Automated Open-Source Keyboard Checker by IBM

Date & Time

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - 10:20 AM PST  

Location

Grand CD  

Description

One of the major impediments of implementing accessibility for a web application or product before going to market is that there is going to be a significant amount manual testing. Keyboard accessibility is essential for users who are blind, who use alternative input devices, or use voice enabled command and control that emulates the keyboard interface. Because most UX designers are only taught about color-contrast and alt-text, keyboard operability is often not designed in, not implemented and not checked (if at all) until the project is near completion. The perceived extra effort for manually checking for good keyboard operability leaves it up to developers to add it on the end of the project life cycle. We here at IBM have been pioneering new features as part of our open-source IBM Equal Access Accessibly Checker to create novel yet effective user interfaces that will make manual keyboard testing easier, more comprehensive, and less error prone. During this talk we will discuss our state-of-the-art visualization approach to identifying errors with keyboard navigation and operability and why we made some of our design decisions. This talk includes the results of a multi-year project, a user research phase, and iterations on implementation. We’ll explore the results on how it makes manual keyboard testing faster for auditors, designers as well as developers. And we will demonstrate the new features in our open-source checker.  

Audience

• Higher Education
• Government
• Healthcare & Rehabilitation
• Finance & Banking
• Retail & Wholesale

Audience Level

Intermediate  

Session Summary (Abstract)

Manual keyboard accessibility testing is repetitive, and prone to error. IBM has released a novel visualization keyboard checking mode as part of the free open-source IBM Checker to make it easier, more efficient, and less error prone.  

Primary Topic

Evaluation & Remediation  

Secondary Topics

• Blind/Low Vision
• Design
• Digital Accessibility
• Web

 

Session Type

General Track  

Presenters

• Josiah Hoskins
  IBM Accessibility
• Ali Unwala
  IBM Accessibility
• Phill Jenkins
  IBM Accessibility

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