Beyond ALT Text:Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities — 75 Best Practices for Design of Websites and Intranets, Based on Usability Studies with People Who Use Assistive Technology
The retail value of this report is $124, but it is free as our holiday gift to our loyal readers, as our thanks for your support over the years.
The report contains:
- Results of usability tests of 19 websites with users with several different types of disabilities who are using a range of assistive technology:
- blind users using screen readers
- blind users using Braille readers
- low-vision users using screen magnifiers
- motor-impaired users
- Test data collected mainly in the United States, with some additional studies in Japan to ensure the international applicability of the recommendations
- A total of 104 users participated in the usability studies:
- 84 users with disabilities
- 20 non-disabled users who served as a control group
- 75 detailed design guidelines
The report is richly illustrated with 46 screenshots of designs that worked well or that caused difficulties for users with disabilities in the usability tests as well as 23 photos of assistive technology devices. The examples and guidelines are directly based on empirical observation of actual user behavior.
This report addresses the usability of websites and intranets. The report should be used together with the standards for technical accessibility of web pages. Obviously, technical accessibility is a pre-condition for usability: if users cannot get at the content of the web pages, they also cannot use the website. Technical accessibility is necessary, but not sufficient for usability of a design. Even if a site is theoretically accessible because it follows the technical accessibility standards to the letter, it can still be very hard to use for people with disabilities.
+ Full Report (PDF; 7.7 MB)
Hat tip: DrWeb
Source: Nielsen Norman Group (via ResourceShelf’s DocuTicker.com)