The survey asked participants, the majority of whom suffer from blindness or low/impared vision, and use Screen Readers to access content on the web to answer questions relating to how they use web pages and the features that help them find the content they require.
Home Page
Most users read through the home page, a significant number go straight to the main navigation. Few look for a search facility or sitemap from here.
Skip Links
Only 10% of respondants never use this facility therefore we would advise that it be strongly considered for inclusion on all websites. Most users prefer the Skip link to be called 'skip to content' or 'skip to main content'.
Access Keys
There was no real consensus as to the usage of Access Keys. 30% of respondants rarely or never use them and 30% sometimes do. Our preference is not to include them in websites unless specifically requested by the client to prevent accidental clashes with access keys assigned by the user's browser.
Headings
75% of users heavily rely on Headings to navigate. In any case all web pages should be marked up with appropriate Headings for both users with regular browsers and Search Engines.
Search Facility
50% of users use this when available or often. Strong consideration should be given to adding this feature when developing or refreshing a website.
To aid users with Screen Readers find the Search Facility it should be labelled Search and be the first Form or Text/Edit box on the page.
Site Maps
The response shows that Site Maps are rarely used by users with Screen Readers although they may be beneficial to some.
Text Only Versions
The survey suggests that experienced Screen Reader users do not place much reliance on Text Only Versions of websites however other users appear to find them useful.
Screen Reader Only Content
Over half of respondents were strongly attracted to content marked for Screen Readers only. WebAIM suggest identifying content as being specific for a specific audience will attract a higher level of use from that group.
Pop Up Windows
Almost half of the respondents experience difficulty with websites that use pop up windows.
Web 2.0
The results for the accessibility of Web 2.0 content were found to be ambiguous. Further study may be required to establish if respondants were unsure of what the question was asking or the meaning of Web 2.0, or if Web 2.0 technology is naturally more accessible than might be expected.
Images
The survey shows a difference between the needs of experienced and inexperienced Screen Reader users making it difficult for WebAIM to make any recommendations.
Identification of Photos
80% of respondants prefer photos to be identified as such in alt text ie. 'photo of my car' as opposed to 'my car'.
Identification of Logos
The variety of responses do not offer a definitive formula for identifying company logos although it would appear that the best average would be 'The Edge Logo with link to home page'.
Repeated Links
Again the responses appear to be split between experienced and novice users with some finding repeated links such as 'add to basket' or 'more details' difficult to work with. No obvious alternative to repeated links in such situations.
Flash
The results along with many strong comments make it clear that Flash is not easily accessible with many users experiencing significant difficulty.
Frames
The survey did not distinguish between framesets and inline frames [which are used by our Bookassist online booking engine for hotels] but it appears there may be a misconception among those who do not require Screen Reader technology that they are inaccessible. Although some users reported difficulty the figure is not as high as might have been anticipated.
Adobe Acrobat [PDF] Files
The results of this question were again difficult to interpret with some users reporting PDFs easy to work with and others saying they are difficult. I would err on the side of caution and attempt to provide content as part of the web page where possible. This is more true for the likes of Dinner Menus than product datasheets which could be difficult for content editors to reproduce as HTML.
Conclusions
Many of the survey questions produced quite polarised results between novice and expert users of Screen Readers making it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions. It is clear that the majority of users do not like Flash content and like to see Headings used correctly. Offering Users options and following Accessibility Guidance would appear to be the main consideration when developing a website.
Further Reading
- Original survey results are available at http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey/
- Two of the most popular screeen readers available are JAWS and Window Eyes
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