They used Jaws and were all good users of the software! :>)) Back on line
and about to send the paper in!

Best wishes
E.A.


Mrs E.A. Draffan,
TechDis Accessibility Database, USIE,
Education Development Building,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RG
Tel: 01273 873600
http://www.techdis.ac.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Dan Comden
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 06:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Nielsen's accessibility report (was Re: Accessible Society
E-Letter 10/30/2001)


Hi Denis,

Without seeing the report I think it's difficult to state just where the
problem was in task completion as described in the overview. You're
certainly correct in stating that better access tools are needed.  But I
think it's also pretty clear that web design -- poor web design -- is a
major culprit in locking users out from accessing web-based resources. I
don't think the purpose of the report is to address system-wide problems
-- just web-based ones.

There are many factors that could have influenced the results of the
Nielsen Norton accessibility report. Off the top of my head some of these
are:

1. Time limit imposed
2. technical ability of subjects
3. Quality of access tools
4. access tools unfamiliar to subjects

With the control group experiencing a 12% failure rate I think it's pretty
clear there's a problem with how some of these sites are designed;  it's
not just an AT issue. Web designers are still not using HTML properly and
still not testing their sites for usability.

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

On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Denis Anson wrote:

> Dan,
>
> My point is that he was blaming the web for the problem, when the
> problem may not have had anything to do with the web.  We need better
> accessibility tools in general, not just for the web.  The web is just
> one environment where a person with a disability must operate.  You need
> access to all environments.