[NFBCS] Never Go Live Until The Bugs Are Killed!

Fri Nov 15 16:26:21 UTC 2019

               I too, do not believe everyone must be an accessibility expert to provide accessibility feedback for advice. I do think though, being able to differentiate between accessibility and usability is key to helping developers and designers resolve issues. A lot of people conflate the two, which I personally believe leads to a lot of confusion.
               According to the most recent literature in the field, automated testing tools for accessibility can only detect approximately 1/3 or 33% of possible accessibility related issues. Degrees of accuracy within the 33% range between 5-40%, with known variability in producing false positive (approx.. 33%) and false negative (approx. 35%) results per evaluation. For best results, evaluating with a combination of automated and manual testing is best, in my opinion.
Automated testing tools
There are a lot of these tools, and, depending who you ask will yield different opinions about what is best. I think Webaim’s WAV tool is pretty nifty—particularly with the updates of last month. I personally use a combination of AXE (made by DeQue), Siteimprove’s google extension, and ANDI (made by the social security administration and recommended by the department of homeland security). I think AXE does a brilliant job, and knowing a few of the developers who work on the rules library and who test for DeQue I trust the results. Siteimprove resolves some of the issues Axe cannot get to, and I think in some ways the user  interface is cleaner. ANDI I use for very specific use-cases.
Manual Tests
Familiarizing yourself with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines will be important to produce the most accurate results. You could read the world Wide Web Consortium’s take on the documentation (which is official), but even the folks who wrote them initially often say they are overly cumbersome and confusing at times. I would recommend using the Webaim 2.0 checklist<https://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist> at the crew there have done a fairly good job at making the WCAG digestible. Further, DeQue has a comprehensive training program for folks at dequeuniversity.com where folks can self-teach themselves the ins and outs of accessibility. As a person with a disability, you qualify for a scholarship for free service, too!
               Accessibility can be complicated, but in a lot of ways it can be fairly straightforward also. Some familiarity will allow you to easily communicate results to those who need the information the most!

--
Michael Duane Ausbun, MA
Accessibility Specialist, Program Development
Universal Design and Accessibility Team
Salt Lake City, Utah
[WGU Learning Experience]

Western Governors University
4001 South 700 East, Suite 700
Salt Lake City, UT 84107
Michael.ausbun at wgu.edu

[Western Governors University]<wgu.edu>

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Nancy Coffman via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 6:15 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Nancy Coffman <nancy.l.coffman at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Never Go Live Until The Bugs Are Killed!

[EXTERNAL EMAIL] WARNING: Be wise. Be cautious.

Good morning.

In my job, I am sometimes asked to assess the accessibility of a website. I don't mind doing it. I confess to the company asking that I am absolutely NOT an expert. I peruse the website myself with several browsers. I report the browsers I used along with any problems that came up.

I use a couple of automated tools to check the site and let the company know which tools I used and that there are others available. I like the automated tools because they look for accessibility issues and usability problems for blind people and those with other information technology challenges. I use the Wave accessibility tool on webaim.org and the Functional Accessibility Evaluator (fae) to evaluate sites. Freedom Scientific also has an automated testing site that could inspire another post. I need to check the name of it. They also have a training on howto use it with JAWS. I think it is great for us to get comfortable with some these tools. I don't think we all need to be experts. Decue also has automated testing software and courses for lay people to learn how to offer feedback about websites.

Hope this helps.

Nancy Coffman

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 14, 2019, at 11:28 PM, Buddy Brannan via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>
> Pete wrote:
>
>> Good afternoon everyone,
>>
>> It's never exceptible for a new company Website to go live until all known bugs and potential issues such as accessibility for blind visitors have been resolved.
>
> That’s a pretty unrealistic expectation. If we were to wait for all bugs to get squashed before release, nothing would get released. Ever. At all. Literally nothing.
>
>
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Email: buddy at brannan.name<mailto:buddy at brannan.name>
> Mobile: (814) 431-0962
>
>
>
>> On Nov 14, 2019, at 1:37 PM, Peter Donahue via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Good afternoon everyone,
>>
>> It's never exceptible for a new company Website to go live until all known bugs and potential issues such as accessibility for blind visitors have been resolved. Given Disney's past history of working with the NFB on Web accessibility they could have had us conduct beta tests prior to Disney Plus going live to the general public avoiding the backlash they're getting from the blind community.
>>
>> I used to build NFB Websites. Those who know remember that I never brought a site live until all known issues were resolved. I know of another well-known company that recently updated its World-Wide Website. Unlike Disney they invited several blind persons I know to work with the site development team at their corporate headquarters. When the new Website finally went live Mary and I along with others were very pleased with the work that was done to insure site accessibility. If more companies pursued partnerships with the blind community when preparing to launch a new website or to update existing sites we would have more of them. Viewing ourselves as the "Little fish in the sea" won't help matters either. Our ability to access Websites is as important as it is for other John Q. Public site visitors and we should behave like it.
>>
>> Peter Donahue
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kevin via NFBCS
>> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 10:50 AM
>> To: Star Gazer
>> Cc: Kevin; NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>>
>> Do to other responsibilities. Site design, security issues such as
>> handling bug reports, updating content, and many more things that go
>> into it.
>>
>>
>>> On 11/14/2019 11:08 AM, Star Gazer wrote:
>>> Why though
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Nov 14, 2019, at 10:36 AM, Kevin <kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com<mailto:kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> It isn't acceptable it is simply a reality.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 11/14/2019 7:50 AM, Star Gazer wrote:
>>>>> Exactly right.
>>>>> Why wouldn't be a number one priority when accessibility means that they can legally part more customers from their money?
>>>>> Why does the size of the corporation make bad behavior acceptable?
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Kevin <kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com<mailto:kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com>>
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 6:17 PM
>>>>> To: Star Gazer <pickrellrebecca at gmail.com<mailto:pickrellrebecca at gmail.com>>; NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org>>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>>>>>
>>>>> They are a huge corporation and I'm sure they were getting it. Maybe this wasn't there number one priority.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 11/13/2019 5:12 PM, Star Gazer wrote:
>>>>>> Why? Disney should have gotten it right before the site ever went live.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Nov 13, 2019, at 5:02 PM, Kevin via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I get what you're saying but that's life sometimes. It is what it is.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 11/13/2019 12:52 PM, Tracy Carcione via NFBCS wrote:
>>>>>>>> Sounds to me like there really was a problem, until Curtis spoke up and Disney fixed it.
>>>>>>>> As for work-arounds to get accessibility, OK, to a point, but I am really tired of jumping through multiple hoops to get what other people just get as a matter of course.
>>>>>>>> I'm glad things are working well now.
>>>>>>>> Tracy
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>>> From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kevin via NFBCS
>>>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 12:40 PM
>>>>>>>> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>>>>>>> Cc: Kevin
>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This is great news! I think this just goes to show us that jumping the
>>>>>>>> gun is never a good idea. We must keep in mind that while things may
>>>>>>>> not be perfectly accessible we always have workarounds. As the saying
>>>>>>>> goes there's more than one way to skin a cat.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 11/12/2019 11:10 PM, Peter Donahue via NFBCS wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> This evening I successfully subscribed to Disney Plus using
>>>>>>>>> Firefox and JAWS 2019 under Windows 7. I was able to complete the signup
>>>>>>>>> process without assistance. I watched an episode of Disneynature and began
>>>>>>>>> adding content to our watchlist. The interface works similar to Netflix.
>>>>>>>>> Once I logged in I was able to navigate the website without trouble.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> While I was able to subscribe and explore the Disney Plus
>>>>>>>>> Website using Firefox it still doesn't work well with Google Chrome. I was
>>>>>>>>> able to move around without difficulty using Internet Explorer but was
>>>>>>>>> unable to get content to play. This looks to me like it's a matter of a
>>>>>>>>> missing IE component rather than an accessibility issue. We obviously got
>>>>>>>>> someone's attention at Disney Streaming to address the issues blind people
>>>>>>>>> are having with signing up for and using Disney Plus. Now to see if the
>>>>>>>>> English version of the Disney Plus Apps are available for iOS and Apple TV.
>>>>>>>>> I'll keep you posted on my progress. All the best.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Peter Donahue
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
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