Whenever I am presented with steps on how to conduct an accessibility evaluation, user testing with real users is always listed as a step. What I rarely see is information on why testing is so important, what the benefits from testing real users are, and what you get by testing with real users that you can’t get by using accessibility tools or testing with your own screen reader.
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Posts Tagged ‘Guidelines’
How Usability Testing Adds Value to Accessibility Evaluations
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Does your website legally need to be accessible?
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010The other day I was asked the question “To what level does any website legally need to be made accessible?”
“The influence of web accessibility on business and industry is more significant when the demands of a client, or potential client, like the US federal government, must be met.” (WebAim.org)
The law that exists today says that if you are the federal government or supply electronic and information technology goods and services to the federal government, then yes, you must comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 508 Standards). This law requires “Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities.” (section508.gov)
Six Data Points for User Research Documentation
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009As a user experience consultant, I spend a fair amount of time at the beginning of a project reading existing user research reports. These reports help me understand the user research done in the past, the outcome and what, if anything was identified for further exploration. For small and relatively simple projects these reports are fairly easy to thread together. But for large and more complex projects that involve multiple user experience professionals conducting user experience activities in parallel, tracing the user research history just six months after the project is complicated and can sometimes be challenging.
Here are the six data points that I think every user research report must include.
W3C Releases Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
Sunday, December 14th, 2008On Dec 12, 2008, W3C announced the publication of WCAG 2.0. An online press release can be found here: http://www.w3.org/2008/12/wcag20-pressrelease.html and the guidelines can be found here: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/.
The following are the key differences between 1.0 and 2.0 guidelines: (more…)
