Using AT for evaluation

First – sorry I missed the last half of the teleconference – system crash.

I wish to add to the discussion on using AT in evaluation. I believe it is important to use a screen reader at the very least before completing an evaluation. We do the normal stuff first (it is not fair to ask a blind user to struggle if we already know that the site is impossible for them). But as soon as we are happy that a site is reasonably good we always ask someone to check with their screen reader. Most times their comments re-inforce what we have found (often with better phrasing <G>). But just occasionally they find something that our other systems do not pick up. For example the word “accesskeys” sound completely Russian unless it is written “access keys”, or “access-keys”.

I strongly believe that the audio output needs to be checked properly. If you look at our outline procedure sent to this list on 26 Feb you will see that we find someone who is new to the site to use a screen reader. This approach gives us a high level of confidence in our final evaluation.

Richard

Technical Manager
Website Auditing Limited
http://www.userite.com