Building Accessible RIAs with Silverlight

Chris AuldDirector Strategy & Innovation

Reed ShaffnerTechnical Product Manager

20 Minutes. Let’s Go!How far can we get in 20 minutes?

Why This MattersThe Carrot and The Stick

What we’ve builtAccessible Silverlight Reference Application

How we did itKey takeaways for you to do the same

How to find out more5 Links to create accessible RIAsVisit our site, play with the bits!

www.buttercupreader.net

So what is Accessibility?

In short, it’s different things to different people

VisualDexterit

yHearing

Language

Learning Difficulti

es

The Carrot…Huge benefits

• Aging workforce means greater need for these solutions• Hundreds of millions of users with disabilities worldwide • Allows an entire population to experience new information

Section 508 Refresh

Section 255 Telecom

U.S. State Accessibility

United Nations G3ict (Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT)

EC – Mandate 376

i2010 Initiative

Member States Accessibility

Japan JIS-

X8341

Australia: Disability

Discrimination Act

6

UK: Disability

Discrimination Act (DDA)

OAS / L.A. / S.A Country Policies

…and The StickEnormous downside

New Zealand Government Web

Standards

Need recognized in 1988 because of shortcomings

in Swedish Library Talking Books and Braille

In 1996 the DAISY Consortium is formed to

create and promote a new digital talking book standard

Today, DAISY is an ANSI/NISO standard that’s use is

mandated by law in many areas (e.g. text books K-12 in

the U.S)

• DAISY = Digital Accessible Information SYstem • Standard for producing accessible and navigable multimedia documents. In current practice, these documents are Digital Talking Books, digital text books, or a combination of synchronized audio and text books.

• Using the DAISY Standard, content creators, such as a library serving people who are blind or visually impaired or a book publisher can produce accessible and navigable books to meet a variety of reading needs.

What’s this DAISY Thing?or you’ve gone all Flowery on me, how come?

What We’ve Built

demo

How We Did It?How we achieved accessibility in Silverlight

Examples of Accessibility DriversAudio representationUI ScaleContrast and ColorKeyboard navigationAlternative input devices

Assistive TechnologyProgrammatically telling the world about you

Screen ReadersUI Automation

Self VoicingSAPI Interop

Media Playback via SilverlightPlay embedded DAISY Audio Content

UIAutomation and Screen ReadersUIA in 30 seconds…The accessibility API provided in Silverlight

UI Automation masks differences in frameworkUIA exposes every piece of UI to client apps

<Button x:Name="openBookButton" AutomationProperties.Name="Open Book" AutomationProperties.HelpText="Open a Daisy book from your local computer"AutomationProperties.AcceleratorKey="O"...<Button>

Self VoicingUnleash the COM Interop Demon Within

Text to Speech in the BrowserCalling SAPIHas security implications

Media Playback with SilverlightA Simple Way to Speak Your UI

Use the MediaElement to play UI audio promptsGive a user an easy, non visual, way to discoverMedia Element does NOT support variable speed

Contrast, Color, Navigation, ScaleWe’re getting rushed nowContrast and Color

Got to be visible…… but not too visibleDetect OS Settings

NavigationKeyboard shortcuts for everythingMinimal modifier keysConsistency is key

Scaling the UIZoom in is importantSilverlight gives luxurious zooming

if(SystemParameters.HighContrast) ContrastScheme = ContrastLevel.BlackTextOnWhite;

Color/Contrast Example

8% of males cannot distinguish between red and green in the U.S. alone

Alternative Input DevicesLife beyond the keyboard and mouse

Sip & Puff Head Tracking SwitchesBraille OutputSpeechAnd more…

Phenomenally Useful Resourcesaccessible Silverlight with 5 resources

Buttercup Readerwww.buttercupreader.net

MSDN UIAwww.msdn.com/accessibility

W3C WCAG 2.0http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

ReedSh@Microsoft.comChris.Auld@intergen.co.nz {@cauld}

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