WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

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
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zack McCartney [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Friday, July 15, 2016 3:10 PM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: [WebAIM] Accessibility user testing
>
> Hi there!
>
> First off, hello all! This is my first post, excited to start learning
> more about web accessibility.
>
> Anyway, I work at a web development agency and I've been tasked with
> running a usability test on a web application we've built with a
> participant using a screenreader. Our development team just made a bunch of
> updates to the site to move it closer to ADA (Americans with Disabilities
> Act) compliance, so we're trying to find out if our first pass actually
> improved the site's accessibility and what work still needs to be done.
>
> The problem is: I've never run a usability test with a participant using a
> screenreader. I have basic experience running usability tests, so I have an
> ok handle on how to moderate a test session, but I want to learn the basics
> of testing the user-friendliness of web accessibility features.
>
> Specifically:
>
> - Do y'all have any advice on how to test the usability of a site's
> accessibility features?
>
>
> - What adaptations, if any, should I think to make to my typical
> usability test setup?
> - The participant and I will be connecting over the phone, I'm hoping
> over video call, with him sharing his screen. I have no idea if
> this'll
> work or if asking him to navigate through a video conferencing app
> (Google
> Hangouts) could complicate the test unnecessarily.
>
>
> - Should I provide the participant instructions or can I (or rather,
> typical of interacting with the web via screenreader) leave them in the
> dark, let them figure out the site on their own?
> - For a typical usability test, I'd want to the participant to know
> as little as possible about the site under test, as I want to learn
> how
> people figure out how to use a site on first encounter. But, I don't
> know
> if omitting usage instructions — part of our dev team's
> accessibility work
> — would prevent the user from even interacting with the site. I want
> them
> to at the very least to be able to access the site, even if it's
> still
> tricky to use on screenreader.
>
>
> Thanks!
> Zack McCartney
>
> PS Sorry if my question shows my ignorance of web accessibility i.e.
> anything sounds goofy or dumb. I'm totally new to the topic, trying to get
> up to speed. :)
>
>