Greg Kraus, Principal Accessibility Specialist, Interactive Accessibility
Disability Area: Topic Area:
Length of Session (in hours): 1-hr
Format: Lecture
Expertise Level: All Levels
Type of session: Not provided
Summary of Session
Using game techniques, NC State University has created a system for Web site owners to continuously improve the accessibility of their sites. The system uses principles like real-time feedback, leaderboards, and quests to more fully engage developers and content creators.
Abstract
Applying game design techniques to the problem of creating accessible Web sites has created new pathways into the campus community in order to engage more people in creating accessible Web sites. It has also created measurable increases in the overall accessibility of campus Web pages. Some of the key components of game design that we have utilized include the following: leaderboards to show how each site compares to others on campus providing friendly competition, quests to give guided direction for how to improve one aspect of your site, progress indicators to allow users to make incremental improvements to their site yet still show they are making progress, badges to allow users to complete discrete accessibility tasks within their site and earn credit for doing so. These new ways of understanding Web accessibility have brought more people into the discussion and have made accessibility a much more talked about topic on campus.
Kepoints
People engage more when they can show gradual progress rather than having to take massive steps.
Learning accessible design techniques should be a layered approach, not teaching them everything at once.
People like to win, or at least, they don’t like to lose. Friendly competition is a great motivator.
Speaker Bio(s)
Greg Kraus
Greg Kraus is the Principal Accessibility Specialist at Interactive Accessibility. He brings a breadth and depth of accessibility experience that is both engaging and transformative for organizations. Greg combines his experience of implementing accessibility at the institutional level with his technical ability to develop innovative software solutions.
Greg takes a people-centered approach to accessibility – accessibility is about people who need access to products and services, and it’s about people who will be making changes to their own workflows in order to deliver accessible products and services. He meets people where they are, creates a vision for where they need to be, and then journeys with them to make it a reality.
Previously Greg worked at NC State University as the IT Accessibility Coordinator. Where he developed many innovative accessibility solutions. He also led national accessibility efforts as the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group Leader.
