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Re: Survey Monkey

for

From: Lisa Pappas
Date: Mar 4, 2008 1:30PM

Survey Monkey did make great strides to improve their accessibility. While seeking an accessible Web-based survey tool, Karen Mardahl and I wrote this article for the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) newsletter -- http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/volumes/2007/april/access.html

Sometime after that, we were contacted by Survey Monkey folks, asking us to take another look. We had some of our STC AccessAbility SIG members, themselves users of assistive technology, evaluate a test site, two rounds. To their credit, Survey Monkey applied many of our comments suggestions. They are to be commended for responding to customer need.

Just my .02,

Lisa

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Lisa Pappas
accessibility analyst ▪ <EMAIL REMOVED> ▪ 919.531.0980
Software Quality Process & Research ▪ Release Mgt Division
Cary ▪ NC ▪ US
www.sas.com/

SAS® … THE POWER TO KNOW®


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jared Smith [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 11:14 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Survey Monkey
>
> On 2/29/08, Robert Erichsen < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> >
> > Survey Monkey has a notice on their website stating that they are
> now
> > compliant with Section 508 standards. Has anyone tested this?
>
> A few thoughts:
>
> - When a company has a statement about the accessibility of a product,
> you have to be a bit skeptical. I'd venture a guess that the majority
> of products that claim 508 compliance are not.
>
> - Section 508 compliance does not mean accessible. In regards to
> surveys, there really is only one or two checkpoints in Section 508
> that would apply.
>
> With that said, I did some testing a while back and found Survey Gizmo
> to be the most accessible.
>
> Of note is the fact that Survey Monkey's survey and admin interface
> are 100% inaccessible to keyboard users - a violation of no less that
> 3 Section 508 checkpoints. Their accessibility implementation is for
> screen reader users only and this is accomplished by providing a
> 'hidden' link that will allow screen reader users to access an
> accessible alternative to their normal, inaccessible surveys -
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/HelpCenter/Answer.aspx?HelpID=247
> While this is subject to interpretation, the fact they are providing a
> text-only alternative to something that could be made accessible is a
> direct violation of yet another 508 checkpoint - letter K.
>
> I don't want to bash on Survey Monkey alone - I've yet to find any
> mainstream survey tool that is very accessible. But at a minimum,
> unless I'm missing something, Survey Monkey's claim to 508 compliance
> and the methods the NFB gave them for becoming 'compliant' are flat
> out wrong.
>
> Jared Smith
> WebAIM

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