RE: France Telecom's expert system for accessibility evaluation

Hello John and others,
 
The website offers the possibility to test your own site ("testez votre
site"). The service feels like a mix between the W3C HTML validator and
Bobby. The page you refer to is the error-page which isn't very insightful
but does have a form where you can enter a URL that will be checked for
accessibility. 
 
The result page starts by giving your statistical information about the
site, like the number of links. It then continues to give remarks on
different categories:

*	

	General recommendations, for example HTML validation errors.
*	

	Windows
*	

	Page organization, for example the use of <b> instead of <strong>
*	

	Frames, for example missing frame titles.
*	

	Text presentation
*	

	Tables
*	

	Hyperlinks
*	

	Buttons, menus, roll-overs
*	

	Forms, for example missing labels
*	

	Search engines and other functions
*	

	Images, for example missing alt-text 
*	

	Scripts, applets and multimedia objects
*	

	The site

At the bottom it shows the HTML of the page where the problem areas have
been highlighted. 
 
My own impression of this service isn't very good. The result page only
lists problems without explanation or references to standards. Also, you
cannot select what to test for, like the level of accessibility you're
aiming for. Last, by only listing the problems, it gives the impression that
fixing those problems is all you need to make the website accessible. It
does not mention necessary manual testing at all. 
 
Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl



  _____  

From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of John M Slatin
Sent: vrijdag 19 november 2004 16:48
To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: France Telecom's expert system for accessibility evaluation


Came across this on the France Telecom site. My French isn't quite up to the
demands of the site, but I'd be very interested in learning more about this
tool and what it does.
 
http://www.ocawa.com/probleme.htm
 
John
 

"Good design is accessible design." 
John Slatin, Ph.D.
Director, Accessibility Institute
University of Texas at Austin
FAC 248C
1 University Station G9600
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, f 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
web  <http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/>
http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/