- From: Chris Adams <chris@tuesdaybegins.com>
- Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 11:27:32 -0400
- To: "Frank Palinkas" <fmpalinkas@gmail.com>
- Cc: "Charles McCathieNevile" <chaals@opera.com>, "Preston L. Bannister" <preston@bannister.us>, "Denis Boudreau (WebConforme)" <dboudreau@webconforme.com>, "Philip Taylor (Webmaster)" <P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk>, "HTML WG" <public-html@w3.org>
I agree, Unfortunately not everyone has access to somebody for user testing directly. I actually use a copy of JAWS myself while blindfolded. It is a humbling experience and something that I believe every developer should try at least once on every page. On 5/8/07, Frank Palinkas <fmpalinkas@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Preston, > > Adding to Charles excellent tool references and experience, may I also > recommend another method? > > As part of the minority of Technical Writers that hand-code their web-based > documentation (using the Visual Studio 2005 IDE Source Code editors), I ask > a colleague who has been blind from birth to review my tutorials through the > JAWS screen reader (produced by Freedom Scientific). I find that regardless > of my attempts at testing the accessibility of my markup, presentation and > behavior code, there is no substitute for the feedback/comments from a > visually/physically challenged user adept with assistive technologies. As > well as using various tools mentioned by Charles, may I suggest that you > develop a working relationship with someone experienced in this environment? > If there is a fee needed to accomplish this, IMHO it will be money well > spent. > > Kind regards, > > > On 5/8/07, Charles McCathieNevile <chaals@opera.com> wrote: > > > > On Sun, 06 May 2007 18:45:08 +0200, Preston L. Bannister > <preston@bannister.us> wrote: > > > > > ... For all I know there could be some aspect of my > > > application that is extremely bad for accessibility. I had and have > > > no wayof knowing! > > > > > > Assume hiring an expert on accessibility is out of the question (as was > the > > > case). In the end, the degree of "accessibility" in an application I > have > > > written is something to which I simply have no insight. > > > > > > What I as a developer need is not random features or guidelines, but > rather > > > some means on "testing" accessibility .... some test consisting of more > than > > > just checking from the presence of attributes. > > > > You should probably look at some standard resources. > http://www.google..com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=test+accessibility&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 > gave me a page of links to testing tools, plus an article on why standard > automated testing is not enough. Anyone who has argued that a DTD cannot > support sufficient constraints to express the semantics of HTML (or followed > such a discussion) should be ableto understand something of the arguments > that would be adduced in such an article. > > > > There is a LOT of stuff on how to test - from the W3C site there is a list > of tools of various types, ... > > > > If you want a recommendation, for learning how to do testing Hera [1] is a > good tool - it does automated tests as much as it can, guides the user > throug the various tests that cannot be completely automated, supports > collaborative evaluation, is open source and multilingual (if you want to > point out something badly translated I would be happy to work on it), and > for entreprise level testing AccMonitor [2] which is efficient, cand can be > customised to do all sorts of tests. There is a version of the engine > running the free web-based service CynthiaSays [3]. I have been involved in > the development of both these tools, and it is some time since I made an > effort to really compare tools, so my advice is not impartial and perhaps > not up to date, but there are plenty of people working in the field who will > discuss their preferences (and the whys and wherefores). > > > > [1] http://sidar.org/hera > > [2] http://www..hisoftware.com/access/newmonitor.html > > [3] http://cynthiasays.com/ > > > > cheers > > > > Chaals > > > > -- > > Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group > > hablo español - je parle français - jeg lærer norsk > > chaals@opera.com Catch up: Speed Dial http://opera.com > > > > > > > > -- > Frank M. Palinkas > Microsoft MVP - Windows Help > MCP, MCT, MCSE, MCDBA, A+ > Senior Technical Communicator, Web Standards & Accessibility Designer -- Chris@tuesdaybegins.com http://www.tuesdaybegins.com
Received on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:51:42 UTC