Accessibility Enterprise

Stefan Schnabel

SAP User Experience – Accessibility

Accessibility at large scale for Enterprise Software -Architecture and Constraints

SAP AG 2006, Accessibility at large scale for Enterprise software / 2

Enterprise Software is different

Different from … Simple ‚read-only‘ information web sites (news, weather) Ordinary web shops / hotel booking / flight booking Any other software that is just occasionally used

Accessibility at large scale 100.000 + x screens / screen-flows Contains various technologies Bringing accessibility into the product needs to be time- and cost

effective „Hand made“ accessibility does not work Centralized approach instead of „screen by screen“ optimization


Enterprise Software characteristics

Typical usage scenarios Centrally hosted for an entire company to serve multiple locations

worldwide Controlled / well defined client infrastructure

Typical user groups Trained / subject matter experts Use the software up to 8h / day percentage of users that are challenged in vision or with motion

disabilities is equal to „rest of the world“


Focus of Enterprise Software

Global usage requires that software complies with multiple standards (or reasonable subsets) at the same time

Sec. 508 WCAG ISO 9241 National legislation or standards

SAP‘s accessibility standard is „best of breed“, taking both branches of Sec. 508 into account

„software“ and „web application“

and also WCAG 1.0

In addition, SAP‘s accessibility standard has „efficiency“ in mind


Pragmatic approach for accessibility

Top 5 pillars (ordered, based on customer feedback) Software needs to be FULLY functional without usage of ANY

pointing device (100% keyboard enabled) Users must be able to adjust color and contrast settings Alternatively, Software needs to acknowledge windows desktop

settings (such as high contrast)

Support of assistive technology Software needs to be compatible with at least one screen magnifier Software needs to be compatible with at least one screen reader

Users must be able to scale the UI, e.g. to use larger fonts.

Additional rules are set up to deal with orientation, consistency, meaningful texts etc.

see later


SAP‘s NetWeaver architecture helps …

Based on a service oriented architecture, application logic and user interface definition are separated „by design“

Rendering infrastructure / components are centralized and separated from the user interface definition

ABAP applications are rendered using SAP GUI

Portal / Web Dynpro applications are rendered using Browser or NetWeaver Business Client

Application LogicUI Definition

UI ProgrammingUI Rendering

ABAPJAVA

ABAP DynproWeb Dynpro ABAP/JavaBSPPDF Forms

SAP GUIBrowserNetWeaver Business Client


Centralized approach / what to do where

Application LogicUI Definition

UI ProgrammingUI Rendering

Use semantic colors instead of hard-coded colors

Provide meaningful information for labels, column headers and row headers

UI templates and generators for navigation and layout

Translate semantic colors into real colors (e.g. for traffic lights symbols, “critical” meanings and warnings)

Link fields and corresponding labels

Do not misuse UI elements

Keyboard enablement

Acknowledge desktop settings for colors and contrast (*)

Compatibility with screen reader / magnifier

Scaling / Font selection

(*) hard-coded colors defined in application logic can not be overwritten by desktop settings

Making use of the centralized capabilities of the UI Definition / Programming and Rendering, application developers can concentrate on limited set of rules and

constraints


SAP concentrates on …

Generic capabilities of UI rendering infrastructure Keyboard enablement Color/Contrast adjustment and scaling Compatibility with Assistive Technology

UI / programming frameworks prevent application developers from „hard-coding“ user interfaces

Check Tools on application level

UI‘s that go beyond the capabilities of „plain vanilla“ HTML Introducing rich UI controls to W3C working groups

Testing individual screens (after rendering) with „ready to run“ web tools does not make sense


What application developers have NOT to care of

Provided by the SAP Frameworks / Architecture:

Keyboard Navigation Micro-Navigation within elements Macro-Navigation between elements Skipping of complex elements Hotkeys and shortcuts Standard focus handling

Visual Styles High contrast / custom styles Large fonts support

Element Content, Identification and Usage Textual representation for screen readers Element and sub-element type and state info Tutor texts (usage)


What application developers NEED to care of generally

Dos Associate labels with fields

Use meaningful unabbreviated label texts for UI elements, element titles, captions, or free-standing text

Use the tooltip property of a UI element to explain the semantic purpose of the UI element if necessary

Fill tooltips of Input Fields and Combo boxes with label text if Label is omitted due to layout reasons

Provide meaningful row and column headers for data tables

Do provide an accessible alternative for maps, graphics and charts

Provide one single solution for both disabled and non-disabled users

Use a standardized way for arrangement of elements on your screens

Don’ts Usage of non-accessible controls (e.g. self-developed controls)

Abbreviations without explanations

Hard-coding of colors (hardly possible at all)

Misuse elements (Tables for layouting etc.)


Examples: Labels and Tooltips

• Labels must be associated with input fields, checkboxes, and buttons

- Every input/output field or combo must have a meaningful label to the left

- Every checkbox or Radiobutton must have a meaningful label text

• Every graphic/icon on the screen must have a meaningful tooltip


Examples: Tables, Tabstrips and Trees

• Column and row headers must be provided in data tables

• Tabstrips and Tabs have to

contain descriptive text

• Tree nodes and levels

must be also descriptive


Additional Dos for ABAP Programming

Dos Use label for all UI elements

(e. g. dropdown lists, input fields, radio buttons, list boxes, checkboxes, and text areas)

Use tooltip for icons, images

Use ALV, Application Log, Dialog Transaction, or PDF Form instead of ABAP List

Use for forms SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe

Make navigation functional with keyboard

Use title for complex elements (e. g. group boxes and tables etc.)

Provide one single solution for both disabled and non-disabled users

Don’tsDon’t use ABAP List

Don’t use color as only means of conveying Information

Don’t use Radiobutton, Checkboxes, Pushbuttons for unexpected screen changes

Don’t use Smartforms and SAPScript


General Do for Standard HTML content writing

Use W3C‘s WCAG

guidelines !!

W3C World Wide Web Consortiumhttp://www.w3.org/

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: Guidelines and Techniques

http://www.w3.org/WAI/guid-tech.html


Additional Dos for Web Dynpro Java/ABAP Programming

Associate Labels with UI Elements using labelFor property

Fill accessibilityDescription property of elements when element title is skipped due to layout reasons

Use labeled MeltingGroup or TransparentContainer forelements forming up a single line group

To provide titles for elements forming a multi-line group inTransparentContainer elements, the UIElement SectionHeader should be used

Use named colors wherever needed


SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe

Dos Create tagged PDF using Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Create forms which are easy to use

Create tables by using table object of Adobe LiveCyle Designer

Create text description for Images using Accessibility Palette

Create well defined and logical reading order structure and use subforms if necessary

Don’ts Don’t use scanned information without assigning text description

using Accessibility Palette

Don’t convey information by color only

Don‘t use client-side scripts which affect screen reader and keyboard negatively (e. g. mouseEnter events)

Don‘t use radio buttons and checkboxes on Masterpages (Printforms)


Test Process: Manual Check example

.. Screen reader output for Web Dynpro:

Reading Sequence for an InputField with a Label

has been defined as follows:

<label> <type> <value> <state> <tooltip> <tutor>

label means the label text of the associated label, type means InputField, state means e.g. unavailable / required / read only / invalid. Value is the field value, tooltip means the tooltip of the field and tutor means a tutor message how to use the control.

Type, value, state and tutor attributes are provided by Web Dynpro. Application developers only have to check label, tooltip and accessibilityDescription (for containers) attributes by focusing the field (by tabbing) and listening to the screen reader output

Tooltip


Related Public Information

SAP Design Guild (9th Edition): Accessibilityhttp://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition9/overview_edition9.asp

SAP‘s Public Accessibility Web Pagehttp://www.sap.com/platform/netweaver/standardssupport/accessibility.epx

Frontend Requirements and Infrastructure for Accessibilityhttp://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/SAP_front-end_requirements.pdf

Keyboard Usage for Interface Elements in SAP GUI for Windowshttp://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/keyboardControl_NW04_EN.pdf

Accessibility on SAP Service Marketplacehttp://service.sap.com/accessibility

SAP Accessibility Documentation on SAP Service Marketplace (http://service.sap.com) Media

Library Documentation on SAP Help Portal (http://help.sap.com) SAP NetWeaver

English Getting Started (Using SAP Software) First Steps Accessibility

SAP Accessibility Book (published in 2007)


Thank you!

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