Accessibility or Usability? Was: Usability testing

Are we talking about testing web page accessibility or
usability here?  I dont think that they are necessarily the
same thing.  For example, you can have an accessible page,
that meets all the guidelines for page accessibility, but
with a poor information structure that makes it unusable.

Likewise, some usability engineers would have you believe
that you can have a usable site, without it meeting
accessibility requirements.... (!)

If your looking for a usability resource, a starting point
may be: http://www.useit.com/

--
Paul Booth - Project Officer - DISinHE Centre
Tel: +44 (0)1382 345050.   Fax: +44 (0)1382 345509.
http://www.disinhe.ac.uk



-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie Fox <jfox@fenix2.dol-esa.gov>
To: Joe Night <joe.night@gateway2000.com>
Cc: 'Web Accessibility Initiative' <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Date: 23 November 1998 23:17
Subject: RE: Usability testing

I'd use Netscape 3.x and 4.x, a version of MS Internet
Explorer (as you
can't have two versions on the same machine to my
knowledge), a text browser
such as lynx., PwWebSpeak for the voice browser and maybe
Opera if you have
extra time and money.  Also to be considered is the use of a
general screen
reader such as Jaws For Windows.  Use of tools such as bobby
and HTML
validators is also essential.  It might be sensible to have
disabled users
actually do the testing.

See also:
http://www.eeicom.com/dcwebmasters/pwd/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Grid/5447/access.html
(not yet
refined)

-Jamie Fox


-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org
[mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Joe Night
Sent: Monday, November 23, 1998 6:06 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Usability testing

I need to help assemble and populate a small computer lab to
examine web
usability issues. This is a very large ballpark and I need
to narrow the
options we're going to explore.

I'm seeking your opinion about what tools we should test
with. We have to
start someplace and picking a specific set of tools seems to
be a
reasonable place. I gather that there's no such thing as a
perfect list but
I need to put one together anyway.

I'd like to hear about your opinions and preferences about
tools if you
care to share them. I suspect a public forum is not the best
place to share
these sentiments. Please respond privately so I don't get
shot for starting
another browser war.

Regards,
Joe Night

Received on Tuesday, 24 November 1998 09:06:40 UTC