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RE: Accessible portals

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From: Stewart, Ron
Date: Jun 10, 2005 1:42PM

Norman,

I always appreciate any and all constructive criticism, and are always
seeing to improve on our work. We always also solicit a response from
the vendor involved as well, but that almost never resulted in any
meaningful dialog, in fact in regard to SCT the opposite results has
occurred. The report is actually typical of our very pragmatic work
here at OSU in regards to can the application and/or interface actually
be used by a person with a disability for its intended purpose, using
commonly available assistive technologies. It is based on a standard
evaluation template we use for all of our work here at Oregon State.

The report is based on the evaluation protocols I developed here at OSU
which are a hybrid of WAI and Section 508 primarily focused on
usability. They actually predate the Section 508 standards, and were
initially developed at the same time the WAI standards were under
development. As most know, usability and compliance have little to do
with each other in the real world use of technologies by persons
primarily with print related access issues, and to be truly honest
everyone who tries to use most of these very user-unfriendly systems.

Here is the link to the documents we use for our process:
http://tap.oregonstate.edu/standards.htm, as a part of the policy draft
by clicking on the applicable standards link you will find a comparison
of our standards with both the WAI and with Section 508. This policy
development effort is an ongoing project, and it is our hope that we
will continue to refine and improve our process.

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Robinson,
Norman B - Washington, DC
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 12:17 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Accessible portals

Ron,

Thanks for sharing!

I see a big disconnect between the evaluation, 508 compliance,
WAI testing, and usability in this report. There are a few
characterizations I'd like to mention, such as the reference to frames
and default screen reader use. Section 508 compliance only requires the
frames be titled appropriately. Other issues, such as the JavaScript
reference are inconsistent - even if the screen reader can access the
information with JavaScript, it may not be 508 compliant. This is
addressed by section 508, 1194.22(l) "When pages utilized scripting...".
Please don't take these as negative, just observations.

I guess it is just a pet peeve of mine; 508 compliance is not
equal to WAI, usability, or end-user access via assistive technology!
I'm curious as to if you have your own guidelines you are using to test
against? Is the application available on the Internet now for public
review?

Regards,

Norman Robinson

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Stewart, Ron
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 2:38 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Accessible portals


We just completed an evaluation of the Luminis Portal system, since
Oregon State is considering its adoption.

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Janet Perkins
Corbett
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 11:33 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Accessible portals

As with all claims, it's good to actually check out the level of
accessibility. SCT/Luminis portal developers also make the same claim
re: W3C's WAI guidelines, but they just BARELY meet Level 1 guidelines.


A bit off-topic: And if an institution asks SCT for better
accessibility, they call it an "enhancement" and refer to their
accounting dept. (yes, I'm still fuming)

>PHPWebSite - [http://phpwebsite.sourceforge.net]
>From their page... Developed by the Web Technology Group at
>Appalachian State University, phpWebSite provides a complete web site
>content management system ( CMS ). All client output is XHTML 1.0 and
>meets the W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative requirements.

>This is the only CMS I have ever come across that even makes such a
claim.

>Michael Roush, Technology Consultant

Janet Perkins Corbett
Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities
http://wind.uwyo.edu/
(307)766-2506
<EMAIL REMOVED>

Don't SAY things. What you ARE stands over you the while, and thunders
so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson



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