Infosys Nia Chatbot Platform and WCAG Compliance (2023)

Introduction

How does one design an interface?

When webaccessibility by physically challenged people are brought into equation, itbrings many parameters into play as that population consists of deaf, dumb,blind, mentally challenged, etc. How do we take care of their needs too whilebuilding or maintaining websites or Products? What about the often-forgottenleft-handed people?

Will addingread-aloud option in the website say that we are catering to blind people'sneeds? First, they should be made aware that indeed there is such an optionavailable and where it is available. But unless it becomes a universalguideline and all websites by default have this option, this will lead to thelist of challenges already faced by these people as they might observe thisonly in few websites.

Have younoticed that shirt buttons for ladies and gents are placed differently? Well,what about left-handed people!!! Should there be a different consideration for them,or will this still be fine for them? How do we bring variants within Productsby considering this point too? Lots to ponder about but do you think that atleast Software Product Companies are spared in this regard. Ever wondered onwhether developers take a conscious note while developing digital content to beaccessed in digital devices like laptops, tablets, mobiles as by default theyare mostly skewed towards right-handed people 😊 There is this classic example of YouTube'svideos recorded by left handed people were shown upside down.

This is whereguidelines come to rescue, and we shall see more on it below.

What is Web accessibility?

Webaccessibility is providing access to the information available on the internetto people with disabilities. This is applicable to any kind of disability,hearing impairment, visual imparity, speech, cognitive disorder or disabilitiescaused due to aging factors. In the most generic terms, access will enable themto interact, share, navigate and contribute to the Information Technologyavailable to everyone. People with disability should enjoy equal access to theweb and should be given the space to do everything which people without adisability can do.

The WebContent Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were created by the non-profit WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C) and is the most accepted and popularly followedUniversal guideline for web accessibility. WCAG consists of a series ofguidelines for making web content accessible. WCAG 1.0 was introduced in 1999,and has since been superseded by WCAG 2.0, published in 2008. WCAG 2.0 isorganized into four universal design principles and consists of three levels ofcompliance. A decade later, WCAG 2.1 guidelines were published which had all successcriteria of 2.0 and additional ones for mobile accessibility, people with lowvision and people with cognitive and learning disabilities.

The levels ofCompliances are

1) LevelA (Minimum Accessibility Requirements)

2) LevelAA (More Involved Accessibility Requirements)

3) LevelAAA (More Comprehensive Accessibility Requirements)

Even thoughthere is no mandate to adhere to any compliance level, websites that adhere to'Level AA' are generally considered to be compliant.

The Americanswith Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. TheADAis a Civilrights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals withdisabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools,transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the generalpublic.

TheDepartment of Justice (DOJ) looks to theWorld Wide Web Consortium(W3C)for guidelines to follow regarding how to regulate ADA compliantwebsites. The W3C has created theWeb Accessibility Initiative(WAI)to lead the web to its full potential to be accessible, enablingpeople with disabilities to participate equally on the web.

There is onemore which is 508 Compliance and refers to a Federal law.

One can learnmore on the differences among these 3 in this link.

Rest of theWorld too follow these WCAG guidelines and are at various compliance levels interms of adoption. As noticed with any other guidelines, this too has alimitation as certain rules are misleading or confusing.

Mobile accessibility

There are noseparate guidelines for accessing mobile content as most user interfacepatterns are similar for desktop/laptop and mobile devices but one is supposedto refer to these guidelines.

What it is its relevance for ProductCompanies?

ProductCompanies focus towards building viable Products that meet Consumer's needs butat the same time remain profitable too. Over a period, CSR (Corporate SocialResponsibility) arm turns up and fulfil Social responsibilities too. But the basic principle should be to see howas an Organization, one can be inclusive in all its communications be itinternal or external. Everybody is aware of Success mantra "Customer is King"and efforts are put to make "The King" happy but it's equally important to makeinternal Customers like Employees happy too.

ProductCompanies make releases on a periodic basis based on their roadmaps. Theirwebsites are accessible publicly in applicable cases and hence there is defaultobligations for them also to adhere to these guidelines and add any localflavor (based on cultural differences) to it if possible. If there is any toolwhich will be used by its Employees to build a Product then, it's imperativethat relevant guidelines are followed there too.

WCAG Compliance and Infosys Nia ChatbotPlatform

Infosys NiaChatbot Platform helps Enterprises to build Chatbots according to their needsand consists of Chatbot Studio, which is an internal tool used to createand maintain bots, Chatbot Application which is used by end users. Botscan be built in various languages with many front-end channels and canintegrate with all back-end applications. It supports building text and voice-basedbots.

We makeperiodic Product releases and are striving to meet success criteria of WCAG 2.1guidelines which will take care of ADA Compliance.

Web accessibility for Bot Studio

Bot Studio ismainly for bot configuration and an admin utility. Will voice based interfacebe useful in this case? It's better to have this provision at all levels andcontrolled through parameterization. Assuming that hardly a physicallychallenged person will be an admin, or a bot designer is again making a mistakeof ignoring inclusivity!!!

Formaking Bot Studio ADA Complaint, we are referring the standard guidelines.

Inthe previous release 1.7.5.0, we had incorporated the below guidelines:

• Resize Text(1.4.4): Text must be able to be resized up to200% without negatively affecting the ability to read content or use functions.(Level AA)
• Keyboard(2.1.1): All contentand functions on a website must be accessible by keyboard only (i.e. no mouse).(Level A)
• FocusVisible (2.4.7): Any"user interface control" that receives focus from a keyboard user shouldindicate that focus on the current selected element (e.g. add a visible borderaround a text link). (LevelAA)

Resizetext:

All studioscreens are now responsive up to 200% browser zoom, except 'Decision TreeHierarchy view'. People with low vision, low-contrast vision, or otherwiseless-than-perfect vision can now use zoom in browser to have a better studioexperience.

The belowscreenshot is at 200% zoom size. We can see the menu icon at the right sideinstead of navigation bar. This is how the screens are made responsive.

Keyboard:

Improved userexperience by enhancing keyboard accessibility support on all screens. It isnow possible to create a bot using keyboard alone without using mouse.

Followingoptions in Studio which earlier used to work on mouse hover have been modifiedto click event to support keyboard accessibility:

• User Role dropdown in Navbar
• Menu in Chat window
• Bulk Ignore and Bulk Approve dropdown in Review Screen

Focus visible:

Any elementwhich receives focus from keyboard is easily recognized with outlines. So, now wecan easily understand on which element the current focus is present.

In the belowscreenshot, we can see focus is present on Home link on the navigation bar.

In our latestrelease 1.8.0.0, we have adhered to the following guidelines.

• Sensory Characteristics (1.3.3): Instructionsprovided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensorycharacteristics of components such as shape, size, visual location,orientation, or sound. (Level A)
• Headings and Labels (2.4.6): Headingsandlabelsdescribe topic or purpose. (Level AA)
• Consistent Navigation (3.2.3): Navigational mechanisms that are repeated onmultipleWeb pageswithin aset of Web pagesoccur in thesame relative ordereach time they are repeated, unless achange is initiated by the user. (Level AA)
• Consistent Identification(3.2.4) : Components that have thesame functionalitywithin a set ofWeb pagesareidentified consistently. (Level AA)
• Error Identification(3.3.1): If aninput erroris automatically detected, the item that isin error is identified and the error is described to the user in text. (LevelA)

Sensory characteristics:

Tooltip has been added for all elements to ensureaccessibility to information and textual information has been added forproduction and design environments such that the elements are not reliant on asingle sensory ability.

Headings and labels:

Provided clear headings for all the pages in the Studioand provided descriptive help information for better understanding offunctionality of any screen.

Consistent Navigation:

Provided clear and understandable navigation menuthroughout the Studio screens. Cancel buttons have been provided to reset formvalues on the screens.

Consistent navigation:

Provided clear and understandable navigation menuthroughout the Studio screens. Cancel buttons have been provided to reset formvalues on the screens.

Consistent identification:

Studio maintains consistency in icons/elements used forthe same functionality at different screens.

Error identification:

Clear and descriptive validation for every form field hasbeen provided. Provided clear identification for required fields for all theforms.

Web accessibility for Chatbot Application

This is anend user interface wherein configured bot can be accessed. Since this part fallsunder the purview of Clients who make use of this, they need to take care of compliancein case any default Product offering is customized, or visual elements arebuilt according to their needs.

Mobile accessibility

While Studiois accessed via Desktop/Laptop, Bot Application developed can be accessed via mobilesand even an advanced feature available in Studio named, Document Comprehension onceconfigured, made available in Bot Application can be accessed via mobile in anoffline mode.

Applicability of guidelines in Studio vs.Application

Should therebe differences in the way these guidelines are made use of in studio andapplication? Yes, as the target audience is different but to avoid thepitfalls, control the functionalities via parameterizations wherever possible.

1. Avoice-based application is of better usage compared to studio since the numberof end users are far more compared to those who develop and maintain bots andwould be helpful to get queries answered via voice commands rather thanconfiguring bots via commands which is also complex to achieve.
2. Screenzooming or use of colour to highlight action completion will be more useful inapplication compared to studio.
3. Keyboardusage would be more in studio compared to application.

Conclusion

Inclusivityneeds to become ingrained in everyone's minds and not just in Organization'sVision statements or in Product guidelines portals, so that we become sensitivepeople and look out for ways to adhere to it in all our acts. As digitaladoption is set to grow at an exponential pace soon, more and more adherence tosuch guidelines would be beneficial to one and all.

With respectto Nia Chatbot Platform, web accessibility is a continuous journey and we willbe taking this forward in future releases too.

References

https://adata.org/learn-about-ada

https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/what-is-ada-compliance/

read://https_www.searchenginejournal.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.searchenginejournal.com%2Fwebsite-accessibility-compliance%2F374878%2F%23close

https://siteimprove.com/en/accessibility/ada-compliance-website/

https://www.ameexusa.com/sites/default/files/users/user467/ADA_v1-White%20paper.pdf

https://www.wuhcag.com/wcag-checklist/

https://mayecreate.com/blog/what-does-ada-compliant-mean/

https://www.digitalauthority.me/resources/ada-compliance-website/

https://ada-compliance.com/

https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/what-is-ada-compliance/

https://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/services/ada-compliance

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/

https://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/services/508-compliance

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/2010ADAStandards/Guidance2010ADAstandards.htm

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/mobile/#:~:text=There%20are%20not%20separate%20guidelines,WAI%20Guidelines%20Apply%20to%20Mobile

https://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-accessibility-mapping/

https://vimm.com/accessibility-ada-wcag-2-0-508-refresh-mean/

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

https://www.webfx.com/web-design/ada-vs-508-compliance.html/

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/new-in-21/

Authors

Kavitha Sundararajan

KavithaSundararajan, Senior Consultant working with iCETS Unit especially in LargeTransformation Deals team and handles multiple activities like interactionswith various stakeholders, developing marketing Strategies and building Productroadmaps.

Shazia Bavalla

ShaziaBavalla, Technology Analyst, was a full stack developer for Infosys Nia ChatbotPlatform, involved in developing many features in the platform.