RE: Alan Smith's reply to: userway web accessibility widget

My statement applies to all tools that claim to automatically find and fix accessibility issues.

With regard to tools that just report issues but do not attempt to fix them, there is a consensus across the accessibility community that such tools only find 20% to 25% of all the WCAG non-compliances. My opinion is that these are often the least important issues, so the level of assurance they provide is even less.

Steve


From: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <seanmmur@cisco.com>
Sent: 19 September 2019 07:10
To: Steve Green <steve.green@testpartners.co.uk>
Cc: WAI IG <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Alan Smith's reply to: userway web accessibility widget

Steve

Is your statement for all code inspection tools?
Sent from my iPhone

On 19 Sep 2019, at 3:38 pm, Steve Green <steve.green@testpartners.co.uk<mailto:steve.green@testpartners.co.uk>> wrote:
All such tools are pure snake oil, so don’t go anywhere near them. What they are attempting to do isn’t possible and won’t be even with advances in AI in decades to come. Not only does the tool have to understand and fix arbitrary code that could be wrong in countless ways, but it somehow needs to understand the author’s intent. It’s plainly an absurd suggestion that this might be possible.

These tools all make preposterous claims, such as “you can rest assured that installing our widget means your site always stays current with the latest accessibility requirements” in this particular case. It just isn’t true by a very, very long way. Either they know this isn’t true, but say it anyway, or they genuinely believe it’s true, which is perhaps even scarier.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: ALAN SMITH <alands289@gmail.com<mailto:alands289@gmail.com>>
Sent: 18 September 2019 22:42
To: Michellanne Li <michellanne.li@gmail.com<mailto:michellanne.li@gmail.com>>; WAI IG <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>>
Subject: Alan Smith's reply to: userway web accessibility widget

Michellanne,

I looked and listed to their own site and found these issues.

These types of tools make a great case for themselves but often do not make a page WCAG 2.0 compliant.

Violations on their own site after a 15 minute glance:
3.2.2 On Input
Their own social media links do not announce that they will open in new windows.

4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Their own hamburger menu does not announce the proper state of the button.
It announces “open navigation menu” upon Tab focus but it is actually closed. This is announcing what it will do and it opens upon Tab focus which is confusing for non-visual users because they would think to select it to open it but it is already opened upon focus.

2.4.1 Bypass Blocks
If the user back tabs with Shift+Tab the menu closes on it own but tabbing forward with display it again and the user cannot skip past the hamburger menu since it opens upon tab focus. They must tab through all the sub-menus before they can proceed through the page. The skip to main content link is in their own tool’s menu and not on the page.

1.3.1 Info and Relationships
There are two region landmarks that do not have labels. The many others do.

1.3.1 Info and Relationships
On the Contact Us page, the radio buttons do not announce their grouping label of “Do you already have a UserWay widget installed on your site?”. The Yes button announces via an aria-label "Yes, my site has an accessibility statement".
The No button announces via an aria-label "No, my site does not have, or I don't know if my site has, an accessibility statement".

1.3.1 Info and Relationships and/or 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
On the Contact Us page, the required fields are not visibly labeled or announced by the screen reader as required.

3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
On the Get widget page, the checkbox does not announce its displayed text of “I agree to the UserWay EULA<https://userway.org/eula> , Terms of Service<https://userway.org/terms> , Privacy Policy<https://userway.org/privacy> and Cookie Policy<https://userway.org/cookies>”. It announces via an aria-label "Please agree to the UserWay terms and of service and privacy policy"

I refused to consider taking the IAAP web accessibility certification for the past 3 years because their site had violations of WCAG 2.0.

I would not go with this company for the same reason.

Alan Smith

From: Michellanne Li<mailto:michellanne.li@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 3:53 PM
To: WAI IG<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: userway web accessibility widget

Hello all,

I just came across Userway's web accessibility widget<https://userway.org> and thought it was an innovative approach to a11y. Has anyone had experience using this widget to help make an experience more accessible? I'd love to hear thoughts on its effectiveness.

Thanks!

Michellanne Li
(512) 718-2207
http://www.michellanne.com