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Thread: site accessibility audits
Number of posts in this thread: 10 (In chronological order)
From: Leo Smith
Date: Mon, Apr 19 2004 12:18PM
Subject: site accessibility audits
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Hi Folks,
I wrote a posting on a similar subject a few weeks ago, although the focus of what I am now trying to put together is slightly different.
I am in the process of auditing some Web sites for accessibility compliance -- some large 10,000+ page sites.
Obviously, I will be taking a randoming sampling of pages to audit, initially against section 508 and W3C priority one.
I am looking for suggestions from folks on the best way(s) to make a random sampling of pages for such audits. I would also be very
From: Matthews, Brian S.
Date: Mon, Apr 19 2004 12:27PM
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
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I have a similar interest, only what are some effective and successful ways
to rate sites when looking at all the pages?
From: Shilpa
Date: Mon, Apr 19 2004 10:40PM
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
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Hello!
We have done some audits and the process for this particular one could
be:
-Take on the home page
-Pick up different kinds of pages for audit, viz. if 5 pages are similar
you may take the most complicated (maybe 1 or 2)
-Pick up ALL pages which have plug-ins
-Depending on the timeframe you have for the audit take about 3-4 hours
for testing each page and decide on the number of days that you would
spend on auditing. Accordingly select the pages for the audit.
Define the target audience for the site and list down their strengths
and weaknesses.
Ask the client if they want to define an accessibility policy or do they
have anything in mind. If they do, define an accessibility policy, even
if they don't suggest and make some sort of a policy.
Based on that make a report format which will track all the elements
that are accessible or inaccessible.
Define a process:
-viz. first test it with bobby
-test with W3C validator
-test with A-prompt or some other tool that you prefer
-test for color contrast
-test with a screen reader or other assistive device
-get some end user audience to test the site for you
make the report, define a timeframe to retrofit it and submit it to the
client.
Hope this helps.
Rgds,
Shilpa
***************************************
Shilpa Uttam
Enabling Dimensions
http://www.enablingdimensions.com
C-731 Sushant Lok-I
Gurgaon, Haryana-122002
O: (91-124) 5046726
M: 9810188826
From: Patrizia Bertini
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 12:31AM
Subject: Re: site accessibility audits
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hi Leo,
I often do auditing and agree with Shilpa, I actually define the pages
I'll test as follows:
- Home Page
- 3-5 pages of second level
- 3-5 pages of third level
- each page that has forms
- each page that has applications
- contact page
- Map
- those pages which have some peculiarity (graphics, data tables, plug
in....)
after the page selection, I do as follows:
- verify W3C Code compliance
- verify the CSS
- test with with Cynthiasays
- test with vischeck for color blindness
- test with no CSS
- test with no image upload
- test without javascript
- verify manually all the ALT, LONGDESC, SUMMARY, CAPTION, ABBR,
ACRONYM, Header, SPAN LANG, DTD ETC ... elements
- read the code of the pages line by line and verify it's compliant and
correct and sign for each page in which line there's an error.
- Linguistic analysis - verify that the text os clear and use the
clearest dictionary (as English speaker you can easily refer to the VoA
dictionary)
After all that, you can have a clear idea of the status of the site
accessibility, also because consider that nowadays sites are generated
by CMS so errors are commonly repeated and once you have fixed them on
15/20 pages you can ask technicians to rewiew all the pages according
to the errors you've found in the example pages, or ask to review the
CMS in order to generate a more accessible and compliant output.
hope this helps:)
M2p -- Pat
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Patrizia Bertini
E-Accessibility Consultant & Researcher
Studio Bertini & Associati
Web: www.patriziabertini.it
Web: www.accessibile.net
Tel: +39.338.56.85.250
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Il giorno 19/apr/04, alle 20:08, Leo Smith ha scritto:
> Hi Folks,
>
From: Patrizia Bertini
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 1:35AM
Subject: PS:site accessibility audits
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Ops, I've forgiven a quick look to the pages also with Lynx which is
always an useful tool to make sure about the results achieved in
Accessibility;)
M2p -- Pat
Il giorno 20/apr/04, alle 09:34, Patrizia Bertini ha scritto:
> hi Leo,
>
> I often do auditing and agree with Shilpa, I actually define the pages
> I'll test as follows:
> - Home Page
> - 3-5 pages of second level
> - 3-5 pages of third level
> - each page that has forms
> - each page that has applications
> - contact page
> - Map
> - those pages which have some peculiarity (graphics, data tables, plug
> in....)
>
> after the page selection, I do as follows:
> - verify W3C Code compliance
> - verify the CSS
> - test with with Cynthiasays
> - test with vischeck for color blindness
> - test with no CSS
> - test with no image upload
> - test without javascript
> - verify manually all the ALT, LONGDESC, SUMMARY, CAPTION, ABBR,
> ACRONYM, Header, SPAN LANG, DTD ETC ... elements
> - read the code of the pages line by line and verify it's compliant
> and correct and sign for each page in which line there's an error.
> - Linguistic analysis - verify that the text os clear and use the
> clearest dictionary (as English speaker you can easily refer to the
> VoA dictionary)
>
> After all that, you can have a clear idea of the status of the site
> accessibility, also because consider that nowadays sites are generated
> by CMS so errors are commonly repeated and once you have fixed them on
> 15/20 pages you can ask technicians to rewiew all the pages according
> to the errors you've found in the example pages, or ask to review the
> CMS in order to generate a more accessible and compliant output.
>
> hope this helps:)
>
> M2p -- Pat
>
>
>
>
>
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+
> Patrizia Bertini
> E-Accessibility Consultant & Researcher
> Studio Bertini & Associati
> Web: www.patriziabertini.it
> Web: www.accessibile.net
> Tel: +39.338.56.85.250
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+
>
> Il giorno 19/apr/04, alle 20:08, Leo Smith ha scritto:
>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I wrote a posting on a similar subject a few weeks ago, although the
>> focus of what I am now trying to put together is slightly different.
>>
>> I am in the process of auditing some Web sites for accessibility
>> compliance -- some large 10,000+ page sites.
>>
>> Obviously, I will be taking a randoming sampling of pages to audit,
>> initially against section 508 and W3C priority one.
>>
>> I am looking for suggestions from folks on the best way(s) to make a
>> random sampling of pages for such audits. I would also be very
>> interested to hear of the most effective ways people have found to
>> present their findings for accessibility audits.
>>
>> Thanks much in advance for any input/suggestions!
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Leo.
>
>
>
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> http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
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From: Cheryl D. Wise
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 10:22AM
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
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Or view it with the stylesheet disabled.
Cheryl D. Wise
Certified Professional Web Developer
MS-MVP-FrontPage
www.wiserways.com
mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
713.353.0139 Office
From: ranandakrishnan
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 12:09PM
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
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Check the pages with Vischeck for Color Blind check.
Check for Videos/Audio with SMIL integrated.
With Regards
Rajesh Anandakrishnan
User Experience Management - UXM
-----------------------------------------------------------
+91 - 44 - 24983221 ext. 2744 office
"Cheryl D. Wise"
<cdwise@wiserways To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
.net> cc:
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
04/20/2004 10:51
PM
Please respond to
cdwise
Or view it with the stylesheet disabled.
Cheryl D. Wise
Certified Professional Web Developer
MS-MVP-FrontPage
www.wiserways.com
mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
713.353.0139 Office
From: Mike Hiatt
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 12:22PM
Subject: RE: site accessibility audits
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Will Vischeck work with Flash?
Thanks
Mike Hiatt
From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Tue, Apr 20 2004 1:14PM
Subject: Re: site accessibility audits
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Mike Hiatt wrote:
>Will Vischeck work with Flash?
>
>
>
Most probably not, but you can take screenshots and check those with the
vischeck plugin for photoshop[1].
One resource I really like to use to ease testing is the Web
Accessibility Toolbar [2] which makes IE almost as useful as Opera.
[1] http://www.vischeck.com/downloads/
[2] http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/
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From: Terence de Giere
Date: Wed, Apr 21 2004 6:10PM
Subject: Re: site accessibility audits
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In addition to the other good advice given on the forum:
1. Check for pages that are created with a template and test the
template or at least one of the pages. Database driven sites often have
many templated pages that are all essentially the same.
2. If the site has interactive pages where the user must complete a
task, that may require several pages in sequence, try to identify the
most critical tasks important to the site, and analyze those page
sequences. In particular, determine if the task be completed if
scripting (client-side scripting like JavaScript) is turned off, and
images are turned off. Try completing the task using only the keyboard.
3. Check for timeouts - blind users may take over three times as long as
sighted users to complete a task. If it takes you three minutes to
complete a task, some other users may take nine minutes or longer to
finish the same task. Always think in terms of the whole sequence rather
than individual pages even if the user is just looking for a certain
piece of information to read - there might be a certain page in the
sequence that causes problems, preventing the location of the final
page. This can help identify major accessibility weak points that affect
many more pages than just the page the error is on, because the user
will always be stopped at that page even if all the other pages are 100%
compliant with W3C Triple-A accessibility guidelines.
4. Check for unusually long navigation paths to pages that could be
shortened. Many sites have circuitous navigation routes where a simpler
navigation scheme would be just as easy to construct. This often happens
when a web site grows organically and the addition of new sections or
pages is basically an unplanned work-around of the original navigation
system for the site. Simple and easy navigation is one item an automated
checker cannot fathom.
5. Some accessibility checking software can catalog problems as
percentages of the total pages, giving a rough idea of how many pages on
a site might need fixing, at least for problems that can be
automatically detected. It would not be necessary to review all the
individual pages, just present the summary data.
6. Spellcheck a sampling of pages.
7. It can be helpful to present the results in priority form, with the
most egregious problems first, with an estimate of how difficult it will
be to fix them. If the site's problems are numerous and the site
complex, it may be necessary to repair them in stages.
Vischeck (online) definitely does not work with Flash, but as previously
mentioned by Chris Heilmann, using the Vischeck Photoshop plug in with a
screen capture works fine, and if you have the software, its faster and
the resulting images can be inserted into a report. If you print a
report, a color printer is best for pages showing color blindness
effects. Grayscale is misleading, and black and white monitors are rare
these days. Complete color blindness, achromatopia, is very rare, with
only the rod cells in the eye functioning - blues and greens appear
light and reds very dark or black. Grayscale renders greens lighter,
reds in the middle, and blues darker. Vischeck does not simulate
achromatopia, only the most common forms of red-green color blindness,
and one rarer form.
Terence de Giere
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