[nagdu] Harness Color Preference Survey

Fri Jul 27 19:46:32 UTC 2012

Hi, Julie,

I think you need a larger sample of opinion to establish a clear popular
favorite color for Monty's new harness, although popular opinion would be
low on my priority list in choosing a harness color for my guide in any
case.  I do understand that your primary purpose here was to try your hand
at creating a survey on the surveymonkey site, and your little survey
certainly does serve that purpose and highlights the shortcomings of the
site for visually impaired survey writers and respondants.

My Panda is black and white.  I chose to have her leather harness made in
black with white stitching.  I think this is very classy and elegant.
However, it is not great for visibility.  As a matter of fact, almost no one
in the general public ever actually sees that Panda is wearing a harness
until they are right up next to her.  And even then, they usually seem to
think it is just the way people "walk" their "baby horses" around the
neighborhood.  So, in responding to your survey question, I was thinking
primarily about providing the best possible contrast with Monty's black
coat, while avoiding colors that would look dirty almost immediately.  The
maker of Panda's harness, Dave Shabbot of American Leather Specialties, made
harnesses for many of the American guide dog training programs.  He told me
that one of the schools, I think it might have been Guide Dogs of the
Desert, had at one time decided upon white leather harnesses for their
program.  They found out pretty quickly that white leather does not bear up
well under sun and other weather conditions, and that it quickly looks dirty
and dingy.  I think they soon changed to another color harness body, but
kept the white handle.  I know it might be different with the nylon
harnesses which can be washed, but I think I would still worry about a white
harness looking dingy.  So I was trying to pick a color which would provide
good contrast while not looking dirty.  I thought the tan or yellow might
serve well, but I don't think yellow was one of the choices.  I was also
considering the silver gray, but I wasn't sure whether that might just look
like dirty white.  Maybe the light blue or the pumpkin (which I assume is
another name for orange) would work for good contrast.  I don't know whether
the Pacific blue is bright enough to be a good contrast with a black coat,
but it certainly sounds like an inviting, refreshing color, especially in
the midst of this hot, dry summer we are having.  Maybe that is what made it
the popular choice among respondants--there's another whole area of study
for you--the effects of language on perceptions of color choices.

Anyway, it was an interesting exercise in survey-taking and website
accessibility.

Best,
Ann

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J.
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 5:21 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Second Try, First One Bounced; Re: Julie J's Message
About Surveymonkey

Ann,

I wrote questions or at least I thought I had.  For some odd reason they
didn't show up on the final survey.  I've taken lots of surveys on that 
site and had some issues like you.   I was thinking of using it for an 
exit survey  for work, but I think I will look around.  I've used better.

If anyone is interested the current count is:
0 brown
1 burgundy
1 dark red
1 light red
2 pacific blue
1 powder blue
1 pumpkin
1 purple
0 forest green
0 kacky
0 naby blue
0 silver gray
1 tan
1 white

It's looking like pacific blue is going to be the winner.

Julie

On 7/27/2012 12:41 AM, Ann Edie wrote:
> Hi, Julie,
>
>
>
> I found your survey, and found the options for the answers to the 
> questions, and could indicate my answers.  But I did not see any 
> actual questions written out.  Were they there and I just couldn't 
> access them, or did you just not write out the questions?  For the 
> second question, I could see that there was an edit field to write in, 
> but I didn't know what the question was to be answered.
>
>
>
> I recently tried to fill out a survey on this site for a graduate 
> student doing research in the blindness field.  I had some difficulty 
> completing that survey as well.  Some of the questions I could not 
> answer because all of the options seemed to have checkmarks and I 
> could not change that by pressing the spacebar.  Also, as I went to 
> each new page of the survey, my cursor was at the last question on the 
> page rather than at the top.  If I hadn't noticed this and gone to the 
> top of the page to begin, I would have skipped all but the last 
> question on each page.  I don't know how to fix any of these issues.  
> But I don't think, from my limited experience, that surveymonkey is as 
> accessible as it is supposed to be.  I certainly wouldn't count on it 
> to gather information on a serious research topic from visually impaired
and blind respondants.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Ann
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
> Behalf Of Julie J.
>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:03 PM
>
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>
> Subject: [nagdu] just for fun
>
>
>
> Okay I was messing around trying out Survey Monkey this evening.  I 
> may be using it for something entirely different, but wanted to see 
> how user friendly it is.  anyhow I created a very simple two question 
> survey for practice.  As you will see I will need more time to figure 
> out all the features, but I thought I'd share anyway!
>
> The survey is on what color Monty's next harness should be.   I'll be
>
> making it from nylon webbing and am considering quite a few colors.  
> I'd love to hear what your preference would be.  BTW Monty is black.
>
> Here's the link:
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q7NKL7K
>
>
>
> Have fun!  And no more stressing about PETA or rumors or anything of 
> the sort!
>
> Julie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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