Re: Web Accessibility in Ireland: Survey Results.

On Sat, 21 Dec 2002, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:

> This is an interesting report. A couple of quick observations:
[...]

Hi Charles -

Thanks for the helpful and constructive feedback

For the record, a somewhat more concise and integrated (?)
version of the report has now been formally published in the
journal First Monday, at this URL:

  http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_12/mcmullin/index.html

> It would have been good to have an analysis of when tests were 'not
> applicable' - for example approximately 1/3 of sites had problems with the
> way they used frames, but it is not clear in the report if that is all the
> sites that use frames, or if 1/3 of the sites surveyed used frames but didn't
> introduce the same barriers.

That's a fair point.  Because we just used bobby off the shelf
this sort of thing does not fall out automatically (e.g., bobby
doesn't generate any diagnostic just for using frames per se, but
only for misuse of frames).  But it should not be too difficult
to add some such analysis.  We'll certainly discuss it in looking
at further development.

> As the report points out, delimiting what a site is is a tricky business.
> However the use of description and keywords metadata as a key requirement was
> an interesting choice. Do you have any data (or know of any) on what
> proportion of sites, and what type of sites, don't have these? (I imagine it
> is low, but it is certainly not zero, and I find myself wondering...).

We certainly don't have any data on this; and, indeed, in the
survey we have just reported on, descriptions and keywords did
not really play much of a role - they were referred to only in
passing, when we were trying to get a quantitative estimate for
the total size of the "Irish Web".  But they will potentially
play a greater role as we look at scaling up, and automated
sampling (using, for example, the Open Directory Project
database).

Thanks again, and best wishes to all for the holiday season,

- Barry.

Received on Monday, 23 December 2002 04:55:09 UTC