While it's true that many people with disabilities may take longer to
complete tasks, I think the alarming number that's mentioned in the report
overview is that only 12.5% were able to complete the four tasks. Even
more amazing is the 78% figure for the control group. It's not clear that
task completion is separate from the time issue, or if there were time
limits to complete the tasks.

Even if web resource providers ignore accessibility, do they really want
to lose a potential 12% of customer's requests? This indicates a serious
usability problem that Nielsen continues, rightly, to bring up.

I'm curious if anyone on this list has plunked down the $190 for a copy of
the report and read it. Was there a time limit to complete the tasks?

-*- Dan Comden                   [log in to unmask]
    Adaptive Technology Lab      http://www.washington.edu/computing/atl/
    University of Washington     http://www.washington.edu/doit/

On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Denis Anson wrote:

> While the results of this report are important, I'm not sure that they
> are entirely pertinent.  A typical able-bodied typist can generate text
> between 35 and 55 words per minute.  (This is an average range, some are
> much faster, some slower.)  Even high performance users of alternative
> text input methods seem to peak out at about 25 words per minute.  That
> means that a person with a physical disability will likely spend up to
> twice as long on a typing task a TAB (temporarily able bodied). Does
> this mean that computers are inaccessible?  No.  It just means that a
> person with less motor ability takes longer to produce the same amount
> of work. A motor delay means you move slower.
>
> Similarly, people with low-vision or no-vision don't have the ability to
> scan an entire page at once and zero in on words or icons that lead
> immediately to their task.  It's not a question of web accessibility, or
> any other kind of accessibility, it has to do with a feature of vision
> that makes the sighted able to locate certain stimuli quickly in the
> visual field.  If you have a restricted visual field (low vision/screen