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Re: Accessibility v/s Usability

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From: E.J. Zufelt
Date: Mar 11, 2011 2:21AM


Good morning,

Over the last year and a half I've been fortunate enough to work in a development community that cares greatly about accessibility and usability. We teach each other the why, what and how, but it isn't always pretty; and, in short, we get in fights.

As one of the two Drupal CMS accessibility maintainers I see it to be part of my role to advocate on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of site builders and administrators, and the millions of content consumers, to ensure that the user experience is accessible to persons with any number of disabilities. There are others in the community who advocate on behalf of users more generally. Sometimes we have conflicts, where there is actually a feature that would make the software easier to use in general, but more difficult to use for certain groups of users with disabilities. We struggle with this situation. Even though, as individuals, we are fierce advocates for the topic area that we have chosen to take ownership over, we care about the software as a whole, and about the experience of all of our users.

It's not easy, sometimes we find a perfect solution that meets everyones needs, sometimes we come to compromises, sometimes I feel like I've "won" on an issue, and other times I feel like I've "lost". What we are really doing with each issue is moving the ball forward, educating one another, and giving of our time and skill to create a tool that we can be proud of, and that does as good of a job as it can to meet the meeds of countless users with countless combinations of ability, technology, and support.

Sometimes the solution or compromise can be found through technology and research, most often it is found by listening carefully to one another and explaining user requirements clearly. Being able to compartmentalize and appreciate the victories while not being overwhelmed by the defeats is an incredibly important skill to master.

The Drupal community is fortunate, and so are Drupal users, that within our community we have so many contributors committed to both user experience and accessibility.

HTH,Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ezufelt

View my LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt



On 2011-03-11, at 3:57 AM, Pooja Nahata wrote:

> *Scenario: *
>
> 1. IXD designs wireframe with filter options on a search results page –
> as the user selects the required option and the page refreshes.
>
> 2. Ax Consultant reviews the wireframe and asks for a button after user
> selects the filter options to comply with 3.2.2 of WCAG 2.0 AA.
>
> 3. IXD counters – that would be an additional click for the BAU user
> .ie Business as Usual users and will hamper the user experience.
>
> 4. Ax Consultant – what about assistive technology user’s experience?
> They don’t even get to review all the filter options as the page refreshes
> with input and that’s poor users experience for them!
>
>
>
> This is just one of many scenarios that I have mentioned. Have you come
> across such situation? Whats your take on this?
>
>
> --
> Regards
> Pooja Nahata
> Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Hand Phone: +919820725102
> LinkedIn: http://in.linkedin.com/in/poojanahata
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/Pooja_Nahata
>