WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Something's amiss with the latest survey

for

From: Jennison Mark Asuncion
Date: Aug 28, 2015 1:17PM

Keep in mind that this survey (which I have and will continue to
reference in the absence of anything else) is based on a convenience
sample which comes with it all sorts of caveats.

That said, my speculation on the higher W-E numbers is possibly that
it is now free, as I understand it with Windows 10. On ZT, who knows,
perhaps info about completing the survey was much more prmoted to
visually impaired folks this year?

Jennison

On 8/28/15, Karl Groves < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Apparently it is "Karl causes fights on social media day" today. On
> Facebook it was the relative sanity of certain political candidates.
> On Twitter it is the latest Screen Reader Survey.
> http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey6/
>
> First, let me be clear: I've been a member of this list and a fan of
> WebAIM, its people, and its work since 2003. Among the most valuable
> resources they provide are their surveys on Screen Reader users and
> Low Vision users. I reference this work in a number of places - one
> of which being the training content that we deliver at TPG. I believe
> in WebAIM not only as an organization but as people.
>
> Something is up with the latest screen reader survey. From the survey
> "ZoomText (1.3% to 22.2%) and Window-Eyes (6.7% to 20.7%) both saw
> very significant increases in usage since January 2014."
>
> In 1 3/4 years, ZoomText's market share rose just under 21% and
> WindowEyes rose 14%? This *does not* pass a sniff test. Market
> penetration for a *new* consumer product is often under 10%. These are
> products that have been around a long time, their market share has
> shown a downward trend in previous surveys, and there have been no
> "disruptive" new features added to either product in the last 18
> months, either. Jared posted his thoughts on the WebAIM blog:
> http://webaim.org/blog/resugence-of-zoomtext-and-window-eyes/
>
> I'm not inclined to draw any hasty conclusions as to what caused these
> results other than to say that I highly doubt there's a
> correspondingly high rate of growth for both of these products. These
> numbers would suggest that the market itself has expanded. Put
> another way, even if we consider the downward trend of JAWS in prior
> years, I don't think that would account for the growth numbers of
> these products (when prior years indicated that the erosion was going
> to NVDA and VoiceOver).
>
> This has a much more negative effect than many people realized. I
> point customers to this information. I can't, in good conscience, do
> that anymore. I can't tell customers "You should support the broadest
> number of PWDs by at least a) following standards and b) supporting
> this set of assistive technologies" Because now this list includes an
> illegitimately inflated count of two products.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Karl Groves
> www.karlgroves.com
> @karlgroves
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlgroves
> Phone: +1 410.541.6829
>
> Modern Web Toolsets and Accessibility
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uq6Db47-Ks
>
> www.tenon.io
> > > > >


--
Jennison Mark Asuncion
LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jennison
Follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/jennison
Organizer, Bay Area Accessibility and Inclusive Design www.meetup.com/a11ybay
Organizer, Accessibility Camp Bay Area www.accessibilitycampbay.org
Co-Founder, Global Accessibility Awareness Day
www.globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org