Projects

Web Accessibility Testing: My Electronic Vaccine Card

My Electronic Vaccine Card was a website developed by Oregon Health Authority to help Oregonians locate their COVID vaccination records. I acted as digital accessibility SME on the project, and ensured that accessibility was integrated into all phases of product development, from preliminary design efforts to WCAG conformance testing prior to launch. My work included:

  • Conducting preliminary accessibility testing on the Washington state model for Oregon’s website
  • Contributing accessibility requirements to the functional design and technical design documents for MEVC
  • Creating a heuristic usability analysis of MEVC wireframes
  • Conducting multiple rounds of WCAG 2.1 conformance testing (including assistive technology testing) on MEVC and submitting conformance reports to the development team
  • Recruiting a diverse user testing pool which included testers with cognitive and learning disabilities, a native screen reader user, a native switch user, and speakers of Spanish, Burmese, Marshallese, and Chuukese to conduct accessibility, usability, and plain language testing
  • Logging and tracking accessibility bugs on MEVC and working with the front-end development team to resolve them
  • Advising the MEVC team on configuration of iText to support accessible PDF generation
  • Helping script an accessible how-to video with input from a rare-language speaker (Chuukese) and a screen reader user
  • Participating in meetings and correspondence with Apple and Google representatives to discuss the results of accessibility tests and accessibility updates to their wallet/card output
  • Completing an ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report) for My Electronic Vaccine Card prior (.pdf) prior to launch
  • Helping relay accessibility updates to MEVC to the Washington State IT team and connecting them with local accessibility consultants

My Electronic Vaccine Card launched in April, 2022 in full conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA standard. Users could download auto-generated accessible PDF records, as well as accessible Apple and Google wallet cards on request. In addition, the site was available in 13 languages.

A website homepage that features a block of explanatory text, followed by a form that asks for the user's name, birthdate, and contact information.
Figure 1: The My Electronic Vaccine Card homepage as it appeared in Fall, 2022. Note the site name had changed to “Voluntary COVID Vaccine Record” at this point.
The OHA ACR (WCAG Edition) for My Electronic Vaccine Card. This page shows the name of the product, the date (April 22, 2022), a product description, and the beginning of a list of assets.
Figure 2: The first page of the My Electronic Vaccine ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report)

Accessible Web Testing Methodology (AWTM)

While working for the state of Oregon, I developed the Accessible Web Testing Methodology, or AWTM, in partnership with two technical consultants, Flori Tello and Katelyn Truax. AWTM provides a replicable step-by-step process for testing web content to the WCAG 2.2 (levels A, AA, and AAA) standard.

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) offers success criteria, but only intermittently outlines testing procedures or failure criteria. WCAG testing methodologies, on the other hand, are often proprietary. Furthermore, they are rarely designed with the needs of testers with disabilities in mind.

AWTM was created to counter these gaps and shortcomings. At 209 pages, the methodology defines clear failure criteria and best practices, and provides thorough guidance on testing techniques for testers with disabilities and users of assistive technology.

I have used versions of this methodology to test pages such as:

  • My Electronic Vaccine Card
  • covidvaccine.oregon.gov
  • Oregon CBO (Community Based Organization) Grantee page
  • OWL ADA page
  • Accessible Meetings OWL page

To receive a copy of AWTM, please send a request via the Contact page.

The Accessible Web Testing Methodology Table of Contents, showing its general outline, including testing methodologies organized to align with WCAG 2.2 success criteria.
Figure 3: The Accessible Web Testing Methodology table of contents

Document Accessibility: Remediation, Training, and Guidance

Document accessibility has been a recurring professional interest of mine, going back to my work for ETS, the College Board, and Portland State University. Throughout 2020, I remediated a number of PDFs to WCAG 2.1 standard for the City of Portland while working for Angel Ray Consulting. In my role as an Accessible Document Specialist (ADS) at OHA and ODHS, I have remediated Microsoft Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and Adobe InDesign documents in preparation for conversion to tagged, accessible PDF format. I have also remediated PDFs to WCAG 2.2, PDF/UA, and ISO 32000 standards, using a variety of tools, including:

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • ABBYY FineReader
  • axesPDF
  • the PAC 2021 and 2024 checkers
  • the TGPi Color Contrast Analyser
  • CommonLook PDF
  • CommonLook Office
  • Axaio’s Made to Tag Plugin.

In addition, I have collected and synthesized guidance on accessible document creation, such as the InDesign Accessibility Guide shown on this page, and created accessible templates for agency use. Finally, I developed a 9-part training course on document accessibility (from authoring document to PDF) for the Publications and Creative Services and Health Policy and Analytics divisions.

A document titled "In Design Accessibility Guide," authored by Adam McBride-Smith. The first section explains how to generate a PDF from an InDesign file.
Figure 4: The first page of the InDesign Accessibility Guide

Accessible Data: Testing and Guidance

In 2021 and 2022, I led accessibility testing on COVID-19 Tableau dashboards for the CRUU data visualization team. I also participated in meetings with representatives from Tableau to discuss accessibility updates and recommendations, and advised on the Tableau Dashboard Accessibility Guide (.pdf), created in coordination between Deloitte and the Oregon Health Authority.
In 2022 and 2023, I conducted accessibility testing and created WCAG conformance reports on Power BI dashboards, including for:

  • ADRC (Aging and Disability Resource Connection) data
  • The CCO Performance Metrics pages
  • OHA Director’s Office OHA Survey Data
The Tableau Dashboard Accessibility Guide cover page. Version 1.1 was published by Oregon Health Authority in December of 2022. A row of colored pencils appears below the title.
Figure 5: The cover page of the Tableau Dashboard Accessibility Guide

Teaching Digital Accessibility at Portland State University

Since 2023, I have taught a recurring course on Digital Accessibility for the Professional and Technical Writing Program at Portland State University. Topics covered include:

  • Theoretical models of disability (including the social model)
  • A brief history of disability justice movements in the US
  • Accessibility law in the US and around the world (Section 508, the ADA, the EAA, etc.)
  • Understanding and using assistive technology
  • Creating meaningful alt text
  • Best practices for captions and audio description
  • Creating accessible documents in Word and PowerPoint
  • Basics of PDF remediation
  • Conducting a WCAG conformance audit of a website
  • The future of accessibility (including WCAG 3.0 and developments in AI)

I greatly enjoy the opportunity to explore digital accessibility with students of all ages and backgrounds, and find that my understanding of the breadth of accessibility needs and perspectives grows each time I teach this class.

Policy Creation and Change Management

Working toward a more accessible world has been a longtime commitment of mine. Here you’ll find a 2019 Oregonian article about my testimony at Portland City Council in support of an accessible housing initiative. More recently, I have helped lead and champion work on digital accessibility policy for Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Human Services in my time working for the state. This work has included:

  • Authoring an executive summary for OHA and ODHS of the July 2023 US DOJ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities and the accompanying Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis and leading a team in drafting the OHA and ODHS response to the DOJ’s NPRM (.doc)
  • Reporting to policy team members on the September 2023 US HHS Proposed Rule on Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability and leading a team in drafting the OHA/ODHS response to the proposed rule
  • Reporting to OHA accessibility policy group on the relevance of OMB Memo M-23-22 (Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience) and the publication of WCAG 2.2 to state-level accessibility efforts
  • Conducting research on state digital accessibility approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic and reporting findings to the policy creation team
  • Meeting with Jay Wyant (Chief Information Accessibility Officer, Minnesota) and Jeff Klein (former Program Director Statewide EIR Accessibility, Texas) to discuss accessible procurement strategies and state-level coordination on accessibility
  • Researching accessibility maturity model options and making recommendations to OHA accessibility policy group
  • Helping facilitate preliminary meetings with representatives from Oregon Commission for the Blind regarding accessibility policy changes at OHA
  • Serving as technical SME for OHA draft policies on accessible procurement and accessible content creation

In addition, as agency policies have advanced, I have been working concurrently with Hatfield Fellow Nickolas Hash to develop a pilot implementation plan for accessible content creation and remediation for the Health Policy Analytics division of OHA. Our hope is that the outcome of this work will be that OHA and ODHS will meet their obligations to provide accessible digital content within the timeline outlined in recent proposed rules from the US Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services.

The first page of OHA and ODHS Comments on the DOJ's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. It is dated October 1, 2023, and includes the submitting organization's contact information, the specific NPRM it is responding to, and an Executive Summary
Figure 7: OHA and ODHS’s Comments on the DOJ’s NPRM