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Re: Web accessibility and usability

for

From: Andrew Arch
Date: Oct 31, 2004 5:18PM

Hi Annmarie,

In Australia it has been estimated that 30% of our rural population browses
the Web with graphics off due to slow telecommunications [1]. I'm sure this
is similar in many other parts of the world too. If you give people in this
situation the option of a good experience with their graphics off, then
you'll save you own bandwidth too.

While things are slowly improving here, the National Farmers Federation tell
me that there is still a long way to go!

Cheers, Andrew

[1] http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HCC/00-13.pdf (NB a 260kb PDF file)


-----Original Message-----
From: alg230 [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Sunday, 31 October 2004 5:47 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Cc: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Web accessibility and usability



Andrew,

While reviewing www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/benefits.html that you suggested, I
came across a very helpful table that summarizes checkpoints that contribute
to different design categories including: usability, public search engine,
low bandwidth, support low literacy, and semantic web.

Checkpoint 1.1 Provide text equivalent for non-text element was listed as
contributing to usability, and other categories including public search
engine and low bandwidth.

I can understand how "alt" attributes benefit search engine results and
users with low bandwidth, but I wasn't clear on how it is important for
usability for people without disabilities. Does anyone have opinions on
this?

It is my hope to demonstrate that accessibility efforts also improve the
experience of users without disabilities. I'm planning to do some usability
tests with visually impaired users and then users without disabilities.

Would anyone anticipate the presence of "alt" as improving the experience of
users without disabilities (in terms of any of the metrics noted on
UsableNet: time, number of errors, success rate, and subjective rating)?

Thank you very much for any help that you can offer.

Regards,
Annmarie




----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Arch
Date: Sunday, October 10, 2004 6:33 am
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Web accessibility and usability

> Hi Annmarie,
>
> Don't know of any formal studies (apart from the
> Microsoft/Forrester one),
> but many people have written articles on this topic. E.g.:
> 1.
> www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-
> accessibility/web-accessib
> ility-usability.shtml
> 2. www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/benefits.html
> 3. http://www.uiaccess.com/upa2000a.html
> 4. http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw02/papers/refereed/arch/index.html
> 5. http://www.frontend.com/accessibility_paper.html#Usability
>
> Andrew
> _________________________________
> Dr Andrew Arch
> Manager Online Accessibility Consulting
> Accessible Information Solutions, NILS
> Ph 613 9864 9222; Fax 613 9864 9210; Mobile 0438 755 565
> http://www.nils.org.au/ | http://www.it-test.com.au/ |
> http://www.ozewai.org/
>
> Member, Education &amp; Outreach Working Group,
> W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/
>
> National Information &amp; Library Service, Australia
> A subsidiary of RBS.RVIB.VAF Ltd.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alg230 [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Sunday, 10 October 2004 5:35 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Web accessibility and usability
>
>
>
> Hello All,
>
> I am in the early stages of a master's thesis. The topic that I
> would like
> to explore is how (whether) web accessibility promotes usability by
> non-disabled users. In other words, I am interested in making a
> case for
> how accessibility benefits more than the disabled segment of a web
> site'scustomer base.
>
> For the purposes of a literature survey, I was wondering if anyone
> might be
> aware of previous studies that have been completed for this topic.
> In
> addition, all opinions are most welcome and very much appreciated.
> It would
> be helpful to know in advance whether a study on this topic would
> be useful
> to the web accessibility community.
>
> Thank you for your time...
>
> Sincerely,
> Annmarie Gemma
> Master's Candidate in Management &amp; Systems
> New York University
>
> ----
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>

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