Hypothetical Solutions, Inc.
Memorandum

To:         Rick Hypothetical, Manager
From:     Bo Bayles
Date:         28 August, 2005
Subject:     Web Site Effectiveness Comparison

As requested, I studied three web sites from manufacturers in a single industry and compared their accommodations for people with disabilities. I chose to study the computer networking industry. I compared the web sites for Linksys (http://www.linksys.com), D-link (http://www.d-link.com), and Netgear (http://www.netgear.com).

Discussion

In comparing Linksys', D-link's, and Netgear's web sites' accessibility to disabled users, I considered the following aspects:

• Vision impairment
  • Text-only versions of pages – People with visual impairments often use “screen readers” to access web pages. These screen readers can only read plain-text content, so web sites should present all important information in text, or provide a text-only version of each page.
  • Image usage – Screen readers will read alternate text for images. Each image on a page should contain a description of the image in the “alt” text. Also, images should be supported by text – important information should not be conveyed only with an image.
  • Navigation – Screen readers read all the information on a page.  It can be annoying for users to hear the “Navigation” section for every page on a site. Therefore, the pages should be coded to identify repetitive sections so the user can skip to content.
  • Color schemes – People who are colorblind cannot distinguish between certain colors. A page should not set color values that override the user's default settings for link colors.
  • Type settings – Web sites should use a 12-point or larger font or code their pages so users can adjust type size with their browsers without affecting the layout of the page.
• Hearing impairment – A web site should not use sound alone to convey important information. If an audio feed is necessary, it should have a text transcript, and video content should have captions. Visual feedback should be used.
• Mobility impairment
  • Keyboard accessibility – Users with mobility impairments often use keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse. Web pages should provide keyboard shortcuts and present links and fields in a logical “tab order” (links can be selected by pressing the Tab key) – for example, the “Submit” button should be highlighted after pressing the Tab key after filling out the last text field in a form.
  • Link accessibility – Users with mobility impairments need to be able to click on links. Link areas should be large enough to click on – whole words or images should be links, not a single number or letter.

Linksys

The Linksys web site neglects a number of important visual impairment accessibility considerations. Not only does it not offer a plain-text version of its pages with a link, it uses images alone to convey information. On the front page, the main promotion is presented with all its information in an image. This image does not include alternate text, so a user with a screen reader would have no way of knowing what content the front page offers. Although many of the images on other pages of the site have alternate text, most of them are non-descriptive captions. On the Products page, all of the product listings are images and none have alternate text, so the page is useless for screen readers. Furthermore, the navigation menu at the top of every page uses images with no alternate text, so screen readers can't even use the main links of the web site.

The Linksys web site also neglects keyboard accessibility. The Tab key cannot be used to select the links at the top of the page, making it impossible to access the main part of the site without a mouse.

The Linksys site does have some good points. First, it makes good use of color – it does not replace the user's browser's link colors, and does not use red and green to distinguish content. Next, its type size is adjustable and preserves page formatting. Also, there is good visual feedback for user actions – links change color when they are under the mouse cursor, and are generally easy to click on. Finally, the site does not make much use of video or audio content, so it does not need to make special considerations for multimedia accessibility.

D-link   

The D-link web site does better at accommodating users with visual impairments than the Linksys web site. Although there is no text-only version of the site, most images that contain page content are supported by text or have alternate text. There are advertisements that do not have supporting text or alternate text, but these aren't the major focus of the pages that have them. The site also avoids using color combinations that might be difficult for readers who are colorblind.

Keyboard accessibility is preserved, so the site is navigable without having to use a mouse. Links change colors to indicate that they are selected, making active links noticeable, and most links are easy to click on. The site does not make use of audio or video content, so it does not need to make special considerations for multimedia accessibility.

On the negative side, the D-link site's default font for the navigation menus is smaller than the recommended size. However, it can be adjusted by the user without changing the site's formatting. Links are set to non-default colors, and there is no visual difference between links a user has visited and new links, so the site breaks a major feature of the world wide web. Like the Linksys site, there is no “skip navigation” built in for screen readers, so it can be difficult for users with screen readers to easily access their desired content.

Netgear

Like the Linksys web site, Netgear's pages do not adequately accommodate readers with visual impairments. Most images on the site's pages do not have alternate text for screen readers to read, and a lot of the product pages use images exclusively to convey content.

The Netgear web site does provide visual feedback for some actions. For example, moving the cursor over some links (but not others) changes the color of the link. However, it would be better if there was a consistent visual alert for links. The site replaces the user's browser's link color choices, and like the D-link page, does not show  different colors for visited and unvisited links.

To the Netgear page's credit, although there is not a text-only version of each page, each page does have a text-only navigation menu at the bottom. This is good in that it allows users with screen readers to see the page content before having to hear (or skip over) repetitive navigation menus. Like the Linksys and D-link sites, the Netgear site does not use video or audio to convey information, so there are no accessibility problems associated with multimedia.

Conclusions

Overall, the D-link site has the most accessible site design. Although it does not have alternate text for all images, the most important images do have it, and are supported by text, an important feature that both the Linksys and Netgear sites lacked. The D-link site makes navigation by keyboard easy, an area inn which the Linksys site especially lacked.

The Linksys site has the least accessible site design.  Its pages are unusable for readers who cannot view images, there is no way to navigate the site without images. It also uses images to convey important information on its product pages and does not support them with text or alternate text. Further, it breaks keyboard shortcut features by not allowing links to be selected with the tab button, so a mouse must be used to get anywhere on the site.

The Netgear page has both good and bad aspects. Although it was the only site of the three that took repetitive navigation into consideration, it relies heavily on images without text.

Chapter 21 Case Study: Please see Lesson15page.html

Please e-mail me (bmb3h6@umr.edu) if there are any problems with the URL.