and the core of the message can be enhanced with semantic formatting and dynamic presentations, as long as at the root of it all the message is built on plain text.

The Honesty of Plain Text

Sign with the words "you are beautiful" — Photo by Gio Bartlett on Unsplash

If you open your information directly in a plain text application like Notepad on Windows, or TextEdit on MacOS, you see the entirety of the message in simple plain text. This is one of the most complete and unfiltered views of the text you can achieve.

One reason plain text is good for accessibility is because it has the least chance of getting screwed up in translation to other media.

If you take the plain text to a more substantial editing program, you set the stage for complex meaning. As you add styles and formatting to the text, your message begins to gather extra meaning. The words might still be the same, but they pack additional meaning.

Both behind the scenes and on the screen, your information is being loaded with potential to hold formatting information, semantic structure, alternate text descriptions, and interactive capabilities.

Accessibility vs Usability

There is a distinction between accessibility and usability when we consider digital information.

Sometimes a lack of usability is like dealing with a person who only tells you part of the story, withholding significant context and relational information that might affect how you perceive the message.

Some applications fail to support your content formatting, and they present a watered-down version of the data that appears fine visually, but is inaccessible to assistive technology.

Text without style and formatting might be something that you can load into your browser, but it is not always very much fun to try and make sense of.

Different Containers and Capabilities for Accessibility

Pure, yet limited, access is provided through Notepad – just the naked truth of your text. However, this is not a very usable option if you are using assistive technology.

Notepad does not allow for the formatting that makes your message usable. It is very accessible, but it is also very limited.

For usability, there is an important distinction between file format types, and the applications that create or present them. These applications are effectively different containers for your content. For example, there is Microsoft Word the program (CONTAINER), and there is a Microsoft Word File (CONTENT).

Microsoft Word the program has an accessibility capability as a container, allowing the user to effectively use the program with a variety of assistive technologies.

Microsoft Word the file format (.docx) has its own accessibility capability for defining your message – both within Microsoft Word the program, and other programs that are capable of opening a .docx file.

We understand that this .docx file will not have the same functionality if it is opened in a different program than Microsoft Word – but the message is capable of carrying the advanced meaning of its style and formatting. Many programs have the capability to read the content, even if they do not offer the same level of editing support as Microsoft Word.

Accessibility works the same way – not all combinations of file formats and programs provide the user with the tools to interact with the digital data – or in the same way.

The Most Accessible File Format

The question of what is the most accessible file format is answered through a measure of the capability to support access strategies for different types of digital information.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the answer starts simple and gets complicated very fast: HTML.

As a file format, there is very little that you can’t insert into an HTML file. In addition to an incredibly wide-open range of supported content, HTML also provides critical functionality for accessibility and usability.

HTML is also freely available, you can create HTML with the simplest of tools, and it is freely readable by many different browsers and other applications.

HTML is really hard to beat.

Two books next to a potted cactus, book titles: "HTML & CSS" and "Javascript & JQuery" — Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

And as you might know, it is also really easy to go down a deep rabbit hole with HTML.

I recognize that you are most likely an educator with a full load and you don’t have the time or desire to become an HTML expert. No worries, you don’t have to. You just need to use a modern CMS tool with the proper support – hopefully your institution has taken care of that.

Simple Best Practices for Accessible HTML

When you are creating HTML content, consider the tool you are using, and see if it can support the basic access strategies for digital media:

Access Strategies for Digital Media

Media Type	Access Strategy
Text	Structure (Headings, list styles, paragraph styles), Clarity, Legibility, Contrast
Images	Text descriptions and captions
Audio	Text Transcript
Video	Captioning and Narrative Description
Interactive	Text Labels, Keyboard Control, Section 508
Complex	All of the above…

Above: Digital Media Access Strategies

The world is your oyster when it comes to HTML, and the more effort you apply, the bigger your pearl.

Sometimes a powerful tool can help make the impossible manageable, but too often we find that accessibility does not always make it into the awareness of the designers behind some of our favorite tools.

No sour grapes, HTML is wide open with potential.

When you find an inaccessible multi media construct, sometimes you can copy, paste, and redesign the content with the HTML tools of your CMS. This approach allows you to have a more accessible version of the content that lives in the CMS, and doesn’t require licensing fees or force students to buy a content pack.

Your only real limitations will come in the form of your CMS and its ability to support what you’re working with.

Thanks for reading!

August 2, 2020August 2, 2020

How it All Works – Digital Media Access Strategies

Backlit scene of a desk, with a letter A and a potted plant, alongside a rock, a child's wooden block, a cellphone, and a computer monitor and keyboard. — Photo by taner ardalı on Unsplash

In the world of online education, there is a wide-ranging spectrum of digital media being used to engage with students. Surprisingly, there is a simple and singular solution for multimedia accessibility.

The domains of knowledge that we can teach our students are comprised of facts, concepts, principles, procedures, and attitude/affectation. None of these types of information rely upon a specific type of media to be communicated effectively.

A primary concept of accessibility is that any message you are trying to communicate via digital media can either be enhanced or effectively communicated through alternate media formats. For example, if the medium was utilizing visual information, there can be a digital transformation to render the message into an audio or tactile media format for someone with no sight.

Ultimately, digital media is currently able to reliably communicate through visual, auditory, and tactile means. The senses of sight, hearing, speech, and touch determine our ability to perceive and transmit information through digital media.

When an individual has a different or limited ability of one of these senses, the delivery modality must either be enhanced, or communication must happen through one of the other sensory pathways.

The message doesn’t change, but the media form it is transmitted through does.

Different Media for Different Senses

A key aspect of digital accessibility is that the message is available and usable, even while the delivery medium is malleable.

Whatever type of media you originally create, your students can be interacting with an entirely different form of digital media while still getting the point of your communication.

Providing the message through a different media format than originally intended is referred to as using Alternate Media.

Alternate Media strategies rely on translating a message into different media formats based on the needs of the end user. Whatever senses your students may use, their technology will be able to use the digital media you create, as long as you have prepared the information appropriately.

This process relies on all digital content being represented as text at some point in the process. Digital text is the only form of electronic information that can be automatically rendered into visual, auditory, and tactile information – the sensory capabilities of our audience.

It may seem redundant to provide textual descriptions for multimedia, but this allows for the most effective materials to be used for all students.

Alternate Media Access Strategies for Digital Communication

Here are the essential access strategies for accessible digital media:

Text – Provide large, easy to read text, and apply structure through formatting, semantic styles, clear layout, etc.
Audio – Provide a Text Transcript.
Video – Ensure Captioning is in place.
Interactive – Section 508 standards and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)*
Complex/Combination – Use all of the above.

* Section 508 and WCAG are technology standards and guidelines for digital content on the World Wide Web that address the comprehensive considerations for complex and interactive media.

While digital accessibility requires textual descriptions to accompany multimedia, this doesn’t mean that accessibility is only text-based. There’s much more going on – and the goal is not to only use digital text.

Use all the media that is appropriate to engage and inform your students. Just make sure you don’t use one form of media exclusively.

When you use an image, back it up with a text description.

If you use an audio file to share a moment of history, make sure there is also a text transcript available.

Videos can provide powerful instructional capability – just make sure they are also captioned and have narrative descriptions.

In essence, please use multiple media in your online teaching, and make your materials as interesting and engaging as you can. Just ensure that for each of your instructional materials, the core message is also represented as digital text.

The idea is to enhance and maximize the essential capabilities of every medium, so it can communicate optimally, and back it up with text as a failsafe.

Access Strategies for Interactivity

Child looking at photographer while holding the hand of a white robot wearing pink flower garlands. — Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash

When you design interactive online instructional materials, things get interesting quickly.

Whatever the specific interactive media might be, the access strategy is to ensure that every interactive control is labeled (yes, through digital text), and that the interaction is possible with the keyboard in addition to any other input devices such as a mouse, touchscreen, track-ball, custom switch, eye-tracker, etc.

Thankfully the Section 508 standards and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium have done a great job of covering the different aspects of accessible interactive content.

Standards and Guidelines for Accessibility

Section 508 and WCAG represent the collective wisdom and effort of several decades of research and work to identify the best practices for creating electronic and web-based information that is accessible for individuals with disabilities.

Typically, the documents that comprise Section 508 and WCAG are not considered fun reading. Fortunately, the concepts and principles have been distilled and engineered into our technology to the point where you may never need to actually read the documents.

With most modern authoring tools, you can ensure the access strategies are fully implemented in your content just by using the tools properly.

This is because the manufacturers of assistive technology, and the manufacturers of your authoring tools, are also working according to the same standards.

This means that you can focus on creating the materials you need to teach with, and the technology used by the students will meet you halfway and deliver the media to the student as the student needs it.

You don’t have to know anything about the student and what technology they are using to interact with your content. When you create accessible media according to the standards and guidelines, you can create the way you want to, and all of your students are free to use whatever technology works best for their needs.

Equity and Perceptions of Disability

One of the liberating ideas of online education for students with disabilities is the idea of just being another student and not being defined by their disability.

It can be very discouraging and demoralizing to always be identified as “the blind guy”. People tend to discriminate and interact differently with people who are visibly or significantly disabled in some way, often unknowingly, and for a variety of reasons they might not even understand.

When you design your course materials to be accessible, you can help remove unintended and unwitting bias against students with disabilities.

When you do it right, you may never know if you have students with disabilities in your course at all – and that is exactly the point.

A wall of books is behind a woman sitting in front of a laptop with her arms raised as if in celebration. — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Your students with disabilities may finally have the chance to interact with you and other students on equal terms, and to only be judged by their character, personality, and academic ability.

This can result in an educational experience that is more effective and rewarding for all involved, and with far-reaching benefits.

Thanks for reading!