[nabentre] New Policy-Based Consumer Research About Online Accessibility Issues

Mon Apr 10 05:09:34 UTC 2017

Hi,
I also took the survey. I felt the stress of the issue of spending hours and
hours on letting companies know how crappy their websites really are for
JAWS-users, and probably other speech systems, too. I usually do let the
company know that they have a problem, because, usually, they do not even
know that. Often I am not techy-minded enough to tell them what the problem
is but I refer them to someone who could help them. I don't always know if
they ever do anything or not. 

WF'S site is terrible! I'm trying to get out of my account there but they're
not letting me have my money! I can't believe it. But I'm not done with
them. If I end up with an account with nothing in it, just sitting there,
that's how it goes. They're never getting my money again, not even my social
security retirement. 

Walmart's site is messier than it could be. Target's, (and they supposedly
had a lot of help improving it) still isn't very good. eBay keeps claiming
to be accessible but they have a glitch in checkout. Amazon changes things
every 5 seconds so one time you think you know what to do and by the time
you come back, it's different; and inaccessible. 

What really bugs me though is the captcha popularity. I mean, some companies
have perfectly readable functionable sites except for that. And that one
problem can shut blind people out completely. I'm dealing with Shopify on
that right now. 

Several companies I frequent, whose websites are *terrible* I deal with over
the phone. Quite often they refer me to the website and don't want to help
me extra. I get firm with them about how, if they're not going to have a
decently-working website, the least they could do is provide optional
customer service, and, if they want my business, they really would do well
to work with me. Usually they do. I have had to get a supervisor a few
times. 

I can't even think of anyone's website we could use as a good example for
others. I mean, most of them are good, bad examples, in one way or another.
I don't know how so many can go so wrong on accessibility. However, I do
know that the whole issue never occurs to most of the companies. It's like
we don't even exist. 

So I think the clearinghouse site with listings of whose sites are good and
whose are not and why and how to reach them, is a good one. Companies could
eventually learn they are being judged and don't want to get a bad mark on
the "whatever" site. Like the BBB; people want good scores on that site. So
they will need to think similarly to your site once you get it up and going.
One place for us to send complaints to on particularly company sites, would
be good, too. I think in the UK they are doing more to get accessibility
compliance across the board. 

I sure hope that people who know more than I do on this subject will bite
the bullet and do something about it because it's getting worse; not better;
let me tell you. And if we lose net neutrality, it'll get even worse. 
Thanks,
Lauren Merryfield
Blessings in Jesus' name. "But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each
morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my
refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress."
   --Psalm 59:16, NLT
Advice from my cats:"meow when you feel like it." 

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Brandon
Keith Biggs via nabentre
Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 8:46 PM
To: NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List <nabentre at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Brandon Keith Biggs <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nabentre] New Policy-Based Consumer Research About Online
Accessibility Issues

Hello Alex,
I filled out your survey.
Some notes:
I have seen so many websites that are not user friendly, I get apathetic
because if I did anything, it would be all I did. There was a period in my
life when I was spending at leaste 4 hours a day contacting websites that I
wanted to use, reporting bugs and asking for a better UX. It got so bad that
one day I decided  I would stop, change my major in college and start
learning about why the designers at Amazon, Wells Fargo and so many other
big businesses are complete idiots and design sites that are slow, hard to
use, crash, have a lot of HTML **** all over them, are on legacy frameworks
and why the accessibility professionals put up with their business's ****.
I'm still looking for an answer to these questions and I hope I will get the
answer soon.
But literally tonight, I was dealing with 5 websites and every single one
ranked about a 4/10 in accessibility and a 2/10 in UX. One was Wells Fargo,
another was Google Chrome, Another was Quickbooks Online, another was Amazon
and the last was Google hangouts.
I just said I had it for the day and started closing my tabs, then saw your
survey. It was a nice release  after dealing with all those sites.
I think one of these days (soon) I will start a site where people can rate
the accessibility and UX of a website or product so other people can see
what the best sites are. Also so companies can see how they are ranked by
their users.
I would use this site for almost everything. But currently, what
alternitives are there to Amazon? What alternitives are there to Wells Fargo
if your whole family but you uses WF and you work in a family business? I
use Bank of America which is OK, but Wells Fargo is a piece of
**** because they put out a broken site and refuse to fix it. I'm not too
confident in winning a lawsuit against them because technically, I can use
it, it just is terrible. I just sometimes wish sighted developers would use
their own products for two days. I guarantee that they could fix most of the
problems in 2 hours and their sites would become 500 times easier to use.
The sad part is, this is not a screen reader problem, it is everyone's
problem. I Use Quickbooks Online and much of its problem is that it is built
on Dojo which is an old framework. I could probably sit down and build a QBO
clone if I had 2 months of freetime and currently all the tools are there to
do it. My clone would be faster, more maintainable , more accessible and
could work online and offline. Intuit is crazy and they are losing lots of
business to other accounting platforms because they are so badly designed.
To be honest, I don't know what to do to fix this onward rush into less
accessibility on the web. Over the last 10 years, websites have become less
and less accessible. The tools to make amazing and accessible sites are in
HTML5, but no one seems to know how to use them. You know it is bad when the
Angular2 tutorial uses HTML5 incorrectly.
All the accessibility professionals seem to go to tons of conferences rather
than actually fix their company's products. One of these days, I may apply
to be an accessibility lead at a big company and then see what is all the
difficulty. (I would probably get fired the second day for chewing out the
lead developer or CEO on why their product is so badly designed).
But the topic of your disertation is not just about shopping, but deals with
sites and apps in everything. Most of the time, I don't know any
alternitives and already know my work-arounds.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 8:12 AM, Albert Rizzi via nabentre <
nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Alex,
>
>
>
> I would like to schedule some time to discuss your dissertation, these 
> studies, where they will be published and other questions I have as it 
> relates to your research.
>
>
>
> If you would be so kind as to connect with me to schedule a time to 
> talk it would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
> Peace and to be continued....
>
>
>
> Albert
>
>
>
> Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
> Founder and CEO
>
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> C: 917-553-0347
> P: 212-363-0330
> Certified Professionals in Accessibility
>
> The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who 
> is doing it. - Ancient Chinese Proverb We need to make every single 
> thing accessible to every single person with a disability. - Stevie 
> Wonder
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Alex 
> Cohen via nabentre
> Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 10:35 AM
> To: nabentre at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Alex Cohen <ahc43 at drexel.edu>
> Subject: [nabentre] New Policy-Based Consumer Research About Online 
> Accessibility Issues
>
>
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
>
>
> Thank you for helping me with my previous research. The dissertation 
> is going great and I'll be finished at the end of May.
>
>
>
> I am working on a new research article and I was hoping you may be 
> able to help me again. Blind and low vision participants answer 
> questions about policy issues regarding online accessibility of 
> commercial websites, and how they would react to two different online 
> accessibility-related conditions.
>
> It should take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and I think it's as 
> accessible and user-friendly as it can be. Participation is completely 
> voluntary and you can stop taking the survey at any time. For your 
> participation you will be entered into a drawing to win a $250 Amazon 
> gift card. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 
> This survey is brand new and just got approval from the Drexel 
> University IRB, so I would welcome any feedback you may have. Feel 
> free to call me or email ( ahc43 at drexel.edu<mailto:ahc43 at drexel.edu>
<mailto:ahc43 at drexel.edu> (.
> Here's the link.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>
> https://drexel.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a5D7KnUJjJKsEpT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Alex H. Cohen
>
>
>
> Ph.D. Candidate
>
>
>
> Marketing Department
>
>
>
> LeBow College of Business
>
>
>
> Drexel University
>
>
>
> 3220 Market St.
>
>
>
> Philadelphia, PA 19104
>
>
>
> Cell: 215.292.1455< <tel:215.292.1455> tel:215.292.1455>
>
>
>
>
>
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