WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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WebAIM-Forum Digest, Vol 16, Issue 6

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From: Sharon Trerise
Date: Jul 13, 2006 8:10AM

The only web-based tool that we have found that even addresses
accessibility in their marketing is EZSurvey
(http://www.raosoft.com/). However, Terry Thompson of
<http://www.washington.edu/accessit/index.php>;AccessIT took a closer look
at EZSurvey for us and had these comments:

After a quick look at some of their demo surveys
(http://www.raosoft.com/products/ezsurvey/ezsamples.html)
this is more accessible than anything I've seen previously, but still not
fully accessible. They do use the <label> element throughout, but they never
use the <fieldset> element. For example, take a question like this:

iv. Which course have you just completed?
(Check all that apply)
__ EZSurvey for the Internet
__ Analysis Using EZReport
__ SURVEYWin
__ Survey Process

The text associated with each checkbox is correctly identified with a
<label> tag. But if a screen reader user is navigating through a survey and
arrives at this question, the first thing they hear is "EZ Survey for the
Internet, checkbox not checked". This makes no sense unless the screen
reader also reads the question "Which course have you just completed? (Check
all that apply)" If the entire question is contained within a <fieldset>
tag, and the question is marked up as a <legend>, this would be much more
accessible than it is currently.

That said, I haven't seen any other tools that even used the label tag so
this is definitely a step forward. Others I've known who researched
available survey tools, and who cared about accessibility, ended up creating
their own survey utilities in-house.

Sharon

>From: "Marc Sasinski" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
>Hello:
>
>I was hoping to get some guidance on dealing with accessibility issues with
>respect to online surveys.
>
>Through my research thus far, it appears that none of the major web-based
>survey vendors are compliant (lots of javascripting usage, etc.) Those that
>are compliant tend to offer software 'packages' that require a fairly
>complicated install and technical hosting configurations.
>
>If anyone has any best-practice suggestions or product recommendations for
>conducting online surveys with visually-impaired users, please let me know.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Marc
>
>
>Marc Sasinski
>User Experience Specialist
>Centralis
>2822 Central Street
>Suite 100
>Evanston, IL 60201
>www.centralis.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Sharon Trerise
Coordinator of Accessible IT
Northeast ADA & IT Center
Employment and Disability Institute
201 ILR Extension Bldg.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

www.northeastada.org
800-949-4232 in NY, NJ, PR & VI