accessibility and the importance of user testing

Sydney web accessibility forum 2007WANAU - Web Accessibility Network for Australian Universities

An impostor?

A web designer, not accessibility expert.

A sad beginning

Invalid code, poor semantics, no idea.

Moving to standards

A long slow process (still going).

An introduction

Roger Hudson introduced me to a process that we still follow today - watch, listen, take

note.

A rude awakening

My first accessibility user testing experience.

Lesson 1 - “more” links

More.. More.. More..

Solution 1:

Link from heading, descriptive links, hide sections if necessary.

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/more-links/

Lesson 2: content blending

Semantic markup is not necessarily enough.

Solution 2:

Structural headings - headings that describe sections of the page.

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/2006/01/17/about-structural-labels/

Lesson 3: form confusion

When forms do not use correct form elements, confusion can follow.

Solution 3:

Use correct form elements.

<label for=“add”>Label here</label><input name=”add" id=“add” type="text" />

Another rude awakening

Watching a screen magnifier user in action.

Lesson 4: Dropdown hell

Dropdowns and fly-out menus can be totally inaccessible for some users.

Solution 4:

Avoid dropdown and fly-out menus altogether. They negatively affect many

groups

Lesson 5: images for content

When enlarged, images can become unreadable.

Solution 5:

Avoid images for important content.

Seeing is believing

Watching users in action is vital for web designers, developers and managers.

When in doubt - test

If you are unsure about a page or function – sit down with specific user groups and test!

Don’t believe the hype

There are many urban myths circulating the web. Testing is the only way to check and

document.

Some of our tests

1. Cognitive impairment2. Data tables

3. Source order, skip links and structural headings

Cognitive impairment“People with cognitive disabilities and learning disorders

are a relatively large proportion of the disabled population and often overlooked or ignored.

Their needs are very hard to meet through a website – not just a matter of design, markup and CSS. You also

need to get commitment from site owners to re-write the content in a more appropriate way.”

http://juicystudio.com/article/cognitive-impairment.php

Data Tables“The id and headers attributes are the most effective way to make complex data tables accessible. Although slightly more difficult to code than scope, the apparent poor screen reader support for scope, and its lack of support for more than two levels of heading, means that this is probably not an effective accessibility option.”

http://usability.com.au/resources/tables.cfm

Source order “Most screen reader users expect navigation to be

presented before content. There appears to be little evidence to support the view that screen reader

users would prefer content first, or find sites easier to use when this occurs.”

http://usability.com.au/resources/source-order.cfm

Skip links“Many experienced users do not need skip links. But

less experienced screen reader users are likely to find skip links useful for moving directly to specific sections of the page. In our opinion, websites should continue to

provide visible skip links at the top of pages.”

Structural labels“All of the research participants found the structural labels to be useful. The inclusion of structural labels

seems to be an effective and relatively simple solution to the significant problem some screen

reader users have in identifying the different elements on a page.”

Where to now?

Possibly a series of tests on JavaScript driven dropdowns and fly-outs?

A conclusion

While guidelines and checklists are important, it is also vital to observe real

users in action.

Thank you