2004: improving your site's accessibility - experience from creating the bbc accessibility...

04/10/2023 10/04/2023 [email protected]

Improving your site’s accessibility – experience from bbc.co.uk

Dr Jonathan HassellEditor of Standards & Guidelines

BBC New Media

Presentation toCITI “Accessible to All” conference

17/11/04 v0.17-full

04/10/2023 [email protected] 217/11/2004 [email protected] 2© BBC 2004

What I’ll be talking about

• bbc.co.uk similarities/differences from your sites• bbc.co.uk & accessibility – a brief history• Accessibility as a partnership• Overriding purpose of accessibility• How to change the culture of your production teams / clients• How to channel buy-in into producing a better site

– Identification/creation of standards & guidelines (& tools)• incl. examples from standards creation

– UCD and user-testing• Other useful additions to your site• Feedback from audiences• Questions


bbc.co.uk similarities/differences from the sites you create

• Similarities:– must be excellent, user-

friendly– must be cost-effective– much use of multimedia

• Differences:– for yourself vs. for client– info vs. brochureware– Size: bbc.co.uk = 2.5m pages– cost– many staff, different locations

& production systems– wide audiences/genres– interactivity (communities)


bbc.co.uk and accessibility – brief history• BBC long-term commitment to making its output as accessible as possible to all

audiences to fulfil its public service remit

Experience within the BBC of disability issues – established programmes and audiences from TV and Radio (e.g. See Hear, In Touch), moving towards mainstream

First attempts on the web – Betsie:– filter program used to create an automatic text-only version of bbc.co.uk pages– result of work between RNIB and BBC in 1998 as a result of feedback from screenreader

users– made available for other sites’ use (e.g. Newcastle City Council)– BBC News new “low graphic” version of News site (useful for PDAs as well)


Accessibility is a partnership To make a website

accessible, you need all of the following to work together:- Website creators- Assistive technology creators

(e.g. Freedom Scientific, ReadPlease)

- Operating system creators (e.g. Microsoft, Apple)

- Disability assessment agencies (e.g. AbilityNet, RNIB)

- Browser creators (e.g. Microsoft, Opera)

- comms via W3C-WAI…


Purpose of accessibility

• Always keep in mind…

• the purpose of accessibility is to make things easier for all of your (client’s) audience – start and end with them in mind…

• the internet can be a great enabler for disabled people if you use it right


How to change the culture of your production teams / clients – awareness, motivation

• Start with your staff…

• Make it personal:– get an external

agency to do a survey of the site’s accessibility, including video-taping of real users using the site

– See the Accessibility Study of bbc.co.uk for inspiration (available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbci/websites.shtml)

then go to your clients…

• Make it real:– send all your staff on an

Accessibility Awareness course

– provide background & motivation for staff & clients (DDA etc. – see Julie Howell’s talk next…)

– provide experience of assistive technologies

– show the videos of real users having problems using the site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbci/websites.shtml




How to channel buy-in into producing a better site – standards & guidelines

• create/identify accessibility standards & guidelines for your sites– good start: WAI or the BBC Accessibility Standards (from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/websites.shtml)– make sure your standards support your / your clients’ audiences

and production processes – get your staff to create them• communicate them well:

– make sure your staff understand the standards and are motivated to use them

• provide a group/someone who can answer specific accessibility questions as they crop up in practice

• whenever possible, encode the standards in your production tools, so that staff cannot get things wrong

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/websites.shtml


Standards creation- the discussions and practicalities

Be pragmatic - for each standard consider…• is it “reasonable”?• benefit: does it actually help disabled audiences?

– does it hinder other audiences?• cost: what aspects of production does it affect?

– content production systems• can they ensure its consistent application?• will they actually handle it?

– manually-coded systems• how can you ensure its consistent application?


Examples from standards creation (1)

• brochureware: to Flash or not to Flash…– do you really need to use

Flash?• Flash can be totally

inaccessible to screenreader users

– but if you need to use it…• use Flash (MX-2004)

accessibility features (see http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flash/)

• provide a non-Flash alternative version which should have the same content and “fun”

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flash/




Examples from standards creation (2)• don’t ghettoise users with “text-

only” unless there is no alternative– “text-only” site does nothing to

help those with low-vision using screen-magnifiers, or those with hearing impairments

– screenreader users would rather use the main site anyway

– main site: requirements which can be handled by accessible design and coding

– alternative version: requirements where the needs of one disabled group clash with another

• text simplification for those with learning difficulties etc.

• HTML alternatives to Flash animations/games for screenreader users

• remember: the purpose of accessibility is to make things easier for all of your audience



• use of heading tags…– useful for screenreader

users– but default visual

representation of these wastes screen-estate

– solvable using CSS– but, until recently, this was

difficult because of our support requirements for older browsers

– now being rolled-out across bbc.co.uk



• tables…– tables are more browsable

for screenreaders if they are “linear”

• which is WAI level 2– WAI level 1 doesn’t

produce “better tables” for screenreader browsing (requires knowledge of special table-browsing mode in JAWS)

– example: BBC weather site – before and after…


Examples from standards creation (5)• editorial/cross-

disciplinary standards:– Vocabulary:

Plain English vs. language of your audience

• e.g. 1Xtra• News – broadsheet or

tabloid– “Infoglut: how much should

you put on a page?• is this too much information…?• affects users with dyslexia,

visual & motor impairments• can depend on design of page,

visual definition of sections, editorial proposition etc.



• use of colour…– make sure all info

being conveyed with colour is available without colour• colour-blindness (

http://www.vischeck.com/examples/)

• e.g. diagrams…

• and colour contrast…– restriction/challenge

for your designers…

http://www.vischeck.com/examples/



• audio-video content (subtitling)…– any subtitling system must

be able to work within the A/V production chain

– current BBC prototype reuses existing TV broadcast subtitle files

– BBC R&D are also researching methods for providing subtitles for live A/V material

• BSL content via video


Checking it’s a better site – UCD & user-testing

• ensure your standards have produced a usable site• listen to real people, rather than automated tools/checklists

“These tools are like spell-checkers; you wouldn’t send out a spell-checked document that wasn’t manually proof-read as well”

(Bob Regan, Macromedia Accessibility Expert) • create a user testing strategy

– … which includes testing of usability and accessibility• and has a number of levels, so it includes appropriate testing for simple

page updates to full site tests for new/redesigned sites– even better, adopt User-Centred Design practices and include

feedback from disabled users in your design process


Other useful additions to your site

provide accessibility help:– include information on:

• browser/OS settings • assistive technologies

– for inspiration, see: • DRC’s “Access Options” (

http://www.drc.org.uk/accessoptions/index.asp)

• AbilityNet’s “My Computer My Way!” (http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway/)

– accessibility help for bbc.co.uk on its way (link from every page)

ask for accessibility feedback:– to further inform your understanding

of how people really use your website

http://www.drc.org.uk/accessoptions/index.asp

http://www.drc.org.uk/accessoptions/index.asp

http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway/


Feedback from audiences

• lots of feedback in the Accessibility Study of bbc.co.uk (see earlier)• at the BBC, feedback goes with the territory…

– examples of feedback from Jaws users:• feedback on a lapse in accessibility of Radio Player

– a small tweak to the interface had removed the linearity of the table structure– it was fixed within hours

• many messages of thanks for introducing heading tags into the bbc.co.uk home page

– we are now rolling these out across the site

– initial results from Usability/Accessibility tests of a new www.bbc.co.uk/weather site have been very positive

• we expect and welcome more feedback in the future– will be actively seeking it as part of our Accessibility Testing Strategy


e: [email protected]: @jonhassellw: www.hassellinclusion.com

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2004: improving your site's accessibility - experience from creating the bbc accessibility...

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