Re: Does anyone else agree with my perspective - was Re: "we should not allow user testing in exceptions" (was Re: clarifing the debate)

Hi Lisa,

I share your concerns and have seen in practice that user studies are often
not used to find barriers that cannot be found in other ways.  As an
example, I have been told that user studies are not needed because "we're
using Twitter Bootstrap and millions of people use Twitter so it must be
accessible."  In short, there are a lot of assumptions made about
accessibility and usability by people who are not familiar with
disabilities. Just because we don't have an "easy" way of testing something
doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be tested.

Paragraph 61 of the special report of *17th session of the United Nations
Human Rights Council
<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf>*
states that "...even where Internet connection is available, disadvantaged
groups, such as persons with disabilities and persons belonging to minority
groups, often face barriers to accessing the Internet in a way that is
meaningful, relevant and useful to them in their daily lives.“  While I
understand that there are limits to what the W3C can do, I also believe
that the ultimate goal is to help people with disabilities have meaningful,
relevant and useful access to information and I think we need to take the
time to make sure we carefully word the importance of user studies, even if
it doesn't make it in as a requirement.


Jan McSorley
VP, Accessibility
Psychometrics and Testing Services

400 Center Ridge Drive, Suite E
Austin, TX  78753
M - (512) 673-9569
Twitter: @Jan_McSorley
Skype:  jan.mcsorley
www.linkedin.com/in/janmcsorley

Learn more at pearson.com

[image: Pearson]

*We put a man on the moon in the 1960's ... surely we can make information
technology fully accessible to people with disabilities.  It can be done
... it must be done ... it will be done!*

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 1:20 PM, lisa.seeman <lisa.seeman@zoho.com> wrote:

> Hi folks
> At the risk of shooting my self in the foot but ... to enable us to move on
>
> Does anyone else see this as an issue. If I am the only one with a problem
> with it, then I will conseed to consensus, rewrite the exceptions that
> depend on it,  and we can move on.
>
>
> All the best
>
> Lisa Seeman
>
> LinkedIn <http://il.linkedin.com/in/lisaseeman/>, Twitter
> <https://twitter.com/SeemanLisa>
>
>
>
>
> ---- On Wed, 15 Feb 2017 18:24:07 +0200 *Joshue O
> Connor<josh@interaccess.ie <josh@interaccess.ie>>* wrote ----
>
> Hi John,
>
> Fair point or not, I don't at this point feel the need to go thru another
> CFC that allows or does not allow user testing in situation x, or to limit
> it under exception y. I'm not fully clear on the implication of doing such
> a thing, nor am I clear on the reason why we might. You seem to be, which
> is cool :-)
>
> My main concern at the moment, is that we cannot make user testing a
> requirement in 2.1. End of story. However, I don't want to wrangle our spec
> to stop people from testing or imply that that cannot do it under situation
> A or B. People can test all they like, in any situation, if they wish to as
> far as I'm concerned.
>
> As I stated - at the moment, I feel I just don't fully grok some of the
> points being made here but even with that aside - the original CFC was
> clear IMO.
>
> Thanks
>
> Josh
>
>
>
> John Foliot <john.foliot@deque.com>
> 15 February 2017 at 15:58
> Chairs,
>
> Lisa has a fair point.
>
> Can I request that a second CfC go out that explicitly states that "we
> should not allow user testing in exceptions" - for the same reasons that
> user-testing for conformance was rejected?
>
> This way we can be sure that the consensus has been recorded properly and
> accurately, and everyone understands what they are registering their
> position on.
>
> Thanks.
>
> JF
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> John Foliot
> Principal Accessibility Strategist
> Deque Systems Inc.
> <john.foliot@deque.com>john.foliot@deque.com
>
> Advancing the mission of digital accessibility and inclusion
>
>
> --
> Joshue O Connor
> Director | InterAccess.ie
>
>
>
>