Accessibility at Google IO 2011

So I attended the first day of Google I/O 2011, my first time at a Google event. I was glad to hear a fair amount of talk about accessibility. There were at least 3 sessions focusing on the topic (see below) and a breakout area where you can talk with developers.

There was even an accessibility "Developer Sandbox" area which was great. I tried out the ChromeVox screen reader on a Chromebook with help from Google's Rachel Shearer. I got a quick demo of the built-in TalkBack screen reader on an Android mobile device. Mika Pyyhkala and I were shown the LevelStar braille device running Android. The University of Washington showed off their mobile ASL Android project which used video chat technology.

Some tips for Android development from the sessions are:

• In Android code, ensure images, especially ImageButtons, are labeled with contentDescription.
• Use standard controls.
• Stick with standard or modified views; custom very complex to make accessible.
• Ensure all controls reachable with D-pad and Trackball.
• Test with screen reader using D-Pad. To turn on, enable accessibility under Settings/Accessibility, then enable Talkback.
• Take advantage of device's "many eyes and ears" for alternative input/output (microphone, speaker, touch screen, camera, GPS)

The sessions specific to accessibility were:

• Accessibility: Building Products that Everyone Can Use by Brad Green, Erin Rosenthal (on YouTube)
• Leveraging Android Accessibility APIs To Create An Accessible Experience by Charles Chen, T.V. Raman, Tim Credo (on YouTube)
• Creating Accessible Interactive Web Apps using HTML5 by Dominic Mazzoni, Rachel Shearer (on YouTube)
• Added via comment below: The YouTube Caption API, Speech Recognition, and WebVTT captions for HTML5 by Naomi Black, Cynthia Boedihardjo, Jeffrey Posnick (on YouTube)

More resources:

• My Flickr album from Google I/O 2011
• Google Accessibility Resources for developers and publishers: APIs, captioning, and standards
• Android Developers - Designing for Accessibility
• The official Google I/O 2011 announcements

Tim Credo, Charles Chen, and T.V. Raman on stage at Google I/O.

Accessible YouTube & HTML5 Video

YouTube is obviously a great site for video, but not for everyone as it contains various accessibility challenges, particularly keyboard access. The use of Flash itself to play the video can be problematic, not be mention requiring support of the Flash plugin. HTML5 is a pending solution (HTML5 video is available on YouTube as a "trial"), but in its infancy, HTML5 video has accessibility issues that still need to be resolved, as does HTML5 itself.

In the meantime, here are a few alternatives to the YouTube website which provide more accessible controls and a much cleaner interface.

• Easy YouTube - by Chris Heilmann.
• Your Tube - Accessible YouTube - by Dylan Neale, in joint venture with Povidi.com.
• Accessible Interface to YouTube - by Tom at majestyc.net.

If you still don't have what you need or want, why not build your own interface?! The following are tools and resources for building more accessible YouTube videos including captioning:

• Accessible YouTube player controls
• Keyboard controlled YouTube player
• Captioning YouTube Video and Providing Accessible Controls
• Easy YouTube caption creator (Accessify)
• Captions and Subtitles (YouTube)

Further reading:

• Accessible HTML5 Video with JW Player as Fallback
• YouTube and the Push to Improve Tech for Disabled
• Flash and the HTML5 video tag (YouTube API Blog)
• 10 YouYube URL Tricks You Should Know

If you developed an accessible YouTube solution, or know of another not listed, please leave a comment.