I will assess the efforts of 100 cognitive disability organizations to make their Web sites accessible to their constituencies. This post is a description of my current plan. I am open to suggestions for improvement.
Evaluation Criteria
I will base the assessment upon WebAIM’s latest Cognitive Web Accessibility Checklist, which has these sections:
- Consistency (of navigation);
- Transformability (increased text- and image sizes, etc.);
- Multi-Modality (of content);
- Focus and Structure (use of elements to focus attention, not distract it, etc.);
- Readability and Language (clear display of text and use of plain language);
- Orientation and Error Prevention/Recovery (adequate instructions, feedback and error recovery)
- Assistive Technology Compatibility (use of alternative text, labels, headings, keyboard accessibility, etc.)
10-Point Measurement
On each Web site, I will look for the features described in the checklist. I will record a point if I find even one feature included in a checklist section. Thus up to seven such points could be recorded.
One point will be recorded if a site attempts to meet W3C accessibility standards (1.0 or 2.0). I will judge this based upon a related site statement, or by a positive result from running WebAIM’s WAVE against up to three site pages.
One point will be recorded if a site has an accessibility statement.
One point will be recorded if a site explains how to use accessibility features.
Assessment-Progress Tracking
Upcoming blog posts will describe the assessment as I undertake each step. It may well be that I revise my methodology after a few initial evaluations.
Index of Web Sites for 100+ Cognitive Disability Organizations
For this assessment, I created an index of Web sites of over 100 cognitive disability organizations. To identify them, I used the same criteria listed in my previous blog post.
- National Organizations
- International Organizations
- Organizations For People with Intellectual Disabilities
- Clear Helper RSS Feed: Organizations for People with Cognitive Disabilities (What is RSS?)
Notes
- WebAIM is engaged in an effort to incorporate cognitive Web accessibility evaluation into WAVE. It may be WebAIM would find this assessment useful. I will solicit feedback from Jared Smith, Associate Director of WebAIM.
- Have a suggestion? Please post a comment or contact me.