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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: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Dec 14, 2010 4:45PM

Actually, Mike, UCLA and Harvard share the median score of 6.3. (One school had a score of N/A, which I take to mean that it had no online forms.)

From 100 down to the median, scores are distributed quite uniformly:
16 have scores of 90.1 to 100
12 have scores of 80.1 to 90
10 have scores of 70.1 to 80
5 have scores of 60.1 to 70
3 have scores of 50.1 to 60 (the first quartile ends with this group)
11 have scores of 40.1 to 50
11 have scores of 30.1 to 40
8 have scores of 20.1 to 30
8 have scores of 10.1 to 20
5 have scores between 6.3 (the median) and 10

Below the median, 45 schools (the third quartile) scored something -- at least 0.5.

Another 45 schools (the fourth quartile) had scores of 0.

But, as you point out, the data mean little without more information:
- Is this score based on one application form per institution, all of them, or some random subset?
- If a subset, how do we know the forms that were graded are the most important application forms for that institution's students?
- Do any institutions outsource site development? If so, how do they do?
- Do all institutions have someone in charge of compliance? If not, how do the sites of those that do compare to those that don't? And does it make a difference whether "in charge of compliance" means "has the backing of upper management"?
- As with most large enterprises, colleges and universities tend to have fairly autonomous subunits. Do the more balkanized schools suffer in this score? Or is that where having an Accessibility Czar particularly matters?
- Are any of these schools preparing to roll out significant redesigns to address usability and accessibility?

Oh, and one more important point: Not all schools are of the opinion that they are subject to Section 508. They each have their own lawyers, and each lawyer is entitled to interpret the law and its impact on that institution. Are the schools that scored low convinced that they are exempt, if not from the law, at least from any meaningful penalties under the law?

We simply can't tell.

Cliff

Cliff Tyllick
Usability assessment coordinator
Agency Communications Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
<EMAIL REMOVED>

>>> On 12/14/2010 at 2:51 PM, in message < <EMAIL REMOVED> >, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
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