Re: Research on Accessibility

Andrea Elliott wrote (originally on the WAI-IG list):

My name is Andrea and I am doing a Masters Degree in Disability Studies at
Leeds University (UK). I am doing my thesis on Disabled People and the use
of the internet. I would like to produce a questionnaire and place it on
the net and ask disabled people to complete it. The questionnaire will ask
them to look at several major websites in the UK (probably utility related)
and ask them to report back on the accessibility of these websites.

To which Al Gilman made the following replies: (And I hope I am not quoting
out of context in my desire to be brief.)

How much have you talked to blind Web users?

I fear that asking volunteer evaluators to undergo the hardship of
wrestling with a web form will radically restrict your ability to tap their
knowledge.  Please reconsider.  Seriously search for a sponsor for the
phone time to talk to your respondents instead. Or at least prominently
offer a plain-text email option for the web form.

He also suggested the following:

You may have done the following already; here is my checklist for things
you should have done before you set the scope of your investigation and
decide the clinical details of how you will collect data.

	- spend some time in the lab with people using adaptive technology to
browse 	the web

	- interview a few expert computer and web access evaluators

The following is MY response.

First, I am not a "Disabled Person," I am a person with a disability. If
you use my name, that should be capitalized, not my "Physical Condition." A
minor detail, perhaps, especially since I'm sure no offense was intended
(you didn't capitalize it in subsequent sentences, after all), but one
warranting comment nevertheless. 

While the objectives of this body and others on the Internet are noble, the
reality is that disabled people who are ALREADY here are often swept aside
in pursuit of some ideal disabled audience. In that world, opinions are
sought and feedback valued from those in ideal settings like school and/or
research and development labs where they have access to the latest adaptive
technology, all of it properly configured for maximum effectiveness. Such
research does not take into account the "regular people" on the Internet,
the ones who do not exist on even a periodic basis in anything other than
an ordinary life under a few extraordinary circumstances. Like physically
abled people who have bought into the "plug and play" marketing scheme of
hardware and software vendors, we seldom RTFM unless a) we're hopelessly
geekish and get excited by technobabble; or b) don't have a hammer with
which to beat our computers into doing what we intend, not what we command.
<grin>

BUT WE'RE HERE. We are on the Internet, on the Web, functioning to some
degree of capability that gives us a sense of purpose, a sense of
belonging, a sense of being just like everyone else in a world which
continues in its well-meaning but often misguided way to remind us that we
are "not quite" the same.

By all means, conduct surveys among disabled people in labs using the
latest and greatest in adaptive technology. Just understand that this may
be the ONLY time these people have access to that expensive  equipment.
Conducting phone surveys, however, seems counter-productive to the purpose
of your research as you phrased it, since that's obviously taking people
OFF the web to tell you about something that occurs ON the web. If forms
don't work, then find out WHY they don't work. Ask specific questions like,
"This form has 17 text area input fields in which we wanted you to type in
information, along with 28 radio buttons requiring selection or 16
checkboxes needing the same. Were you able to use this form as we formatted
it? Did you understand what was required of you? What method would have
been more convenient?" Also be sure the "confirmation" page to which users
are usually sent once they've hit the "submit" button makes sense. (I'm
currently in the process of taking down a form I use on my business site
for the simple reason the confirmation page is confusing and may make
people think they've done something improperly. It's difficult enough for
me to understand, and I KNOW what it means.) Like Al Gilman, I advise
prominent feature of a text-only alternative, but I, like any other web
designer who uses forms, would like to see the form succeed because, well,
it's what everyone else uses. Not Everyone Else, you understand, just
everyone else. If forms ARE a "hardship," then that should certainly be
addressed (and is -- here -- repeatedly), but it also factors into a
disabled person's "use of the internet," no?

I have a problem with Al Gilman's suggestion that you "interview a few
expert computer and web access evaluators," as I don't believe this is an
accurate representation of today's, or even tomorrow's, Internet user,
physically disabled or not. Not being a researcher, though, it's possible
I've missed his reason for recommending this. My own suggestion is that you
subscribe to email lists or online groups/publications specifically geared
to disabled people who are already using the Internet on a daily basis in
any number of different ways. Being a subscriber myself, I can tell you
that these lists are where we "non-experts" under less than optimum
conditions learn how to make use of the Internet in the best way we can
with what we have. BLIST is a comprehensive index of blindness-related
email lists with instructions for subscribing to over 90 email lists and/or
usenet groups. It also contains an extensive listing of accessibility and
pan-disability lists, as well as email lists which are not
blindness-related, but which are frequented by blind members. In addition,
there is a selective list of email-list-related resources. Its URL is:

http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/blist.html

I hope people with disabilities other than blindness will be able to offer
you some resources as well.

Finally, please allow me to address the psychological perspective of asking
disabled people to participate in your research. I am speaking  from my own
experience, and others may have vastly different experiences. If I use
"we," it's still my opinion. I just, um, feel less like I'm out here by
myself flapping in the wind. <sheepish grin>

It has been my observation that disabled people hold a kind of morbid
fascination to those who are not disabled. For the most part, I believe
it's normal human curiosity, the need to know how things work, especially
if they don't appear to work the way we've understood they were supposed
to. It gets very old, however, always feeling like the star performer in a
dog-and-pony show, listening to people ooh and ahh when we manage to
perform an ordinary task without running into a wall. It becomes
discouraging at times to even participate on these WAI lists in the hope of
feeling like we are taking a hand in controlling our own destinies when we
are so often subjected to people addressing the inconvenience of designing
for accessibility, be it from vendors with shipping deadlines or other
designers like myself who somehow seem to think they're the only ones
having to retrofit their web sites every time a new "recommendation"
becomes finalized, especially when it means wading through yet more
gobbledygook jargon that challenges anyone who does not have a degree in
Computer Science or the equivalent.

If you encounter frustrated-sounding feedback -- and I suspect you will --
please don't discount that as being outside the parameters of research.
Disabled people on the Internet are being required to do the same as they
are in any other venue, which is to adjust and conform as best we can to a
physically abled world. Certain accommodations are made for us, like
curb-cuts, wheelchair ramps, doorbells attached to flashing lights,
text-only, no-frames versions or d-links, but we are continually bombarded
with the resentment that "extra work" has created for people who have no
need of those accommodations themselves. 

I don't know you personally, so have no idea whether or not you're
physically disabled. I also don't know why you've chosen your particular
field of study. I am using the opportunity of your email, however, to
proffer the following reminder to anyone to whom it may apply, disabled or
not.

What may be an exercise in academia for you, or, for others, the
fulfillment of your job description, is to us -- the disabled people here
on the Internet and those still to come -- a way of life. We'd rather not
have to think about curb-cuts or retrofitting either. Like you, we just
want to be here as easily as possible so we can interact and relate with
People AS People. Capitals intended.

Respectfully submitted,

Ree' Dolloff
mailto:averil@concentric.net

Received on Friday, 17 April 1998 06:30:37 UTC