[Nfb-web] our website and accessibility

[Berggren, John]

Good morning, Chris--

Thanks for your comments about the Web site.  First and foremost, let me
assure you that accessibility is one of *the* top concerns when creating
Web content for the national site.  You are right on the money when you
suggest that we ought to be a model of accessibility for others.  We
want to demonstrate to the Internet community that a Web site can be
functional, intuitive and aesthetically pleasing, all at the same time.

In general, the xCatalyst CMS tool should create accessible content.
Before going live, we tested a number of forms on our site to ensure
that they were navigable and understandable using both Window Eyes and
JAWS.  We found the results to be satisfactory.  The forms examined
didn't use every type of field available, but should have been an
adequate check of general accessibility.

Chris, I suspect that at least one of the forms you looked at was the
"Suggestions for..." page.  You're correct--xCatalyst doesn't create
label tags for its form fields.  However, I seem to remember that we
didn't have trouble getting Window Eyes to identify each field by name.
I'll get a look at that page right now.  It would be helpful, Chris, to
know what version of Window Eyes you are using.

Our shift to a content management system and the migration to the new
site has been a learning experience, showing us better ways to do things
as well as what to never, ever do again.  We're trying to get it all
right the first time, but I promise you that's not going to always
happen.  The most useful thing our members can do is let us know what
doesn't work and what could be better.  Clearly, that's made a bit more
difficult when simple feedback forms don't work properly.  Don't
hesitate to email directly if you're having trouble with a particular
page or Web site function.

The intention here is to provide a site that gets both our members and
visitors who are new to us the information they want as efficiently as
possible.  And this has to be done while raising the bar for
accessibility.  Your patience is appreciated, but your feedback is
imperative.  Work with us and we'll get these things straightened out in
exemplary fashion.

Regards,
John

John Berggren
IT Director
National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, MD  21230
 
P : 410-659-9314 x2329
F : 410-685-5653
E : jberggren at nfb.org



-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Chris Westbrook
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 9:58 AM
To: NFB Webmaster's List
Subject: [Nfb-web] our website and accessibility

I was really disappointed when I looked at the website for our members
area yesterday.  I wasn't so disappointed at the sparseness of content,
Peter covered that eloquently Yesterday.  When I looked at the various
forms to submit suggestions and other things, I noticed they weren't
reading well with window eyes.  A quick look at the source reveals that
there are no label tags anywhere.  For those of you who don't know, a
label tag is a quick and standard way to associate text on the screen
with a control such as a form field.  I know we are getting our site
from a new content management system, but I would think accessibility
would have been part of the process in determining which cms to use.  I
think if we are going to advocate for accessibility, we need to have a
website that is completely accessible and be a model for others.  I'm
really disappointed that we chose the easy way out with a cms that
doesn't output fully accessible content rather than look at our
membership to see who could assist with a redesign.  It makes me wonder
whether the national office functions above and outside of the
membership, but that's another discussion for another post.  I hope
things are handled better in the future.
Chris Westbrook
email or msn messenger; westbc at clw19.com
skype: chriswestbrook (please write a message that explains who you are
if you add me to your contacts.)