Filling in forms 50% 64% 54% 63% Figure 6: Website issues compared by type of AT In practice, screenreaders and refreshable braille rely on the same software to interpret the content of a web page; one driving a text-to-speech synthesiser, the other driving a Braille output device. The differences in user experience can be interpreted as due to the fact that Braille users will be almost certainly blind, while screenreaders may benefit people with different disabilities as well as those with differing degrees of visual impairment. These users might be expected to be most affected by access barriers generated at the coding level, and indeed the responses confirm that inadequate link information, navigation and form labelling create real difficulties. labelled buttons/edit boxes/combo boxes/radio buttons, “Poorly graphics without meaningful alt-text, links which do not read well out of context, pages which do not follow a logical tab order, links which trigger a pop-up to appear somewhere else on the page, can all make pages unusable.” However, the Survey also confirms the fact that AT are significantly inconvenienced by what might be considered as usability issues, such as crowded pages, poor legibility, and distracting movement. Access Barriers for Users with Access Needs not using AT A significant proportion of web users with disabilities either have impairments which cannot be addressed effectively using AT, or choose not to use such technological aids. Such impairments might include mild forms of
Filling in forms 50% 64% 54% 63% Figure 6: Website issues compared by type of AT In practice, screenreaders and refreshable braille rely on the same software to interpret the content of a web page; one driving a text-to-speech synthesiser, the other driving a Braille output device. The differences in user experience can be interpreted as due to the fact that Braille users will be almost certainly blind, while screenreaders may benefit people with different disabilities as well as those with differing degrees of visual impairment. These users might be expected to be most affected by access barriers generated at the coding level, and indeed the responses confirm that inadequate link information, navigation and form labelling create real difficulties. “Poorly labelled buttons/edit boxes/combo boxes/radio buttons, graphics without meaningful alt-text, links which do not read well out of context, pages which do not follow a logical tab order, links which trigger a pop-up to appear somewhere else on the page, can all make pages unusable.” However, the Survey also confirms the fact that AT are significantly inconvenienced by what might be considered as usability issues, such as crowded pages, poor legibility, and distracting movement. Access Barriers for Users with Access Needs not using AT A significant proportion of web users with disabilities either have impairments which cannot be addressed effectively using AT, or choose not to use such technological aids. Such impairments might include mild forms of
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