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Transcript of Web Mapping Accessibility Presentation

February 14, 2011 in Accessibility, Environment Canada | Leave a comment

I gave a presentation today on how we can create web mapping applications that address accessibility guidelines.  I’m not sure if I can share the slides, as they are EC branded…but I think I can share the transcript of the presentation to anyone who is interested:

Slide: Title

Web Mapping Accessibility and CLF 2.0

Alecia Fowler

Environment Canada

February 2011

Slide: Introduction

During this presentation I will discuss what steps we can take to create accessible web mapping applications.  I’ll talk about why it is not a clear cut case and where the grey areas are.  We have been able to identify some solutions but there are still gaps so please feel free to ask questions or bring up any ideas.

Slide: CLF 2.0

The goal of CLF 2.0 is to created uniform, accessible web content with a departmental branding

The Federal Governments stance on Accessibility is stated in Treasury Boards Common Look and Feel for the Internet 2.0: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/index-eng.asp

The standard is comprised of 4 parts:

From a web mapping point of view we are concerned with Part 2 and Part 3, I will cover Part 3 the Standard on Common Web Page Formats first as it is a bit more straightforward.

Slide: Standard on Common Web Page Formats

This part of the standard covers the layout and formatting of web pages.  The design is further expanded on to reflect department specific branding though Environment Canada’s E-Communications department.  They have a design guide which stipulates the usage, style and colour of various page features.  This guide is useful for static pages but when it comes to dynamic web applications there are more unknowns.

EC Internet Look and Feel Guide http://intranet.ec.gc.ca/communications/default.asp?lang=En&n=243D8F0F-1

We have recently finished a project for the Communications branch.  As they are responsible for web content consistency it is a safe bet to model your web mapping content after them.

The application was built with two interfaces.  One that fits nicely into the CLF template and looks similar to all other EC pages, and one that looks more like mainstream web mapping applications:

Map of EcoAction Funded Projects

http://maps-cartes.ec.gc.ca/ecogeo/

Slide: Standard on Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web sites

Satisfying Part 2 of the CLF standard is not as simple as it deals with web accessibility.

  • The goal of web accessibility is to ensure that content online is available to all people regardless of disability.
  • Most of the information in a web mapping application is found in the map which can only be accessed visually.
  • Due to its high dependence on vision, other accessibility requirements often get overlooked

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

The CLF standard requires web content to satisfy the Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines which are divided into 4 categories to ensure you content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

  • Perceivable
    • Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
    • Provide captions and alternatives for audio and video content.
    • Make content adaptable; and make it available to assistive technologies.
    • Use sufficient contrast to make things easy to see and hear.
  • Operable
    • Make all functionality keyboard accessible.
    • Give users enough time to read and use content.
    • Do not use content that causes seizures.
    • Help users navigate and find content.
  • Understandable
    • Make text readable and understandable.
    • Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
    • Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
  • Robust
    • Maximize compatibility with current and future technologies

But some of these priorities don’t affect web-mapping applications, so we’re just going to concentrate on the ones that do.

  • Perceivable: Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
  • Perceivable: Make content adaptable; and make it available to assistive technologies.
  • Perceivable: Use sufficient contrast to make things easy to see and hear.
  • Operable: Make all functionality keyboard accessible.
  • Understandable: Make text readable and understandable.
  • Robust: Maximize compatibility with current and future technologies

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

Make content adaptable; and make it available to assistive technologies.

  • Offering information in multiple formats
    • The life of a web mapping application is the data, so please offer a text-based version of the data you are loading into the map
  • Allow your users to download it themselves
  • Display it in charts, tables, and graphs etc.
  • Have the most accessible version of your site as the first format encountered by a visitor

Example: National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)

http://www.ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/default.asp

  • Online data
  • Online maps
  • Downloadable map layers for Google Earth (.kmz)
  • Downloadable data for Microsoft Access (.mdb)
  • Download data for Microsoft Excel (.xls)

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

Use sufficient contrast to make things easy to see and hear.

This checkpoint has to do with the cartography of the map.  The design should take into account any colour blindness or weak vision of the user.  This could be text size or colour choice for symbology.

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

Make all functionality keyboard accessible.

Your web mapping application should not rely solely on the mouse for access to any feature or information

  • Map Tips
  • Point Selection
  • Map Navigation

This is common for web mapping applications as much of the information and features are embedded into the map.

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

Make text readable and understandable.

  • The advantage of using maps to convey spatial data is that they allow for an easier understanding of spatial relationships and patterns
  • If the alternate to a map is access to the data in raw format it should be laid out in an understandable way not just a data dump

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

Maximize compatibility with current and future technologies

In order to do this we recommend Progressive Enhancement as a design approach to any web page.

Helpful Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/understandingprogressiveenhancement/

Slide: Web Mapping Accessibility Template (WMAT)

The Inter-Agency Committee on Geomatics (IACG) Web Mapping and Accessibility Sub-group is comprised of subject matter experts from various departments across the federal government.  It is our goal to create a best practices guide for the community.  WMAT is a demo that we will be using to show how these best practices are put into play.  We are hoping it will encourage communication throughout the departments and encourage feedback on how to make an accessible application usable.

We will be releasing an updated version that will have widgets for various web mapping components that developers will be able to use on their own sites.

Associated Links

IACG Sub-Group: http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Inter_Agency_Committee_on_Geomatics/Web_Mapping_and_Accessibility

WMAT: http://maps-cartes.ec.gc.ca/wmat/

Slide: W3C WCAG Checkpoints

There is one outstanding checkpoint:

Provide text alternatives for non-text content.

I’ve saved this for the end as this is the most complicated checkpoint, and one we have yet to have a solution for.  The map is non-text content.  To satisfy this checkpoint we need to describe the map in a meaningful, comparable way to the understanding a person takes away from viewing the map.

Consider:

  • The amount of data behind building a map image.  The number of layers, and how each of those layers represented and interact with each other.
  • The different types of maps there are.  Does map type affect a description?
  • An interactive web mapping application, every time the extent changes or the layers change.  Should the description then also be updated?

Slide: “Describing a Thematic Map”

I chose to delve a little deeper into this area for my research as it was out of scope for anything we could answer as a web mapping development team.

My research question was: How does a sighted person describe a thematic map?

I was hoping to find a way to form meaningful text descriptions of a thematic map that would not just be useful to visually impaired users, but potentially sighted users as well.

I conducted a study where I asked members of the sighted community to describe various thematic maps.

Slide: Database of words

I then took the resulting data and tagged what I thought to be as keywords in the descriptions.

Slide: Categories

I further divided the keywords into categories and sub-categories by looking at how they were used in the descriptions and what they were meaning to convey.

  • Directional
  • Topographical
  • Quantitative
  • Shape
  • Landmark
  • Query Data
  • Thematic
  • Size
  • Jurisdiction
  • Colour
  • Distance
  • Location

Slide: Proposed Description Framework

My study resulted in the following proposed framework in how to structure a description of a thematic map:

A description of a thematic map should relay context by providing

  • Query data, for a general understanding of what the map is representing;
  • Jurisdiction, for a specific area the map is covering;
  • Location, to give real-life names to the area of jurisdiction;

The points shown in the thematic layer should be described in relation to the various topographical features and landmarks by specifying:

  • Size
  • Distance
  • Direction
  • Placement

These descriptions are enriched through the use of descriptive words of the various layers and their features, which should relay

  • Shape
  • Size
  • Colour
  • Direction
  • Quantity

Slide: Example

This map is showing locations of facilities which reported pollutant releases in Canada in 2008. There is a town named Springfield, which is based along the east bank of a river. The river runs alongside the town from north to south. Approximately half way down, the river is joined by a smaller river that arches from the left. At the point where the two rivers join is a railway track. There are 3 facilities shown, the first is at the terminus of the railway track. The second point is located at the south end of the town and to the east of the first point. There is a small park near the center of town and bordering the east side of the river, as well as an orange symbol over the river about X km north of the park. The third point is due east of these two features, and is just outside the north-east side of the town.

Slide: Resources

Common Look and Feel for the Internet 2.0

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/index-eng.asp

CLF 2.0 Part 2: Standard on the Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web Sites

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/clfs-nnsi/clfs-nnsi-2-eng.asp

CLF 2.0 Part 3: Standard on Common Web Page Formats

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/clfs-nnsi/clfs-nnsi-3-eng.asp

EC Internet Look and Feel Guide http://intranet.ec.gc.ca/communications/default.asp?lang=En&n=243D8F0F-1

Map of EcoAction Funded Projects

http://maps-cartes.ec.gc.ca/ecogeo/

National Pollutant Release Inventory

http://www.ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/default.asp

Progressive Enhancement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/understandingprogressiveenhancement/

I’m talking.

February 9, 2011 in Personal, Reflections | 1 comment

Today is Let’s Talk Day and people are talking, so I’m gonna talk.   Actually you might not be surprised because talking is something I do a lot! Yup, I’m pretty good about talking, I chit chat, make small talk, talk about the weather.  I’m also pretty famous for emotional heart to hearts, drawing others out so they’ll talk, or talking for others when they don’t feel comfortable.

But one thing I don’t talk about is being down, getting sad, feeling alone.  This goes against my public persona of a happy go lucky kinda gal.  As a little kid I experienced severe anxiety when feeling homesick or worrying about losing my family somehow…the fear determined my every movement off and on well into my teenage years.  I couldn’t deal with sleeping alone and slept on the floor of my parent’s room every night because I was not able to sleep if I didn’t know they were close to me.  This wasn’t me as a child having a nightmare; this was me as a young adult worried about losing my parents.  There were a couple of years in high school that I didn’t really leave my house without a family member or my best friend.  I think it was easier for my family to chalk it up to me being a bookworm…so I kept a book in my hand most times.   There were ups and downs but I worked hard on finding my independence and relying on myself more.

Going away to University and being on my own without my family brought on another bout of anxiety as I didn’t have my safety net to fall back on.  The panic attacks returned and some days I could not get out of bed and I would cry…a lot.  All new people, so far away from my friends and family was crushing to me.  But I eventually figured out ways of coping, made new friends, even unwisely kept my family at a distance so I wouldn’t constantly be reminded of how much I missed them and worry about something bad happening. My greatest fear came true when my father passed away when I was 22.  Those were dark days; it changed everything about my life.  And although I have experienced it and know I can survive it, it remains my worst fear and something I don’t really like to talk about or the anxiety it causes me.

I don’t talk about it because, well, it’s painful and is associated with a lot of painful memories.  It’s also admitting to a weakness which nobody likes to do.  I don’t want people at work to think I can’t handle stress or responsibility.  It’s a specific fear that sometimes gets too much for me to handle and affects me physically.  I think it’s also hard for my family and friends to hear as they feel responsible and want to help but don’t know how.  It’s not always beneficial to talk about it because I have no explanation for it, nothing happened in my childhood to cause it and I don’t know any solutions.  Also, who doesn’t worry about losing loved ones, so why should it affect me any differently?  Others go through experiences much worse than mine; my anxiety is manageable, so why should I complain?

Gradually the dark days ended, and it got better.  I’ve worked hard at it and continue to do so.  I’ve lived on my own since I was 18 and I have traveled pretty independently and extensively…something as a kid I never ever thought I would be able to do.  I’m pretty proud of my independence and it’s very important to me because I struggled with it so much growing up, and I’ve worked hard to achieve it.  I very stubbornly try to resist relying on others for anything.  I still experience bad times when the fear of losing a loved one overcomes me, and I constantly worry and stress about the relationships that I hold close.  I have the odd day or week here and there when the anxiety takes hold and my nights are sleepless and I have to call in sick to work because I can’t get out of bed or if I do go to work I end up staring straight ahead at my computer screen and not talking to any of my colleagues so sometimes it’s just easier on everyone if I stay at home.  Over the summer I thought I lost a friendship and I took it very badly, and last month one of my friends moved to Scotland which resulted in a tough week.  I experience a pretty bleak time just before and after Christmas every year like clockwork.  It’s such a sharp contrast to my personality in every day life that I think it’s a lot easier on everyone outside my little circle of close friends if I just keep it to myself.  I’m a super positive, happy, lively, goofy person…so it’s hard for people to understand that I have anxiety.  Usually when I finally confess my down times to somebody I get a disbelieving remark because there’s no way someone as happy as I am can ever feel anything close to depression or anxiety.  And I get it, I would react the same way I’m sure.  When others experience a down time it really kills me when I can’t fix it, when there’s no easy reason or solution for it.

I’ve come to understand my anxiety and what helps me cope.  Through some soul searching I’ve come to identify what triggers it.  I’ve learned who I can and can’t lean on when it happens, and that it’s ok to lean on them.  I have a very tiny community of close friends that I have kept for a long time and add to very carefully.  I’ve really only spoken about it in-depth to a handful of people, so I guess I’m also learning how to be more open about it through this blog post.  To be honest I’m not really ok with it, and I hate talking about it…but in the spirit of Let’s Talk Day and knowing that certain people I love have gone through severe bouts of anxiety or depression, maybe this will help :)

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