Accessibility Evaluation

Hi,
As you may already know I am currently conducting a study of the WAI Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines.  The first stage investigated how a group
of page authors used the Guidelines to adapt a Web page.  The second stage
has just begun and will involve visually impaired people evaluating the
accessibility of the pages produced in the first stage.  The pages have
been put on the Web at http://phoenix.herts.ac.uk/sdru/test/ .  They
illustrate the different approaches taken by the authors in implementing
the advice of the Guidelines.

Below is a copy of the information I have sent to a variety of mailing
lists inviting visually impaired people to take part.

Regards,

Chetz.
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Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message.

As part of a study which is evaluating the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines of the Web Accessibility Initiative, people who are blind or
visually impaired are invited to test the accessibility of some web pages.

This is the second stage of the study.  In the first stage web page authors
were asked to create an accessible web page using the Guidelines.  This has
provided some insight into the ease-of-use of the Guidelines, and I now
want to evaluate the accessibility for visually impaired people of the
pages the authors created.  The pages have therefore been put on a web
site.  The evaluation mainly involves viewing different examples and
reporting which were found to be more accessible. The address of the site
is: http://phoenix.herts.ac.uk/sdru/test/

Instructions for testing the pages:
The web site contains examples of various web elements such as: images,
imagemaps, forms, frames, tables, and different approaches to the
presentation of article headers and references.  The task involves viewing
all the examples of a particular element, such as images, then answering a
few questions about which example was the most accessible for you, and why.
You can evaluate as many elements as you like, in any order.  If you do not
have time to do all of them it would be useful if you could start with the
tables, forms and frames.

The questions are listed at the end of this message, and are also available
on the web site.  For the tables there are additional questions which
require you to interrogate the tables in order to find an answer.

You can use any one of a variety of strategies for entering the answers and
sending them in, for example: create a reply to this message, or save this
message as a text file; or save the questions from the web page as a text
file.  You may wish to switch between your browser and email package to
answer the questions, or make notes and enter the answers after viewing all
the elements.  All answers will be kept confidential.

Please send the answers to Chetz Colwell <c.g.colwell@herts.ac.uk>.  If you
receive this message via a mailing list, please do not send answers to the
list (otherwise I cannot be responsible for their confidentiality).

I am a research student at the Sensory Disabilities Research Unit of the
University of Hertfordshire, UK.  Please contact me if you require any
further information, or if you need assistance with testing the pages, or
if you are interested in the results of the study.  Contact details are
provided at the end of this message.

Thank you very much for your time and effort.

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Questions:
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate these pages.  The 14 questions
are listed below and are also available on the web site.  Please send your
answers to Chetz Colwell <c.g.colwell@herts.ac.uk>.

The answers you provide will remain confidential: your name or email
address will not be associated with your answers.  The results from this
study may be published, but all participants will remain anonymous.

Please note that the questions for tables are slightly different to those
for other elements.  You will need to interrogate each table in order to
find an answer which will be different for each table.

About you and your computer:
1) How long have you been using the Web?

2) How many times do you use the Web per month on average?

3) Which browser did you use to view the pages for this evaluation?
Which version?

4) Which screenreader did you use?
Which version?

5) Did you use a speech synthesiser?
If so which one?

6) Did you use a Braille display?
If so which one?

7) Which operating system did you use?
DOS, Windows, or Other.
Which version?

Questions for elements:
8) Imagemaps.
Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, or Example 2.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the imagemaps.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the imagemaps.

9) Tables.
Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example 4, Example 5, or None were accessible.
If you were able to access the tables, please answer the following question
for each example: What size was the 2 cm sphere perceived to be with the
outside presentation?
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Example 4:
Example 5:
Please describe any particular problems you had with the tables.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the tables.

Forms.
10) Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, or Example 2.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the forms.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the forms.

11) Frames.
Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, or Example 2.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the frames.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the frames.

12) Headers.
Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, or Example 4.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the headers.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the headers.

13) References.
Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, or Example 3.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the references.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the references.

14) Images.
Figure 1: Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example 4, Example 5, or Example 6.

Figure 2: Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, or Example 4.

Figure 3: Which example did you find more accessible?
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, or Example 4.
Please describe any particular problems you had with the images.
Please describe any features you particularly liked in the images.

Please send your answers to Chetz Colwell <c.g.colwell@herts.ac.uk>.
Thank you for participating in this study.

Regards,
Chetz

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Chetz Colwell,
Sensory Disabilities Research Unit,
Department of Psychology,
University of Hertfordshire,
Hatfield,
AL10 9AB,
UK.
Tel: +44 1707 284630,
Fax: +44 1707 285059,
e-mail: c.g.colwell@herts.ac.uk.

Received on Friday, 26 March 1999 09:10:28 UTC