Response to Previous Post on Web Accessibility

Sean McManus sent a speedy reply to my email about both not being able to comment on his blog, and about inaccessible web sites. I also told him about Google Analytics, a great tool to provide feedback on visitors to your web site, but inaccessible to blind users. Here’s his response, printed with his permission.

Hi Janet

Thanks for your email. I’m sorry to hear about the problem with the comment validation. I’ve switched it off across the whole blog so that it does not become a barrier to people commenting in future.

I wonder whether you might be prepared to try to post your comment again please? I’d love to include your comments on the blog and respond to them publicly, and have them correctly attributed to you. If you don’t have time, I’ll post them myself and credit you and respond to them there.

Here’s my response:

I find it incredible that people are unwilling to make small changes to enable everyone to have equal access to technology, particularly when asked to do so by someone who is blind and who can explain the problem and demonstrate why it’s important. Google Analytics is a good example of the new wave of sites that use AJAX technologies to update the page without refreshing it. These sites cause massive accessibility problems for people with a range of different needs. People using screen magnifiers often can’t see what’s been updated because it’s outside the part they’re viewing. People using screenreaders have great difficulties because they’re using a linear interface to access content that could be changing anywhere along the line. The site is highly dependent

There is a misconception that making an accessible site means compromising on its design. But there’s no reason why Google Analytics couldn’t include a more accessible table output, or the option to download an accessible spreadsheet. Indeed, there is already an option to download a spreadsheet and text format report, only the link to do so uses javascript (inaccessible) and seems to be buried in lots of other links (inaccessible). There’s no reason why sites like Tadalist and Twitter can’t provide simple forms-based versions of their content either so that they can be used on all HTML-compliant devices. It’s just that designers don’t take it seriously enough. I’m particularly disappointed in Google (which also owns blogger) because they have enough smart people and resources to get it right, if only they considered it a priority.

Thanks again for your input, Janet.
Best regards
Sean

Note from Janet: Thanks to Publicityship I can access a small amount of the information provided by Google Analytics in the form of a table. Publicityship set up my web sites for me.

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