Re: webwatch-l More on AT&T: http://www.att.com/catalog

Hi, Kelly
Thanks for your posting.  Some of us are collecting scenarios of problems
to analyze.

The HTML 4.0 has a new tag called LABEL which associates label information
with a field.  An idea I'm proposing to the browser group in the WAI
is that the browser provides an information command or menu item
for each form field.  The blind user could then use the command to
ask the browser display information about the field including label.
Would that approach make it easier for you to use the form?

Scott


> Kelly
> Hi All,
> 
> Yesterday I mentioned difficulties with the online ordering process with
> AT&T's consumer catalog web site.  I have a little more information about
> this that I thought I'd share.
> 
> The largest difficulty I encountered was in attempting to fill out a rather
> lengthy form that the site requires once you've ordered a telephone
> service.  It would appear that the text prompts for what to enter into each
> edit box actually appear below the boxes where you are to enter the
> information.  The end result, when using a program like Internet Explorer
> and tabbing through the page, is that in just about every case, the text
> for what to enter isn't even appearing on the screen when you tab into the
> appropriate edit box.  One solution I've found is to hit the Page Down key
> once in an actual edit box.  This seems to scroll the screen enough that
> you can manually read below where you are typing and get some idea of what
> to enter.  Another solution, or at least tool to try, is selecting all the
> text with CTRL-A, and putting it into another application.  You can't
> actually fill out the form this way but it tends to descramble the
> complicated page layout into something much more linear in fashion giving
> you a bit of a clue as to the order of prompts you will encounter.
> 
> Of course a more screen reader friendly web design and better access tools
> are the real solution but they seem fairly far off when you get right down
> to it in my opinion.  This isn't to be critical of all the web
> accessibility efforts but rather to say that the problem is really immense
> as far as I can tell.
> 
> If anyone has some good contacts with AT&T's web efforts I'd certainly like
> to know about them.  Thus far the best I can do is find a feedback form on
> the web site.  If you go to
> 
> http://www.att.com/cgi-bin/ATT_WEB/feedback?id=wts_catalog_cons
> 
> you will be in a form that you can complete.  Unlike the ordering forms,
> the text prompts for what to enter on this page appear to be above the
> actual edit boxes.  The order of these prompts is:
> 
> Your Name:
> Your Email:
> Your Phone Number:
> Subject:
> Message Text:
> Submit
> 
> If you want more info about how to enter ordering information feel free to
> drop me a note.  I now have an idea of what to enter and exactly how it has
> to be input.
> 
> Again if anyone has contacts in AT&T it would sure be nice to speak with them.
> 
> Kelly

Received on Friday, 13 March 1998 13:13:33 UTC