Web Design Experience: the principle of inclusion in web design

Let us explore the mysteries of the inclusion of principles. It allows us to forget the antagonism between "they" and "us" that are ingrained in our social behavior. The focus on inclusion principle frees the debate of barrier-free/universal design from these conflicts of interest, embracing a wider, more natural design philosophy. The most important point, the focus of the inclusion principle also helps us understand that we are not only for others to attach importance to accessibility, but also for our own good.

The designer's work has been closely related to "visibility (affordance)". The word became famous after Donnald Norman (Donald Norman) 's classic design psychology ^{[Note 1]} , and was later Alain Coober byAlan Cooper's The essence of Interaction Design ^{[Note 2]} a book is brought into the user interface design community.

Note 1: The design of everyday things, translated as "Daily Necessities". The term "visibility" is the translation of the Chinese version of the book.
NOTE 2: about Face, interactive design classics, is now out to the third edition.

Visibility allows us to know directly how to interact with something as soon as we see it. For example, when we see a small button next to a door, we immediately realize that it is to be pressed with a finger, and common sense tells us that once it is pressed, a sound is issued and the person in the room will know that "someone is standing outside the door." Porting this concept to the visual design field: When we see a button on a Web page with a style, we immediately understand that this is something that can be "pressed" with the mouse.

Visibility is only half the success

Imagine a situation where people can easily understand how to use an item but lack the ability to perform it. Most people in wheelchairs know how to use the stairs, but the "visibility" of the stairs doesn't help them climb the stairs. At this point, the problem arose.

In contrast, a grocery store's wide automatic doors are visually visible to people with or without special needs, and can be easily used by both. We call this combination of visibility and wide affinity ^{[Note 3]}(all-embracing accessibility) " Universal Design (Universal)." In general design, conscious visualization-that is, an implicit understanding of how to interact with an object-actually complements the ability of the user to perform operations. Therefore, universal design is inherently affinity (inherently accessible).

Note 3: accessibility, which indicates how easy it is for the user to get the desired content (result). According to context, can be translated into "accessibility", "affinity", "accessibility", and so on. The three words that appear in the translation below denote "accessibility" in English. Accessible also represents "accessibility" and "accessible".

Some designers feel that universal design limits their innovation. To satisfy versatility, they argue, it is necessary to design from the "lowest user (Neediest-user)". To design a telephone that is easy to use for both seniors and teens, then we must first consider the needs of the elderly: large digital keypad, large display screen and so on; but once we do, those young consumers, the "Boomers", may not want to buy the phone. In this way, the end result of the design is a product that is useful only to a particular community-we meet the requirements of barrier-free design (accessible), but not the universal design. The accessibility of design is very important, but it cannot satisfy everyone in one way. It is therefore advisable to strive for a workable universal design at all times and to focus on barrier-free design only when necessary.

The dilemma of barrier-free design

What does this difference mean in web design? Under what circumstances will "universal design" and "barrier-free design" be widely considered equivalent? Barrier-free design elements include a video caption (caption) and a textual copy of the audio file (text transcription). They are used as a necessary substitute for the original content. On the other hand, structured markup (structural markup) is a powerful technique for achieving universal design . Using h1 and h2 such a literal label to organize content in a logical relationship helps to form accessibility because readers are always accustomed to scanning the title before reading the text. Designers can create unique title styles, but it is up to the individual user to decide whether or not to accept the designer's ideas. They can either turn off the picture or replace your style during the run.

That said, for many designers, the unpredictability of the interactive process generated by the universal design can cause a lot of trouble. They complained-"I have absolutely no idea how the screen reader works", and so forth. As designers, we never fully understand what accessibility or versatility really means. To change the situation, we must first change the way we look at the task.

No avail

Web designers usually like to add some text at the bottom of the page and a small hyperlink to No. 508 ^[4] to announce the accessibility of their web pages. Of course, this is also a practice in line with the spirit of the law. Their notes are probably written in this way: "We try to make this site accessible without hindrance." We continue to test and modify the accessibility of the site. If you are having difficulty accessing any content, please do not hesitate to contact us. "But with a little bit of accessibility testing, many site owners and developers are simply trying to escape the danger of imprisonment with the second half of the statement ^{[Note 5]}."

Note 4: Section 508, the United States to promote the protection of people with disabilities to the effective use of electronic and information products of the law. There are similar bills in Taiwan, please refer to Wikipedia Web page affinity entries.
Note 5: sites that do not meet accessibility requirements are subject to legal sanctions, and the authors of this irony that some developers are not paying enough attention to accessibility.

Web developers sometimes think that using standards-based development principles, using external CSS and DOM based browser scripting techniques to separate the presentation layer and the behavior layer, and then add attributes to the picture, alt even if the No. 508 requirement. They don't want to spend more energy on the accessibility of the site unless visitors to the problem come to them. The logic here seems fair: good business practices always prioritize requirements in terms of project constraints and expected return on investment (ROI). Although normative coding helps to achieve barrier-free requirements, it is necessary to have the right execution intent to produce utility.

Toalt属性为例。所有正规的HTML编辑器和验证工具都会指出缺少alt替换文本的错误。大部分开发者也会纠正这个错误——不管是出于通过验证的目的还是为了获得可访问性。不过，通过验证并不等同于获得了可访问性。W3C的HTML5规范(草案) 明确指出了这一点，并详细示范了如何撰写基于功能和上下文的替换文本。你也许要反驳说大部分开发者都了解这一区别，但很多网站的表现恰好说明事实并非如此。

Accessibility: The end of a sense of propriety

Not so long ago, a post on a popular web development forum caught my attention. The title of the post is "use ALT in tag and use title to compare, the alt in Firefox does not work". I was shocked by some responses, such as this one (not because of his lame grammar):

ALT is required to verify, but there is no need to use the ALT tag unless it is a government website. Unless the information is important and the same information plays a role, it doesn't matter what it is ...

Alt attributes are required to validate but unless it are some sort of gov ' t website they are not required to use ALT tags Unless the information is vital and the Equal Information Act, or whatever of that act is called.

(embarrassed, really lame, do not know what he really want to say ... ）

As for my reply to the forum, I referred to the collective action of the National Association of the Blind (Federation of the Blind, abbr ) against target company ^{[Note 6]}. In the end, target paid a lot of money and agreed to carry out expensive intensive training on accessibility for their web developers. ) to target company. In the end, target paid a lot of money and agreed to carry out expensive intensive training on accessibility for their web developers.

Note 6: Target is a retail company with chain stores all over the United States. NFB sued their website for inconvenient access to information for the blind, and for the blind to achieve online shopping. For questions about ALT and title, it is also recommended that Rexsong use ALT to promote accessibility.

If a Fortune 500 company does not properly handle web accessibility, we can imagine how difficult it is for a small company to achieve a barrier-free demand. The accessibility of a Web page always gets a lower priority for the following reasons:

1. We also want to achieve accessibility, but we are just a small team.
2. In other words, no one really complains about access barriers.
3. The lack of aesthetic pleasure in accessible Web pages limits our design choices.
4. We really don't know how to get our website/web apps to become accessible to people with disabilities.
5. Our target users do not include people with disabilities.

On the above points, only the fourth article is considered a legitimate reason for a Web site or Web application to have accessibility issues. This problem can also be solved by giving web designers and developers a small amount of progressive, accessible training and then continuing to focus on the issue. As for the other points ... Just a little change of mind. This change is small, but it will be of great significance.

Applying the principle of inclusiveness to promote the status of accessibility

Let us explore The mysteries of the principle of inclusion . It allows us to forget the antagonism between "they" and "us" that are ingrained in social behavior. Focusing on inclusiveness can liberate the barrier-free/Universal design debate from these conflicts of interest, embracing a wider, more natural design philosophy. The most important point, focusing on containment, also helps us to understand that we are not only paying attention to accessibility, but also to our own good.

Take a look at the definition from the Containment Research Institute (Institute for inclusion):

inclusion behavior refers to the practice and behavior of balancing and respecting the uniqueness of different talents, beliefs and lifestyles. [...] When someone is defined as a member of a community, people are limited by their understanding and thinking about this particular group. And tolerance is at both the individual level and the group level to accept the similarities and differences between each other, in order to achieve the goal of concerted effort.

Inclusive behaviors are those practices and behaviors that leverage and honor the uniqueness of people ' s different talents , beliefs, and ways of living. [...] When one was defined by the concept of a group, people can are limited by their knowledge or beliefs about that particular G Roup. Instead, inclusion embraces similarities and differences at the individual and group levels for the attainment of the Comm On endeavor.

The Research institute also explores the core meaning of inclusion (key elements) as follows:

By creating and sustaining conditions at the level of individuals, groups and organizations, we can understand and support the intrinsic value of all human beings, such as equality, independent empowerment, self-awareness and competence.

Recognizing and supporting the intrinsic value of all human beings from creating and sustaining conditions that foster Y, empowerment, awareness and competence at the personal, group and organizational levels.

As long as we embrace the principle of inclusion , it is very difficult to think of others as a specific group (such as "visually impaired users"), and therefore no longer reject them. If we are willing to give up the traditional "I/he" idea, we will no longer find any excuse to evade accessibility. The needs of others have become our own needs. With the inclusion principle, we will no longer overlook the need for web accessibility. In our eyes, accessibility becomes an opportunity to achieve autonomy by accepting similarities and differences (a chance to create empowerment by embracing us similarities and differences).

Reprehensible tolerance in the real world

Such a discussion does not seem necessary-the theoretical Anatomy of accessibility. You might say that focusing on inclusiveness does not immediately solve the web design problems you normally encounter. But do not forget: The importance of universal design allows us to use good similarity, to achieve barrier-free design allows us to deal with the repulsion. Some of the "generic" techniques and elements are as follows:

• Add the appropriate properties to the image alt . This is clearly explained in the WCAG 2.0 Technical Specification of the consortium .
• Use multilevel headings ( h1 , h2 ,, and so on) to structure the content of the page.
• Use simple data tables , complex datasheets , and elements as demonstrated by theWCAG 2.0 specification th .
• Creates a text marker (label) for the input field of the form. This is described in the article webaim:creating Accessible forms(creating an accessibility form).

When we learn to use these techniques in general, they become our "second Nature" (second), the thinking model we set up when we set up a website (mental models). Ultimately, we do not find this to be the so-called accessibility technique, and start to think of them as intrinsic, universal web techniques (innate, universal web techniques). We will experience a shift from using paradigms to reprehensible design (inclusive designs)^{[Note 4]} .

Note 4: inclusive design, also translated as "and", "inclusive design". "Reprehensible" means everything, reprehensible design that contains all the design.

This can reduce the user's trouble and reduce the burden on the developer because the remaining accessibility tasks have been better isolated. This provides a solid foundation for a completely barrier-free web page, and developers can more objectively weigh how to provide additional affinity effects (provide a more objective estimate for additional accessibility).

If barrier-free design and universal design are more result-oriented, the new reprehensible design model is clearly process-oriented. One thing is important: designers must identify with the accessibility requirements of the project (indentify with). Without approval, there is no enthusiasm, and without enthusiasm we go back to the old ways-to see the accessibility task as a sense of propriety.

Let's march forward

Now let's look at how the inclusion principle is incorporated into practice. Try to apply it to the list of objections to accessibility:

1. We also want to achieve accessibility, but we are only a small team. it does not take much to embark on the path of barrier-free design. Webaim.org provides a good quick reference (in English). If you already know something basic, share your accessibility knowledge with the team. For example, when you hear other developers talking about Ajax, tell them about the barrier-free Ajax information. Using non-HTML formats such as Word or PDF to share checklists with team members (checklists), you'll find that they will help a lot. (The U.S. Department of Health and Services has good resources on its website.) [Unfortunately no Chinese version]

2. In other words, no one really complains about access barriers. someone's complaining--just not in front of your face. When was the last time you met a hard product and didn't write a letter to annoy the factory? If your site has accessibility issues, dissatisfaction and complaint are undoubtedly symbiotic with design. Seize the opportunity to join the change!

3. The lack of aesthetic pleasure in accessible Web pages limits our design choices. I beg to differ: for example, Nick Dai (Nick Day), the winner of the UK focused barrier-free (accessibilityin focusing) award, his website中文版 in Chester The design is very good. See how others do it, the Internet is not used to help us learn from others.

4. We really don't know how to make our website/web application become accessible to people with disabilities. accessibility is more difficult to implement for complex web sites or rich Internet applications (Rich Internet application, abbr. RIA). But if you do get a sophisticated, multimedia-rich application (Multimedia-rich application), come up with a little creativity. Find a special education school nearby and ask a handicapped student volunteer to show you how they interact with the computer, and investigate other ways to annotate the movie, such as dotsub(a wiki based AV translation site).

5. Our target users do not include people with disabilities. if that's the case, focus on your target customer base. Are you also one of them? Think about it: you have always been a stakeholder in your project (stakeholder). Then, seriously consider your needs, for their own, add a bit of material. Guess what happens then?

Listen to yourself.

How do you get started with the containment principle quickly? Imagine your computer screen as the Big Black Stone in 2001 space Rover ^{[Note 7]}, and start your adventure: Build your site in your mind. Next, go further and imagine that you are listening to your site with your ears instead of staring at it. This helps you to temporarily give up your site as a book to treat. Sometimes we all forget that the website is actually an image and vivid media (colloquial medium), its expressiveness and its explicit form is indivisible (its narrative are not inseparable from its form).

Note 7: 2001:a Space Odyssey, a sci-fi film filmed in 1968. The story of people looking for the roots of Black Stone in the 2001. The concept of black stone in the film is equivalent to the mystery that inspires people's wisdom.

How does your website sound? Disable the style sheet and look at what's in front of you. Suddenly, you become exactly the same as the person using the screen reader-you have the same needs. Getting the highest level of accessibility is necessary and should be part of your day-to-day design activities, because you no longer need to justify yourself. Embrace the inclusion principle, and your site will be the next example of accessibility.