FW: [webwatch] Web page testing

-- ------------------------------
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Professor - Human Factors
Dept of Ind. Engr. - U of Wis.
Director - Trace R & D Center
Gv@trace.wisc.edu, http://trace.wisc.edu/
FAX 608/262-8848
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-----Original Message-----
From: 	J M [mailto:theultimateauthority@yahoo.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, May 17, 2000 12:42 PM
To:	webwatch
Subject:	[webwatch] Web page testing

>>At 03:38 PM 5/16/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>Although using JAWs is a very useful tool for
>>"testing the accessible design" of web pages, let me
>>explain why I believe that the IBM Home PageReader
>>might be a little easier for a sighted web master to
>>use:
----cut-----
--- Kelly Ford <kford@teleport.com> wrote:
> Hello Phil and All,
> Actually about the last tool I'd personally suggest
> someone sighted use to test the accessibility of a
> web site is a full screen reader like Window-Eyes or
> JFW.
----------------------------------------------------

Hello Kelly (and all),
I believe you have very valid points.
I, being a sighted person trying to make a web page accessible to everyone,
have found it slow going to find the answers I need.
I am NOT a techie but I am a woman on a mission and won't stop until I find
the answers! The problem is, I can't say that everyone else out there
developing web pages is as determined as I perhaps only because they don't
understand there is a problem.
So I have to agree with Phil because that was where I started. I, by
accident, happened onto Cast Bobby.  With that and the questions they pose,
many of which I didn't understand, I knew I had to not only get that
"Approved" status from them, but I also had to find people using all types
of equipment to access the web to test my pages as well. If Cast Bobby would
have just said "Approved", without adding all those questions that I would
also have to answer "yes" to, then I would have stopped right there. But
then, how many people would take it the next step to find testers?
Let me relate to you how difficult it was to get where I am currently at.
Step one was to find some information on accessibility. Web searches brought
me to commercial sites. (I am not a company but just a mom who got library
books to learn how to write html code for the web pages I wanted to do).
Several weeks later I finally happen on a commercial site that has lots of
links and after hours of checking out each link, found Cast Bobby.
Step two was correcting the problems that Cast Bobby indicated.
Step three was a link from Cast Bobby to the NFB mailing lists site. I
couldn't understand which list would be the appropriate one or if my
question of trying to find people to give me feedback about my site were
appropriate. I wrote the web page manager and he answered all my questions
and helped me with the correct list. (From there I was also referred to this
list).
Step four I am currently in, asking people to test my site. Some have
specific answers as to what I can do and others give me opinions and
observations.
I am about four weeks into trying to find an answer and still I am not
completely done. Meanwhile, my web pages are at a stand still as I don't
want to add more info if I just have to go back and redo it later. (It is a
recipe web site).
All along this process I have wondered why it is so hard to find the needed
information I needed to make my page accessible. I have also had an
education and although I am more knowledgeable about access issues, I know I
don't completely understand all that is involved.
With that, I would like to propose that if you all wanted to help to
establish:
1)	education about accessibility,
2)	a step-by-step process for people to follow to make/check web sites by,
that made sure they were accessible to all, and,
3)	a group of people (who have different types of accessible equipment), to
be web page testers/advisors.

I am more than willing to place a link on my web pages to a web page that
would explain the process. I would even go as far as saying that I would do
the web site, if someone else didn't want to do it.
In conclusion, it seems that there are both accessing and creator problems.
If we work together we may not be able to solve the entire problem all at
once, nor the corporate development problem right away, but it is a start
that just might one day find it's way to the right person to take it one
step farther and one day after that to fully solve the problem.
Judith Manley

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Received on Saturday, 20 May 2000 21:17:37 UTC