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
magnifier) or are using speech to access a page (serial access), you
have some sort of scanning to perceive the page that doesn't allow
attention to the entire page at once.  No currently understood access
technology will ever overcome this limitation.

None of this has anything to do with the Web as Web, it applies to all
information access, and to access to the physical world as well.  Hence,
it shouldn't be presented as a problem with web access.

Our goal, in providing information access, is to provide a "level
playing field."  That would mean that the environment would be
disability neutral, that a person with a disability could perform as
well and as quickly as an able-bodied person.  However, I don't think we
will ever achieve that goal.  But, as Robert Browning said, "A man's
reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?"

Denis Anson, MS, OTR
Computer Access Specialist
College Misericordia
301 Lake St.
Dallas, PA 18612
email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 570-674-6413


> -----Original Message-----
> From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Alfieri
> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 11:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: CURR: Accessible Society E-Letter 10/30/2001
>
> EVEN "ACCESSIBLE" WEBSITES REMAIN DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE WITH
> DISABILITIES, SAYS STUDY
>
> A new study has confirmed what accessibility experts continue to
> point out: the Worldwide Web remains pretty un-usable for anyone who
> cannot see a conventional computer screen and use a mouse with
> dexterity.
>
> "Web usability is three to six times better for non-disabled people
> than for people with low vision, no vision or motor impairment," says
> Jakob Nielsen, who the New York Times calls "the guru of web page
> usability." His firm, the Nielsen Normal group, recently released a
> study that shows this pretty conclusively.
>
> Their 104 subjects included users with low vision, no vision, or
> motor impairment and a control group of people without disabilities,
> who were assigned 4 tasks:  Find the average temperature in Dallas in
> January; buy Janet Jackson's CD "All for You" from Target's website;
> find a bus departing O'Hare airport to a specific address in Chicago
> using the Chicago Transit Authority website, and find the best mutual
> fund satisfying certain criteria on Schwab's website. The control
> group of people without disabilities were able to complete the 4
> tasks 78% of the time; screen reader users only 12.5% of the time.
> While the control group spent only a little over 7 minutes "on task,"
> the others took over twice as long. The control group's error rate
> was only .06; screen reader users' error rate was 2.0; screen
> magnifier users', 4.5.
>
> "Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users with
> Disabilities" was released last week at the Nielsen Norman Group's
> Usability conference in Washington, DC. An overview of the 148-page
> report is online at http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibility --
> there's a link there for downloading the report ($190). "Bad design
> kills Websites," runs the headline of Washington Post internet
> columnist Leslie Walker's Oct. 25 story about Nielsen's conference
> (online at
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
> dyn/washtech/techthursday/columns/dotcom/A4
> 8167-2001Oct24.html).
>
>
> Walker's column refers to economics; but Chapman University's Art
> Blaser says discussions based only on economic reasons to provide
> access miss the point. "When we pass legislation ensuring rights, we
> make a statement: those rights are too important to be guaranteed
> only when they're cost-effective." Chapman says most "distance
> learning" courses today remain inaccessible as well, despite software
> that provides access if used correctly. Read Blaser's article online
> at http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0901/0901ft1.htm
>
> Read more about the legal requirements for web access at
> http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/webaccess/sect508.htm.
>
> For the Center's overview of web access issues, visit
> http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/webaccess/index.htm
>
> Visit Jakob Nielsen's website at http://www.nngroup.com/
>
>
> ****************
> Please visit the website of The Center for An Accessible Society at
> http://www.accessiblesociety.org, with more links to topics.
>
> To stop getting this e-mail letter, send an email to
> "[log in to unmask]" with the word "unsubscribe" in the
> subject line.
>
> The Center for An Accessible Society is funded by the National
> Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to focus public
> attention on disability and independent living issues. The Center is
> a project of Exploding Myths, Inc. a media enterprise company.