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Re: Accessibility user testing

for

From: Zack McCartney
Date: Jul 18, 2016 3:40PM

Hi Dana,

First off, thanks so much for your detailed reply and all the advice. And
for the resources, too. This sort of test is totally outside my comfort
zone, so I really appreciate the starting points :)

I wanted to follow up on your point about providing assistance to the
participant: do you have any advice for how to assist and instruct
participants when the encounter barriers?

I'm unsure about doing this well in usability testing in general, even more
so with participants using a screenreader.

Thanks again for all your help and welcoming me to the forum!
Zack


On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 11:06 AM Dana Douglas < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> Zack,
>
> Welcome! Including people with disabilities in a usability test is a great
> way to evaluate a site's accessibility. Here are a few resources you may
> find helpful (there are certainly others as well) :
>
> Slides from my 2015 UXPA presentation on the topic:
> http://www.slideshare.net/UXPA/uxpa-2015-why-how-to-include-people-with-disabilities-pw-ds-in-your-usability-testsdouglas-and-davis-6252015-49918852
> A UXPA Magazine article by Mary Hunter Utt on the topic:
> http://uxpamagazine.org/guerilla_tactics/
> An article from Deque Systems on the topic:
> http://www.deque.com/blog/incorporate-users-disabilities-ux-testing/
>
> In general, the test can be virutally the same as any other usability test
> (same tasks, methodology, etc.). You will want to make sure the web
> conference tool you're using is accessible for screen reader users (and
> other assistive technologies). Skype may be the best bet - participants can
> share their screen through Skype. The test should be as realistic as
> possible. If users would not have any outside instructions or information
> in the real world, you should not provide that information during the
> usabilty test either. However, if that presents a significant barrier
> (first of all, you know you have an accessibility issue to fix!), but then
> you can provide assistance to move on and gather additional feedback on
> other aspects of the site.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Dana Douglas
>
>