WelcomeHow can we better support our staff with

Assistive Technology?

#ATforCorp

Welcome - Chair: Lucy Ruck, British Disability Forum

Supporting staff with Assistive Technology - an overview. Neil Milliken, Atos

Assistive Technology trends & challenges. Paul Smyth, Barclays

The role of Assistive Technology Service Providers. Dr Nasser Siabi, Microlink

A software publisher’s perspective. Mark McCusker, Texthelp

Open Discussion

Summary and what next

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Supporting Staff With Assistive TechnologyNeil Milliken

About me

Neil Milliken

Professionally I am:▶ Head of Accessibility & Digital Inclusion▶ Wb@W Diversity lead▶ W3C Invited Expert Cognitive Accessibility▶ Involved in Social Media Strategy

Personally I am:▶ Dyslexic – I use Assistive Technology▶ Digitally Naturalised (Scored 88% Millenial*1)▶ Predisposed to being social (ENFP)▶ Impatient▶ Evangelistic (Facet5 – Advocate)

Outside of work I am:▶ Co-Founder of the largest twitter chat in Europe on any topic

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Who Am I & What do I do?I wear many hats…

Deploying Assistive Technology In Enterprise

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Accessibility In Our Managed Services

➢ AT Software➢ AT Hardware

➢ Standards➢ Solution

Assurance➢ Technical

Design Authority

➢ Approvals➢ Testing➢ Audits

➢ Hardware➢ Software➢ Triage➢ 1ls - Basic➢ 2ls - Simple ➢ 3ls - Complex ➢ Onsite Visits

➢ Training➢ Scripting➢ Mentoring➢ Assessments➢ Demonstrations➢ Consultancy➢ 3rd Party Testing➢ Assurance

Prod

uct

cata

logu

eService

Catalogue

GovernanceSpec

ialis

t

Supp

ort Assistive Technology

Promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

The Men In Sheds MythAssistive Technology (AT) Seen As Niche & A Cottage Industry

Are Corporates A Different Breed?

AT Sometimes Feels Underdressed For The Office

IT Managers Are Controlling

Removing Barriers To Adoption

Business Friendly Installers & Licensing

Hardware Compatibility

Toasters = Thin Client Devices

Up To 80% Of Corporate IT Services Are Accessed By People Using Toasters

Licensing Models & Technical Issues Need Resolving Urgently

Addressing Issues of Adoption & Use

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Give People Clear Affordances

Why Should Making Buttons Easy To Understand Be Consigned To Accessibility Options?

▶ If You Want People To Use A Button Make It Obvious.

▶ Give It Clear Purpose.▶ Make It A Big Enough Target

– We often have poor motor control – this helps others too.

▶ Make Controls Consistent Across Your Whole Product Or Website.

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I Shouldn’t Need Shades To Use Your App!

Glare is a real problem for many people with dyslexia.

▶ High contrast modes that work for people with visual impairments are not suitable for dyslexia.

▶ Consider not using quite so much white.

▶ IOS has “reduce white point” in accessibility settings.

▶ Allow users to chose what suits them – no tyranny of design.

▶ Don’t assume that everyone with dyslexia wants a cream background with royal blue fonts.

▶ Give people options.▶ Keep your (accessible)

corporate style guide as a default but allow users to choose: text size / font / colour / background etc.

▶ Allow people extra time to complete tasks.

▶ Give alternate ways to authenticate:– Kill Captchas– Kill double passwords– Offer biometrics

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Allow Users To ChoosePersonalisation Allows For Accessibility

People Still Aren’t Disclosing Disabilities Especially Hidden Ones

▶ Part of the BBC Led Neurodiversity Project (Atos have been working in partnership)

▶ Experience what overstimulation associated with Neurodiverse Conditions Such as Autism is like in a work environment.

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Creating EmpathyVirtual Reality Immersive Autism Experience

▶ Atos Adapt - staff disability network▶ Why Adapt? People with disabilities have to adapt we are also driving change in

the organisation and helping Atos to adapt how it approaches disability.

▶ Rapidly growing over 250 members in UK since launch

▶ More Sponsors Than A Charity Swim! Fantastic Support From UK Exec:– Jane Buggy– Gavin Thompson– Toby Goldblatt– David Haley

▶ Active Leadership & Steering Committee led by Sarah Brooks

Staff Networks Help Raise Awareness & Provide Support for Individuals & Managers

Training Removes The Mystery

API All The Things?

Atos, the Atos logo, Atos Codex, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Worldline, BlueKiwi, Bull, Canopy the Open Cloud Company, Unify, Yunano, Zero Email, Zero Email Certified and The Zero Email Company are registered trademarks of the Atos group. January 2017. © 2017 Atos. Confidential information owned by Atos, to be used by the recipient only. This document, or any part of it, may not be reproduced, copied, circulated and/or distributed nor quoted without prior written approval from Atos.

ThanksFor more information please contact:T+ 33 1 98765432F+ 33 1 88888888M+ 33 6 44445678firstname.lastname@atos.net

The role of the Assistive Technologyservice provider; needs & challenges

Disabled Graduate

Knowledge of AT solutions

Know which products they need

Knows how to use them

AT confident

Disabled Person

Doesn’t know about AT solutions

Unaware which products they need

Needs training

AT unconfident

Access to Work

Government assessment

Employers fund first £1000

If process is followed correctly this should result in a 2-3 week turnaround for funding

System compatibility & on-going support

ImplementationProcurement of solution

Product trainingEnd user co-ordination

Challenges

Software Version Control

Compatibility

Upgrading systemscauses issues for users

Managing updates

Knowledge of ATIT Process owner

Challenges

Corporate needs

Broad understandingof disabilities

Managing multiplestakeholders

Lack of AT productknowledge

Disability knowledgeConflict with systems

Challenges

Single point of contact

Problem solving

Training

Technical support

Thank You

How can we make things better. A publisher’s perspective.

Mark McCusker, CEOTexthelp Ltd.

What you see - shiney, polished AT

What happens to create, support and develop AT

what you see - shiney, polished AT

What you see - shiney, polished AT

What happens to create, support and develop AT

what you see - shiney, polished AT

what happens to create, support and develop AT

“AT is not working on my employee’s Windows 10 laptop”

“AT is not working on my employee’s Windows 10 laptop”

“We have 100,000 users of our product across Windows 7,8 & 10. If we fix this one user, will the others be impacted?”

“AT is not working on my employee’s Windows 10 laptop”

“We have 100,000 users of our product across Windows 7,8 & 10. If we fix this one user, will the others be impacted?”

site licence vssingle user licences

system stability security (opportunity & threat)

site licence vssingle user licences

● Royalties for 3rd party components

● Protection for 3rd party components/audits

● Risk of operating on corporate network

● Professional Indemnity

● Security

● AT industry in some ways is a laggard

● Market is moving towards multiple platforms

● Market is moving towards Cloud

● The goal is to deliver the same user experience on all platforms

● Perpetual vs Perpetual with maintenance vs SaaS

● Standard policy on updates amongst AT publishers

● Standard policy on upgrades amongst AT publishers

● Standard policy on supported OS, MS office versions etc.

● Consider AT as a productivity tool

● Interoperability Testing … Challenging

● Inaccessible software Blacklist; or Software whitelist

● Educate non AT publishers to build in accessibility at design stage

Open Discussion

For further information from any of the presenters, contact:

Lucy Ruck: lucyr@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

Neil Milliken: neil.milliken@atos.net

Paul Smyth : paul.smyth@barclays.com

Dr Nasser Siabi OBE: nasser@microlinkpc.com

Mark McCusker: m.mccusker@texthelp.com