Disability Online - Improving Accessibility Through Usability

Mark Grant and Ross Mueller

Disability Services Division, Department of Human Services

3rd December 2004

Disability Online

Disability In Australia

Statistics

20 Million People in Australia

• Almost 4 million (20%) of these people have some form of disability
• 15.2% (over 3 million) have a disability that limits or resticts day-to-day activities.

Victorian State Disability Plan

• Ten Year Outlook
• A new approach to disability
• Whole of Government/Whole of Community

State Plan Vision

"By 2012, Victoria will be a stronger and more inclusive community - a place where diversity is embraced and celebrated, and where everyone has the same opportunities to participate in the life of the community, and the same responsibilties towards society as all other citizens of Victoria."

Disability Plan Principles

• Equality.
• Dignity and Self Determination.
• Diversity.
• Non-Discrimination.

Community Membership Equation

INDIVIDUALISED PLANNING AND SUPPORT
+
SPECIALIST DISABILITY SUPPORT
+
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
=
SATISFACTION AND INCLUSION

Origins

An Accessible Information Service Linked to our Regional Intake and Response teams is a key plank in the Achievement of the State Plan's Goals.

• Disability Online was built to help people find the information they need about the range of supports available to them in their local communities.
• However, the site does not site in isolation from our other information services. The Intake and Response teams are available via phone, email, TTY and fax.

Audience Reach

• Currently receives over 50,000 visitors per month.
• Consistently ranks within the top 10 most popular Victorian Government Websites.
• These figures exceeded even our most optimistic expectations.

Why?

• The majority of the information available on DOL is available elsewhere on the Web.
• We need to provide something unique to reach users.
• Information in an accessible format
• Simplicity is also one of keys to this - the site features a clean, clear design.
• A lot of easy to find information
  • Important for our audience - many of whom are not experienced Internet users.
  • And are even less likely to be regular, experienced visitors to the site.

Accessibility

• The site complies with W3C Web Accessibility Initiative at Triple-A level.
• We made it a priority to comply with the WC3 WAI Guidelines.
• Accessibility was an important consideration throughout the production process.

Moving forward

• The W3C standards have not changed since our launch BUT the technologies our audience uses have.
• DOL was designed with the expectation that a substantial proportion of our user population would be using browsers such as Netscape 4.7.
• For users of assistive technologies the rate at which users can update is often even slower.
• The best possible balance between the use of newer Web design technologies and support for the tools your audience uses requires careful judgement and knowledge of your audience.

Target Audience

• A very broad range of people.
• Multiple disability types, many of which impact upon the way our audience uses the Internet, carers and family members of a person with a disability.
• Statistically, often from a low socio-economic background.
• Result = an audience with a very diverse range of information needs.

Knowing your Audience

• We wanted to measure how user-friendly the site was for people with disabilities.
• The intention was to create a "baseline" measurement of the site, learning from which could be used in a redevelopment of the site.
• We asked the RMIT University Test Labs and Addictive Media to perform some scenario and task-based usability testing of the site.
• We wanted to measure how various members of our very diverse audience were able to interact with our Website.
• We take our accessible site one one step further to seek to ensure that it is user-friendly and catering to the needs of its audience.

Next

The Disability Services Division of DHS is currently redeveloping its collection of Websites.

This project is due for completion by March/April of 2005.

The learnings from this exercise will be incorporated as improvements to our sites.

Including:
• Disability Online: www.disability.vic.gov.au.
• Disability Services Website: www.dhs.vic.gov.au/disability.

If you want to be informed of the release of the redeveloped Disability Online Website or the progress of Disability Services Division Online Redevelopment Project please send an email to disability.online@dhs.vic.gov.au.

Contact

Mark Grant

Manager, Service Access
DHS, Disability Services Division
mark.grant@dhs.vic.gov.au
Tel: 03 9616 7508
TTY: 1300 131 525

Contact

Ross Mueller

Web Communications Unit
DHS, Disability Services Division
ross.mueller@dhs.vic.gov.au
Tel: 03 9616 2110
TTY: 1300 131 525