Don't Ignore Your Special Users By Rahul Verma

TM Rahul Verma So/ware Tes2ng Entrepreneur

www.RahulVerma.XYZ

Accessibility is not a favour. It’s business.

Don’t Ignore Your

Special Users

Who am I?

Rahul Verma (Founder: Test Mile, Talent Reboot, AutoCognite)

I’m not an Accessibility expert.

Nevertheless, I’m here to share my perspective

about it, with focus on Visual disabilities.

In my work, I primarily focus on performance,

security and test automation research.

© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ

This was supposed to be a “general” Accessibility presenta2on.

Some Concepts. Compliance names.

Some Tool Demos.

Well, that’s what I thought.


However…

The process of going through the experience of preparing for this

talk changed me.

And my perception about Accessibility.

© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.TalentReboot.com

I hope

Some of you would feel the same way I do…

…Now.

© 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.TalentReboot.com

DISCLAIMER I’m not going to be politically correct. I firmly feel that words like ‘differently abled’ are mostly used to temporarily please people with disabilities, without undertaking responsibility and working towards change. From my experience in dealing with close friends who are visually impaired, they are way more courageous than we think. They don’t need sweet words. They want to be taken seriously. This is also substantiated by organizations like NCBI (reference article “Assisting the Blind and Visually Impaired” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705868/ )



.

When blind men assess an elephant, they are not the problem. Elephant is the problem.

An irresponsible analogy

The blind men and elephant analogy

Is like a book library

With No/poor shelving No/poor librarian

No/poor Ramp

And then blaming disabled users For not using the library.


Either the elephant should inform about itself.

Or there should be facilities around the Elephant that a blind person can use.

That’s accessibility.


If the facili2es are good enough So that government allows Elephant rides for the blind:

You are compliant.

That doesn’t mean that blind people Would enjoy the ride.


If the interface is engineered with Genuine care for the blind:

You would most likely be compliant.

Blind people Would see the difference of

enjoying the best ride in the city especially designed for them.


You made them feel genuinely special. They love you.

You make more money.


So, you see.

While Compliance ensures business existence.

Care and genuine Empathy would ensure business growth,

with compliance as a by-product.

So, I’d focus on the latter in this talk. © 2016 -‐ Rahul Verma www.RahulVerma.XYZ

All of us have a billionnaire Blind friend.

Goes by the name Google.


Now Imagine.

A panel of filthy rich people Discussing on the subject of Poverty.

Not fair. Isn’t it?


Most of us are filthy rich.

Although we never considered richness in those gifts.


As this is not a motivational talk..

And as we are going to talk now

about technicalities of Accessibility…


Please allow me to take your Riches away for some time

(That’s metaphorical, Watson!)

Let’s go to your favourite website in…


3


2



These were just 15-20 minutes.

For some, that’s how life is.


There are many other disabilties

Apart from Total loss of vision.


Create Accessible Products.

Where do I go next?

•  WCAG 2.0: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ •  WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative): https://

www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/Overview •  Read whatever you can get on UX, Information

Architecture, Simplicity •  Try out Wave, NoCoffee and other tools for

testing. •  Try out screen readers like NVDA

(nvaccess.org for Windows), Apple VoiceOver (Built-in for Mac and iOS).


Thank You.

[email protected] @rahul_verma +91-‐99022-‐83387


Picture Credits h-p://edtech2.boisestate.edu/kristagreear/images/accessibilityicons.png h-p://media.salon.com/2014/01/wealthy_man.jpg h-p://aBtudes4innovaDon.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2014/01/richguy.jpg h-p://previews.123rf.com/images/spn01/spn011001/spn01100100080/6292783-‐Poverty-‐Stock-‐Photo-‐poverty-‐hand.jpg h-p://altoday.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2015/10/Poverty-‐homeless-‐poor.jpg I’ve tried to keep a track of all images used. Please let me know if your link reference is not there, so that I can include the same.

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Don't Ignore Your Special Users By Rahul Verma