WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Call for participants: research study about Web accessibility standards

for

From: Alison Benjamin
Date: Dec 8, 2009 11:09AM

Hello,

My name is Alison Benjamin, and I am a Master’s of Information candidate at
the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. I have received
permission to post to this mailing list from its administrator, Jared Smith.


I am seeking participants for a study I am conducting as a part of my thesis
work. My study is entitled: The force of standards and guidelines in Web
accessibility work.

As a Web developer or designer, you may be familiar with the W3C’s Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI). If you have ever used WAI standards and
guidelines (e.g. WCAG, ATAG, UAAG, WAI-ARIA, HTML, CSS), you may be
interested in participating in my study, which explores if and how Web
developers and designers incorporate aspects of the WAI in their day-to-day
work.

Participating in this study involves taking part in one approximately 1 hour
long semi-structured interview with myself, either in-person at the
University of Toronto, over the phone, or at a location of your choosing.

To qualify, you must have some experience designing or developing Web sites
and/or “Web 2.0” applications (e.g. have been involved in at least one
project of this nature). Over the course of the interview, you will be
asked to share your views on how and when (if at all) you incorporate
accessibility guidelines, standards, and policies in your design and
development work. You may also be asked to share accessibility documentation
you use in your work, such as WAI Webpages, best practice or accessibility
statement documents, or personal protocols you follow.

Approximately 10-15 participants will be interviewed in total. The results
of my study will provide perspectives on how guidelines and standards are
used in a variety of approaches to Web accessibility. Interviews are
currently scheduled to take place between the months of December 2009 and
February 2010 and will be scheduled at a time and location of your
convenience. Interviews can occur over the phone if needed.

All information gathered in this study will remain completely confidential.
Any confidential or identifying information about participants will be
anonymized and only myself and my supervisor will have access to the
original data collected. This study has been reviewed and received ethics
clearance from the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Toronto.

If you are interested in participating in this study, or would like to
discuss my study or this letter, please contact me at:
<EMAIL REMOVED> . Alternatively, you may contact my supervisor
for this study, Dr. Stephen Hockema, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of
Information: <EMAIL REMOVED> ; phone: 416-978-7110.

Thank you!
Alison Benjamin
Masters of Information candidate
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto