Comments on evaluating sites for accessibility

In general it is not clear what is a good thing to do for evaluating a page,
such as testing in multiple browsers, and what is actually needed for testing
against WCAG. The latter requires testing against the checklist, but there
are things that can be tested by using a couple of different browsers, or
some other technique.

specific comments

3.1.1 and 3.1.2 seem to have an odd interaction. Do I identify a selection,
and expanded selection, or all, and where do I disclose them to?

  Suggestion for combining 3.1.1 and 3.1.2:

  3.1: Identify the region of the site to be evaluated, and the targeted
    conformance level:

        1. Either evaluate a selection of pages which includes ... or
  evaluate every page within the site region. In each case, this information
  should be part of the evaluation information (and is required for a valid
  WCAG conformance claim).


  Issue: Does checking a representative page ensure that all examples of that
  page were properly developed, and there isn't one which has a missing alt
  attribute or something?

3.2 and 3.3 - it would be bettter to test the page in a text-only or voice or
other linear browser first, especially if the tester is not already familiar
with the site. This will more quickly pick up any problems. in navigation
structure.

3.2.2 The "examples given above" are a long way from being a comprehensive
list (and two of the tools are English-only, despite the fact that
equivalents exist in other languages). Reference should be made to the list
of accessibility evaluation tools that W3C maintains.

3.3.3 Note that JAWS is not the only speech output system for the Web that is
avilable in Danish, but it is the one that is provided by the Danish
government. There is also the Sensus browser (although I know nothing much
about it) http://www.sensus.dk/sib10uk.htm as found at the Alternative Web
Browsing page http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing.html#1

cheers

chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Monday, 22 October 2001 07:52:39 UTC