Neilsen Norman Group Accessibility Study - Was Re: 170147_1.html (fwd)

Here is the URL for the report
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibility/
Says US$190

Cheers
Graham Oliver
 --- Access Systems <accessys@smart.net> wrote: > 
> ran accross this today, says we need to do a lot
> more work
> 
> Bob
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>    Wednesday October 17, 8:13 am Eastern Time
>    
>   Press Release
>   
>    SOURCE: Nielsen Norman Group
>    
> New Report Quantifies Web Usability for People with
> Disabilities
> 
>   Nielsen Norman Group to Release Findings From
> Usability Study With People
>   With Low Vision, No Vision or Motor Impairments
>   
>    SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17,
> 2001--There is a movement to
>    make the Web open to everyone, including people
> with disabilities. But
>    making a website technically accessible does not
> necessarily make it
>    easy to use. In the first major study to observe
> Web usage by people
>    with disabilities, usability expert Jakob Nielsen
> of Nielsen Norman
>    Group (NNG) found that web usability was three to
> six times better for
>    non-disabled people than for people with low
> vision, no vision or
>    motor impairment. In a report entitled ``Beyond
> ALT Text: Making the
>    Web Easy to Use for Users with Disabilities,''
> co-authors Nielsen and
>    NNG director of research Kara Pernice Coyne
> present their findings and
>    75 design guidelines to improve web usability for
> people with
>    disabilities. The 178-page report will be
> released Oct. 21 at the User
>    Experience 2001 conference in Washington D.C. and
> available to
>    download for $125 at
> http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibility.
>    Coyne, who led the study, will present a seminar
> on the topic at User
>    Experience 2001.
>    
>    ``People with disabilities embrace the Internet
> for the opportunities
>    it provides them to do things they couldn't do
> before, like read the
>    daily newspaper,'' said Jakob Nielsen, principal
> of Nielsen Norman
>    Group, ``Still, the Web is far from fulfilling
> its potential to serve
>    users with disabilities. Inaccessible and
> unusable sites abound, even
>    sites that are theoretically accessible have low
> usability for people
>    with disabilities.''
>    
>    To measure the magnitude of usability problems
> for people with
>    disabilities, Nielsen Norman Group conducted a
> study in the United
>    States and Japan. The 104 users who participated
> in the study included
>    users with low vision, no vision, or motor
> impairment and a control
>    group of people without disabilities. Assistive
> technologies such as
>    screen readers, Braille devices and screen
> magnifiers were used.
>    
>    In part of the study, American users with and
> without disabilities
>    were asked to perform the same four tasks:
>     1)  Information retrieval: Find the average
> temperature in Dallas,
>         TX in January;
> 
>     2)  Buy an item: Janet Jackson's CD "All for
> You" from Target's
>         website;
> 
>     3.) Information retrieval: Find a bus departing
> O'Hare airport to
>         a specific address in Chicago using the
> Transit Chicago
>         website;
> 
>     4)  Compare and contrast: Find the best mutual
> fund satisfying
>         certain criteria on Schwab's website.
> 
>    Following are the results:
>      * Task completion rate: Screen reader users
> were able to complete
>        the tasks given to them 12.5% of the time;
> screen magnifier users
>        21.4% of the time; control group 78% of the
> time.
>      * Time on a task (min:sec): Screen reader users
> spent 16:34 on task;
>        screen magnifier users spent 15:26 on task;
> control group 7:14 on
>        task.
>      * Errors (average across all tasks): Screen
> reader users 2.0; screen
>        magnifier users 4.5; control group .06.
>      * Subjective rating (1-7 scale with 7
> indicating the most positive):
>        Screen reader users 2.5; screen magnifier
> users 2.9 on task;
>        control group 4.6.
>        
>    Nielsen Norman Group (http://www.nngroup.com) is
> a user-experience
>    think tank that advises companies about how
> succeed through
>    human-centered design of products and services.
> Nielsen Norman Group
>    principals Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman and Bruce
> ``Tog'' Tognazzini are
>    each world-renowned experts in usability and
> human use of technology.
>    Besides authoring books and evangelizing about
> user experience, they
>    and the other user-experience specialists in
> Nielsen Norman Group
>    offer high-level strategic consultation on
> usability of websites,
>    consumer products, software designs and anything
> else that needs to be
>    easy-to-use. Press contact: Darcy Provo, Antenna
> Group
>    darcy@antennapr.com; 415/977-1920.
>    ______________
>    
>    Contact:
>      Antenna Group (for Nielsen Norman Group)
>      Darcy Provo, 415/977-1920
> 
>    _______________________
>    
>  

=====
'Making on-line information accessible'
Mobile Phone : +64 25 919 724 - New Zealand
Work Phone : +64 9 846 6995 - New Zealand
AIM ID : grahamolivernz

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Received on Tuesday, 23 October 2001 03:06:00 UTC