Web accessibility - presentation and demonstration
with David Sloan, Ruth Marshall Andy Clarke, David Dalgety, Joy Croft and Jamie Marshall
26thOct '04
About the event
The Web Accessibility event was packed to capacity, showing what a high level of interest there is for practical advice on making website accessible for people with disabilities.
The event kicked off with a presentation by David Sloan from DMAG and Ruth Marshall from Standard Life. Their talk introduced web accessibility and then looked at the benefits of having an accessible website and the importance of usability to users with disabilities. You can download a copy of their presentation below.
Next Andy Clarke form AbilityNet got the audience thinking by questioning why their computers were set up they way they were. The majority of the audience used the standard mouse (designed for a woman between 5'4" and 5'6") and a regular sized keyboard. Working at AbilityNet means that Andy is informed about the kinds of options he has when customising his computer set up, so it suits his size and working needs. AbilityNet aims to educate people about what the options are, beyond the standard computer set up, to best serve them. These alternatives need not cost a fortune and AbilityNet are well placed to advise computer users on what is suitable for their needs and budget. They also provide training to help users get the best out of the options they choose. Find out more about AbilityNet.
Following that there were talks and demonstrations from users of assistive technologies. David Dalgety talked about using Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software. David found that he had problems with websites that have some kinds of JavaScript menus, as they sometimes didn't work with Dragon Naturally Speaking. Another problematic feature was pop ups. Dragon Naturally Speaking doesn't start working until a web page has loaded entirely. Thus when a pop up appears David has to wait until it has loaded before he can shut it down, slowing down his browsing time.
David then demonstrated browsing some websites with Dragon Naturally Speaking.
After David, Joy Croft talked to us about her experience of being a relative newcomer to the internet and using ZoomText, a screen magnification software. Seeing only about 1/16 of the screen at a time when using ZoomText, Joy has to employ the use of her "mental map" to help her remember how an interface works. Websites are difficult for her to navigate if they are very busy or if the elements of the interface, like the navigation and content, are not consistently positioned. In these situations it is difficult for her to learn the layout of the pages. Another key problem that Joy comes up against is, again, pop ups. For a partially sighted user, having a new window open unexpectedly is very confusing as it is not clear what has happened. Unfortunately due to technical problems Joy was not able to demonstrate using ZoomText for us.
Finally, Jamie Marshall told us about using Home Page Reader, a speaking browser, and JAWS, a screen reader. Some website problems mean that Jamie has difficulty using sites with Home Page Reader. For example, due to Yahoo mail's recent redesign, Jamie now can't access any email attachments because the icon used doesn't have any alternative text and so is ignored by Home Page Reader.
Another site that Jamie has had problems with was BeliefNet. On this site some pages periodically refresh. Every time this happened the screen reader focused moved back to the top of the page and began reading from the start again. Therefore, it is difficult for him to get through a single page. Finally, pop ups (that old chestnut) made another appearance. Jamie talked about how confusing it was to get pop ups when you couldn't see what was happening and you weren't sure where you were. Finally Jamie gave a demonstration of JAWS reading through the BBC website.
The feedback from this event was very positive and we would like to thank all those involved.
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