[Athen] Helping Students with Visual Disabilities via AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org

Teresa Haven Teresa.Haven at nau.edu
Mon Sep 14 16:10:56 PDT 2015


Hi, Susan. You ask good questions, and for those who rely on what they can hear from a website, it can be challenging to discover what your technology can't perceive. Here are just a few of the major issues that popped out at me:
* The upper navigation bar contains 7 items, only three of which are accessible to keyboard or screen-reader (K-12, Majors, Online Colleges), and even then, keyboard activation results in a different behavior than mouse access provides. These are all "fly-out" menus for a mouse user, but force a keyboard user to jump to another page and continue drilling down rather than being able to directly navigate to a desired topic or subtopic.
* Color contrast choices are problematic in a lot of areas on the site: light blue on white is used for navigation links and header text, and white text on colored, textured backgrounds is used for a lot of the content; there is also gray text on patterned, gray background, and blue text on gray backgrounds. For those who read visually, particularly for folks who have difficulty with insufficient contrast, this can make getting access to the content difficult.
* Some images have no alt tags at all (such as the organization logo), and several have what would be "insufficient" alt tags, at least from standard guidance. For example, all four of the experts who are interviewed on the site have head shots included, but every head shot has the same alt tag: "expert". A more standard practice would be to use the person's name as the alt tag for a head shot so that each image would be uniquely named.
* The input field to let a user sign up for their newsletter has no label, although it has a placeholder that is just barely visible for a user without a vision disability that involves contrast. It also has a javascript behavior that pops up visually to tell a user if they haven't entered what it expects, but that popup is imperceptible to a screen-reader.

That being said, there's some very good content on this site. I just wish an organization that is touting accessibility for people with vision impairments would be more mindful of the code behind their website. None of the issues I've mentioned are difficult to fix, and doing so would increase the usability of the site for almost everyone.

Cheers,
Teresa

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Gjolmesli
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 3:20 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Helping Students with Visual Disabilities via AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org

Hi. This is disappointing as there are so few such resources for students who have visual disabilities.

I'm curious to know , from the technical , programming side, where are the flaws? I randomly went through several of the links as a JAWS user and and as a blind person and was able to read the materials at least that I entered or "clicked" on the link.

I admit I was not able to get to all the links as my workload currently is horrific. If you want to take this off line - my info is below.

Susan

Susan Gjolmesli, Director
Disability Resource Center, B132
Phone: (425) 564-2498
http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/drc/


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-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Teresa Haven
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 2:55 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Helping Students with Visual Disabilities via AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org

I recognize a couple of the people on the website as being experts in the field of disability, but I'm concerned about the website itself -- as many of you who have looked at it have probably already noticed, it has a fair number of problems with design and coding for accessibility, particularly for users with vision disabilities.

Teresa

Teresa Haven, Ph.D.
Accessibility Analyst, Northern Arizona University



-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Maria Bohn
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 2:45 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Helping Students with Visual Disabilities via AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org

I was forwarded an email last week from my boss who was contacted by this company: the email said in regards to this web site:


"My organization has just completed our new guide with resources, tools and technology advancements to support students with visual impairments, and I think it would fit nicely on your page above. You can find the guide here:

Helping Students with Visual Impairments http://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/helping-students-with-visual-impairments/

The guide was created in part by four experts in the field, who lent their experience and expertise to help us provide students with visual impairments the tips and resources needed to succeed in school. Key features of our guide include:

- Tips for choosing the right college
- An in-depth look at the top assistive technology and tools being used today
- Scholarships available for students with visual impairments

Will you help us share this guide with your community and support students with visual impairments by including our guide on your site as a link resource?"


Maria Bohn
Senior Resource Accommodation Specialist - Assistive Technology Bergen Community College Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 14, 2015, at 5:30 PM, Jennifer Sutton <jsuttondc at gmail.com<mailto:jsuttondc at gmail.com>> wrote:

ATHENites:

I thought some of you might find this item of interest:

Helping Students with Visual Disabilities AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org<http://AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org>
http://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/helping-students-with-visual-impairments/


I'd be curious if anyone knows more about this organization/project. Questions that crossed my mind, for example:

-- I didn't see a "last updated" date. Maybe I missed it. But when I see things like this, I always wonder if they're being maintained.
-- I also didn't see any other disabilities, and I wonder why. Why only blindness/visual impairment? Again, maybe I missed more.

I'm not meaning to open up a can of worms, if there is one; I'm simply unfamiliar with this organization.

Jennifer
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