Welcome to episode three of Tails of Testing! Brodie Wise, our EVP of Business Development and Marketing, chats with Huvie Winchell, our Exam Design and Accessibility Lead, AKA our resident expert on accessibility. No matter if you’re a veteran in this space or if you’re just starting your accessibility journey, Huvie’s advice can help you take the next steps toward making your exam accessible to all.

Video Transcript

[Onscreen: A split-screen of Brodie and Huvie chatting virtually.]

Brodie Wise
Hi, everyone. It’s Brodie Wise from ITS in Baltimore, MD. I am the Executive Vice President at Internet Testing Systems. This is another round of Tails of Testing. With me today, I have Huvie Winchell from our Test Production team. Huvie is the Exam Design and Accessibility Lead. Huvie, welcome. Can you introduce yourself?

Huvie Winchell
Sure. So, hi, everyone. I work on the Test Production team at ITS, and I help lead a super talented group of scripters who create all of our user interfaces. And I also help manage accessibility projects.

Brodie
Great. Thanks, Huvie. Well, one of the things about Huvie that I’m pretty proud of—Huvie joined me at ATP, and she led a discussion on accessibility. Well, Huvie, what did you think about joining a session and doing one of your first sessions at ATP?

Huvie
So, I’ve definitely never presented in such a form before, but I have to say I did enjoy it and, you know, it felt really good being able to share knowledge and just share how important accessibility is.

Brodie
That’s great. I know one of the things I think everybody should do—get out of your comfort zone, do a little bit more, share your knowledge. And one of the things why I encouraged Huvie to go and do this presentation at ATP is when you think of accessibility, it’s beyond a legal discussion. So, Huvie, so the question for you is why is it important to you? Why should other companies focus on this?

Huvie
So, accessibility is important because, you know, when you work in the testing industry, you have to realize what passing an exam could do for someone. You know, how well someone does can really help shape a person’s future and their career. And as web developers, designers, and authors, it’s really important to realize what a bad, inaccessible, improper design can do and how it can really hinder candidates and students and just people’s ability to take their growth and success to the next level. And, you know, personally, I don’t want to be that roadblock.

Brodie
Yeah. No, that’s a good point. Who wants to be the roadblock? And I like how we have to do our part. And I like [how] you make this a personal thing. But you know what’s really hard is these organizations are trying to convert from where they are, where they’re going, and there’s a lot to think about. But when you were making a program more accessible, what do you have to focus on? What are the key points?

Huvie
So, I think there’s really two main things to think about. I think the first thing is the user. And the second thing is the code. So, the first thing. The users are the most important thing ever when you talk about accessibility. The end user. Know who’s taking your test and, really, you know, to take accessibility to the next level and to take your exam design and exam experience to the next level, the best way to do that, Brodie, is with real user testing. Before you put your test out in the field, get a sampling of real users to help test your product. And even once your product is in the field, you know, have surveys as part of your tests and say, you know, how well did we do? You know, how was the exam design? How was the overall exam experience? Did you find the exam to be accessible? And you really have to put yourself in the user’s shoes in order to create an accessible, a truly accessible and successful product. And I think the second thing to keep in mind is really on a more technical level is, you know, the code of your exam and the code of your web page has to be perfect. You know, when you’re talking about a web page that has to work across, you know, several different browsers and platforms and all these assistive technologies out there, your code has to be concise, your code has to be perfect. There’s really not a lot of room for creative code solutions because you really want all users to get a consistent, good experience, and the best way to do that is with clean code. So, those I think are my two. I’m sure I could talk about this all day, but those are my two main, you know, asks of, you know, companies who, you know, want to become more accessible.

Brodie
No, that’s great, Huvie. What about, just a minor thing, but helping someone who’s new to this get started from a technical standpoint? Because you’ve actually coached some of our team members and our web team and engaged into things, like what is that? Should [they] just go to an industry thing or just go to some of the standard web standards?

Huvie
So, you know, looking at the web standards and WCAG guidelines, getting familiar with them, is super important. And that’s definitely a very crucial part of the process. Get to know the standards, get to know the code that belongs to those standards, and that’s really the first step. You know, I guess what I was focusing more and really what the discussion at ATP was is, you know, taking accessibility to the next level. So that’s like going beyond the guidelines to get your accessible product to be even better.

Brodie
I love that, Huvie. I love it because there’s a baseline, you start there, you’ve got to just push past it and know that the baseline isn’t good enough and keep pushing beyond and working with our partners and so on. And I thought it was a great discussion and I think people should go back and watch that. So, we’re pretty much out of time, but our listeners love advice, and can you leave them with something, a little tidbit, a little Huvie knowledge?

Huvie
So, I think I’d like to leave everyone with the thought that accessibility, first off, it’s hard. You know, so don’t be afraid to just start somewhere and then incrementally make updates, like don’t let accessibility just haunt you and then you never get started. And I think, you know, right along with that is the thought that accessibility is a journey and not a destination, you know. Accessibility projects don’t have a start and an end date. You know, when you push an accessibility product, an accessible product, to production, you’re not finished. You know, industry changes—the industry is constantly changing. You know, web guidelines constantly changing, browsers are changing, assistive technology is constantly coming out with updates, and you really have to keep reassessing your product in order to make sure that your candidates are getting the best experience possible.

Brodie
Excellent, excellent. Well, thank you, Huvie. Thank you so much. Great discussion. I appreciate it, and thanks for making the time to meet with us all. Have a good day.

Huvie
Thanks for having me.

Brodie
Bye.

Huvie
Bye.

About Our Guest

Huvie Winchell is a test publishing expert with 15 years of experience across all industries. She is the Exam Design and Accessibility Lead at ITS and has partnered with test sponsors from the academic, IT, and healthcare industries to bring accessible designs to their programs. She believes in the power of what assessment can do when it’s designed with an inclusive mindset for people of all abilities and all ages. If you have questions about accessibility, send us a note at info@testsys.com, and we’ll get you in touch with Huvie!