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Re: Chronicle of Higher Education article "Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online" Chronicle Article and form control labeling

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From: Michael.Moore
Date: Dec 14, 2010 1:51PM

The results for forms are not evenly distributed. There is a large cluster of schools that did very well (90% or more passing) and another cluster that did abysmally (less than 20% passing) thus the very poor sites are pulling down the average. It would appear from a quick review of the data for form fields that the folks behind the sites either understand form labels well or not at all and that the number of sites that understand the issue well exceeds the number who do not. In my view the average is rather meaningless due to the way that the data is distributed. Perhaps the median would be better representative of how the schools are doing with respect to form fields.

Another interesting set of data would be whether the sites are maintained internally by the schools or if they are outsourced. I wonder if there is any correlation between the use of form labels and the contractor.

Mike Moore