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Re: Please help me.

for

From: Lauren O'Donovan
Date: Aug 25, 2009 8:30AM

Hi there,

I am unable to check the site with an assistive technology, but here are
some issues I have noticed.

I would completely get rid of that scrolling marque of text you have
white/on red, and put that information elsewhere, maybe in a list, because:
- it may be distracting to people with some learning disabilities
- it is difficult to read for people with vision impairments
- (I can't check because I'm not a screen reader user but..) some scrolling
text like that can cause problems with screenreaders, and at each update the
screenreader goes back to that section of the page
- Also, for the aesthetics of the site generally, I think marques like that
look a bit 1990's
- And finally, its difficult for me to read it now, and I don't have a
disability

There are some colour contrast issues you might want to consider throughout
the site. You might want to consider the contrast in the main menu
white/grey (before hover or active). Also, the main body of text is a light
blue on white background, which has very low colour contrast, and will be
particularly difficult to see for people with colour blindness, elderly
persons, or people with old/low quality monitors.

On the activities page, the colour of the text keeps changing form paragraph
to paragraph! You should simply stick with a single colour pair for normal
text (white on black for example), and then maybe use a coloured heading
(very dark blue or very dark red on white) if you feel you need colour - but
I wouldn't change all the colours so much. Aesthetically, its not
attractive, and physically, some of those colours are difficult to read,
even to people without disabilities (neon pink).

The size and position of the menu changes between the different pages of the
site. The size and location of the menu should be consistant in all pages to
help all users, not just those with disabilities, navigate the site. Also,
on some pages the menu doesn't appear at all! (publications - books, recent
vistors) The menu should appear, and be consistant, on every page.

Naming conventions should also be consistant, to get to
http://www.bpaindia.org/Visitors%20During%20Year.htm you need to click a
link called "recent visitors" in the menu, I suggest, for further
consistancy, this page should be called recent visitors, unless there is
some reason that I am not seeing straight off.

I saw a link to a sitemap somewhere that I can't seem to find again. This
link should be in the main menu.

When you click on the menu item "BPA Profile, Publication, Activities,
Visitors, Publicity, Other link" - no new page loads and nothing happens
except other menu items appear. (I have no idea if this pop-up menu is
accessible to a screen reader, so I can't comment) When you click on
"Feedback, Donate, BPA's location" a new page is loaded. This again should
be consistant to avoid confusing users. A new page should be loaded when the
user clicks these root items: "BPA Profile, Publication, Activities,
Visitors, Publicity, Other link".

I would also remove the page hit counter from your site unless you are
particularly attached to it and want it for some reason. You can get the
same information from perhaps your hosting, or if not then something like
google analytics. This gives you a lot more detailed and useful information
than a hit counter, and doesn't look so dated to the user.

Finally, the use of a CMS (content management system) would definitely be
very useful for a site like this, particularly if you plan to keep it
updated. Textpattern, drupal, wordpress are places to start. At first, they
can be a bit confusing, but the end benefits are definitely worth it.

Hope this helped,

Lauren O'Donovan
-Looking for work in Canada

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 2:02 PM, Nancy Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> You might start by doing some validation checks.
> Webaim.org has one of many focusing on accessibility errors and
> indicated that you have 8 on your homepage http://wave.webaim.org/
> The w3c validator indicated that you had 112 coding errors.
> http://validator.w3.org/
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Nancy
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 7:02 AM, Khom Raj Sharma< <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
> > Dear friends,
> >
> > Please visit the website below and suggest how can I help to make it
> accessible.
> > www.bpaindia.org
> >
> > It would be great help for me.
> >
> > Thanks and look forward to your cooperation.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > --
> > Khom Raj Sharma
> >
> > Pokhara Nepal
> >
> > Currently:
> >
> > Participant (January-December 2009)
> >
> > International Institute for Social Entrepeneurs (IISE), Kerala/India
> >
> > Address:
> > Vivekanenda Nagar,
> > Mukaloormoola, Vellayani,
> > Ookode, Nemom PO,
> > TRIVANDRUM, 695020
> > KERALA, INDIA
> >
> > Tel: (Office request) 0091-(0)471-2392977
> >
> > Mobile: 0091-9633555393
> >
> > E-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > MSN: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > Yahoo ID: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > Skype: khomrajsharma
> >
> > IISE Website: www.braillewithoutborders.org
> >