Web and Mobile Accessibility in Health Information Technology

Judy BrewerWorld Wide Web ConsortiumWeb Accessibility Initiative

Interagency Committee on Disability ResearchSeptember 17, 2015

Reflecting back, looking forward

Thank you for revisiting accessible HIT At 2010 conference – a new conversation At this conference – appreciate the action

orientation Looking forward:

the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has resources which we hope can help

hope to see specific actions come from conference

Role of Web accessibility in HIT

Connect to information through Web and mobile

Accessibility & usability linked; both essential is the content on Web sites accessible? is the user interface accessible? do all the browsers support accessibility, and

work well with assistive technology? are accessibility features integrated into

mobile? are the tools for creating content accessible,

and do they support production of accessible content?

The resources already exist for Web

Mature, freely available standards, guidelines, and frequently updated developer implementation resources

To make content of Web sites accessible: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG

2.0) Expecting 508 to move in that direction

To improve accessible authoring: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG

2.0) To improve accessibility of browsers:

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG 2.0)

Also resources for mobile accessibility

Jointly covered by WCAG 2.0 UAAG 2.0

W3C WAI is developing a combined mobile accessibility resource note

Extensive educational materials

Such as: How people with disabilities use the Web Business case for Web accessibility Quick tips for Web accessibility Quick reference for meeting WCAG 2.0 Web accessibility tutorials WCAG Evaluation Methodology Report Tool

Expanding accessibility solutions

Deepening the existing coverage for some areas: Cognitive and learning disability task force Low vision task force task force

Keeping pace with technology evolution

W3C is international, headquartered at MIT

Technology evolution there is outpacing some of my favorite science fiction

WAI develops future-compatible accessibility standards, guidelines, and educational materials

WAI develops user requirements development: media, TV and web, digital publishing,

automotive, web of things, more

How can we help?

The HIT community has been slower to take up accessibility solutions than many other fields

What are the specific barriers? Accessibility itself is not hard; system-wide

implementation can be What specific policies, practices, and

resources should the HIT field be taking up?

How soon can those get in place?

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

WAI website lists standards, guidelines, educational resources, how to participate

While WCAG 2.0 is stable for now, we are planning for future guidelines use the WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 2.0 standards now but give us input for the future we use an open, transparent, multi-stakeholder

process http://www.w3.org/WAI/ Thank you NIDILRR and Department of

Education for support, now also HHS ACL and the Access Board