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Making Conformance Work: Constructing Accessibility Standards Compliance Making Conformance Work: Constructing Accessibility Standards Compliance by Alison Benjamin A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Faculty of Information University of Toronto © Alison Benjamin Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-72518-4 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-72518-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ii Making Conformance Work: Constructing accessibility standards compliance Alison Benjamin Master of Information Faculty of Information University of Toronto 2001 Abstract Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) constitute core accessibility resources for Web designers and developers. To explore their deployment, I conduct interviews with 10 practitioners who use WCAG and WAI- ARIA in their work. Using techniques derived from grounded theory and situational analysis, I develop the concept of conformance work. Conformance work refers to how designers and developers develop harmonized interpretations of WAI-ARIA and WCAG, and the Websites these specifications are meant to instruct. Conformance work is the upstream work designers and developers engage in to invest categories such as “standards compliance” and “Web accessibility” with meaning. iii Acknowledgments I wish to thank a number of the people who have generously helped me along in my studies. I consider myself very lucky to have had Dr. Steven Hockema as my supervisor. He has guided and encouraged my research over the last two years. I thank Dr. David Phillips, my second reader, for his help and guidance as well, and for pushing me to pursue how WAI-ARIA and WCAG came to be. I kindly thank Dr. David Ribes for giving me time and feedback as my third reader. I also thank the late Dr. Susan “Leigh” Star for agreeing to sit on my committee. Jutta Treviranus first interested me in pursuing research and practice that concerns itself with critical approaches to design. I thank her for the many opportunities I have had as a student, including the ability to connect with some of the WAI‟s technical custodians. I thank the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and the Faculty of Information Alumni Association for financial support, and my partner, Lauren. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my participants, who generously shared their time, experience, and insights as to how the WAI inflects in their lives and work. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Assumptions and key terms .................................................................................................2 2 Literature review .........................................................................................................................5 2.1 Disability, technology, and preoccupation with “standard” bodies .....................................6 2.2 Standards and guidelines....................................................................................................11 2.2.1 Standards ................................................................................................................12 2.2.2 Implementation and compliance ............................................................................14 2.2.3 Standards of and at work........................................................................................15 2.2.4 The standards development process.......................................................................16 2.2.5 Guidelines and best practices .................................................................................17 2.3 The Web Accessibility Initiative and its key texts.............................................................20 2.3.1 The rise of a standard body for accessibility .........................................................21 2.3.2 The WAI and its specification development process .............................................22 2.3.3 WCAG 1 and 2.......................................................................................................25 2.3.4 WAI-ARIA ............................................................................................................30 2.3.5 Extant representations of accessibility ...................................................................33 2.4 Conclusions of literature review ........................................................................................35 3 Procedures .................................................................................................................................36 3.1 Research question and overview of research procedures taken .........................................36 3.2 Delimitations and limitations .............................................................................................38 3.3 Methodology taken and implication for methods ..............................................................39 v 4 Results .......................................................................................................................................45 4.1 What is conformance work? ..............................................................................................45 4.2 Snapshot of participants .....................................................................................................46 4.3 The interpreted character of conformance work ................................................................47 4.4 Representations of WCAG and WAI-ARIA ......................................................................52 4.5 Articulating user/agents .....................................................................................................56 4.6 Enrolling tools ....................................................................................................................65 4.7 Putting it all together? The imperative to document ..........................................................69 5 Discussion .................................................................................................................................74 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................79 References ......................................................................................................................................81 Appendices .....................................................................................................................................95 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Excerpt from WCAG 2 .................................................................................................. 25 Figure 2: Sample from Joe's manual WCAG 2 checklist ............................................................. 71 1 1 Introduction The World Wide Web Consortia‟s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (W3C, 2009) responds to Web inaccessibility to many disabled1 people that has arisen coeval to the Web‟s evolution. It is both a remedial and proactive infrastructure, providing technical specifications such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (W3C, 2008) and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications suite (WAI-ARIA), a new standard for
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