[il-talk] Survey Project Wrapping Up, Still Looking for a Couple More Participants

[Ray Campbell]

Hello All:

GFK User Centric is close to wrapping up the research they have been doing on the accessibility of various microsoft products to individuals with visual impairments.  However, they are still in need of two participants, one who is totally blind and uses screen reading technology, and one who has low vision to complete their work.

Here's how the GFK research works.  You travel either to GFK's offices in Oakbrook Terrace or Downtown Chicago.  The Oakbrook Terrace office is in the Oakbrook Terrace Corporate Center, 1815 S. Myers Road in Oakbrook Terrace.  It's easily accessed via paratransit service, and I think the 301 and/or 322 Pace bus routes operate in that area but am not sure.  Their Downtown Chicago location is at 1 East Wacker Drive, Northeast Corner of Wacker and State.  The CTA #124 bus goes right by this location.

Each research session takes 2 hours.  You test out a specific application using a specific assistive technology product.  When you call the person whose number I'll give at the end of this message, she'll ask you questions to make sure of what your experience is with assistive technology and if you would be a good candidate for helping conduct this research.  You will be given certain tasks to perform, and for each task you rate whether both the accessibility and usability were acceptable.  As you do a task, you verbalize your thoughts.

For your time and input, you receive $150.  I've done several of these sessions and find the GFK folks to be very good at what they do.  Also, I'm told Microsoft is really taking the input gained from this work seriously and they want to make changes.

If you're interested in helping GFK as they wrap up their work, contact Lyn Tomlin who is scheduling the sessions. She can be reached at 404-964-3915.  I don't have an email address for her handy.

Thanks,

Ray Campbell
ray1530 at wowway.com