WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Problem with Terms of Use Acceptance Form: Accessibility Issue or Operator Error?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jul 17, 2014 7:19AM

This is an interesting issue.
I assume this is on a website, correct?
Have you, or can you, try to do the same thing using NVDA?
Did you try to get to the accept controls using the tabkey?
If using the mouse to scroll to the end of a scrollbar is the only
way, that is a clear violation of WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 (device
independence).
I am not sure what fancy web technologies could be used.
But at minimum the terms and conditions could be put on a different
page which you would have to activate, and the controls you need would
only appear after you at least navigate to that page.
I mean, that is the best they can do to ensure you read the TOS, after
all anybody with a mouse can scroll past the scrollbar and click 'I
Accept' without reading the text.
They can also simply ask two random questions from the TOS that you
would have to answer correctly in order to be able to continue with
the activation.
Basically, I do not think they need to babysit you like this, if you
go tu check "I have read and accepted the terms of this license"
checkbox, not having done so becomes your responsibility, not that of
the UI designers.
From that perspective, all they would have to do is to trust you and
not try to verify that you have read this lovely piece of literature.
Good luck, check this with NVDA and let us know if your experience is
any different.
-B


On 7/17/14, Nusbaum, Christopher < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Good Morning Listers,
>
> As many of you are probably aware, I currently work as an intern in my local
> school system's IT department, specializing in supporting and maintaining
> our assistive technology as well as evaluating our in-house software for
> accessibility and providing feedback to the developers. I encountered a
> problem yesterday which I am not sure whether I should bring to the
> developers because I don't know whether to deem it an accessibility problem
> or an operator error.
>
> There is a portion of our in-house Web portal which requires that each
> employee accept an "Acceptable Use Policy," or a Terms of Use agreement,
> before we are granted full access to the Internet. I first tried to bypass
> the agreement by pressing JAWS key + F5 and going directly to the accept
> button. However, something in the software recognizes when one has not read
> through the entire agreement and presents an error dialogue which asks the
> user to read through the entire document. When I did this, however, the
> system still gave me the same error. It seems that it relies on the position
> of the PC cursor to determine whether the full document has been read. When
> I down-arrowed through the agreement, the JAWS cursor moved, but the PC
> cursor did not move with it. I had to have one of the sighted techs move the
> PC cursor to the end of the scroll bar with the mouse in order for the
> acceptance to go through. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a way to
> move the PC cursor along w
> ith the JAWS cursor? If not, I would consider this an accessibility
> concern. What, then, would your suggestion be to our developers to fix it?
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Chris
>
> Christopher A. (Chris) Nusbaum, Intern
> Technology Services Department
> Assistive Technology Program
> Carroll County Public Schools
> 125 North Court Street
> Westminster, MD 21157
> Phone: (410) 751-3428
> Cell: (443) 547-2409
> Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.