Re: Testing web page accessibility by phone

Hi, Liz

This is an interesting point.  If I were to characterize the task, it
would be something like testing the usability of a web page being
presented in a non-visual format.  The accessibility aspect comes into
play because of the particular reason for interacting with the web page
non-visually.

I strongly agree that both automatic testing and real subject testing
both need to be done.  Automatic testing really only works for detecting
the problems that are of such a nature that they can be described in a
way as to be detected by an automatic approach.  There are other types
of problems which cannot be described in such a way, e.g. comparing an
image to the text describing the image, user making certain assumptions
based on previous experiences.

Scott

> Validation is all fine and good but it would be quite simple to have a site
> that validates and passes all the standards tests but when a user sits in
> front of it they can't use it at all.  Perhaps what Scott is testing in his
> phone sessions is not accessibility per se but usability by people who are
> blind.  This is an extremely valuable activity that will provide way more
> insight into how people will access your site than a simple validation
> activity.  Both automated validation testing and real live user testing are
> important steps in good site design.
> 
> Liz

Received on Wednesday, 29 May 2002 21:36:17 UTC