In message <F1CFF4FC001F412AA6D8FFEA324A4BB8@icomrr> on Tue, 9 Aug 2005, C. BONOMI <[log in to unmask]> wrote >-----Message d'origine----- >De : P Boylan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] >Envoye : Tuesday, July 19, 2005 1:28 PM >A : C. BONOMI >Cc : [log in to unmask] >Objet : Re: New ICOM Web Site - Accessibility Issues > > >Dear Carla, > >Congratulations on the progress - I think that the new home pages at: >http://icom.museum/new/ are a big advance overall. > >However, there are quite a few issues relating to accessibility standards. I replied directly to Carla when the new ICOM Web site was first announced, but as Patrick has opened the discussion to the ICOM-L list I thought it would be worth copying my comments here, as a contribution to further discussion. Some of the points may have been fixed since I wrote - I have not re-checked them all. I hope that this is not "boring ICOM-L with lots of technical details" but I think that it is important that people should be aware of these issues: I wrote on 18th July: >Dear Carla > >Thanks for letting us know about the redesigned ICOM Web site, and for >your work to make it look more attractive. I have not examined it all >in detail, but a few points struck me at first glance that you might >like to reconsider in order to achieve your objective of allowing good >accessibility. > >At present the site fails many of the checks carried out by an >accessibility test site such as Watchfire ><http://webxact.watchfire.com/>. > >The things that I noticed immediately were > >1. The home page is a fixed width , so that it appears as a small area >in the middle of my screen, which displays 1280x1024 pixels. Your other >pages are correctly set to expand or contract to fit the size of the >window, so it is a pity that the home page does not do so too. > >2. Many pieces of text are fixed in size, so that I cannot use the >"text size" function of my browser to make it easier to read. > >3. Much of the text is in low contrast colours, such as one shade of >grey or blue on a background of a slightly different shade of the same >colour. The message "Updated: 11 July 2005" in the bar at the bottom >of many pages is barely legible, for example. > >4. The home page has an irritating scrolling section, containing only >two links but which makes the user have to wait until it has scrolled >up in case there is anything of interest that will appear. Scrolling >areas of this kind are a distraction, because you feel that you have to >keep an eye on them while trying to read text elsewhere on the page. > >5. Links are not shown in a standard way. In the left-hand menu and the >central sub-menu they are highlighted with a blue bar when pointed to; >in the right-hand "tools" menu they are in orange but are not >highlighted when pointed to; in the scrolling section the "Disaster >Relief >Web Site" link uses the standard method of underlined blue text, but >the other item "Risk Management ICOM News 2005 n.2" the text is not >underlined and the link is only from the associated image. On other >pages links are sometimes underlined and sometimes not. > >6. I think it would be better to put the "tools" menu on the bottom >left, making it a continuation of the main menu. This will simplify >navigation by bringing all the navigation links together. > >7. There is no link back to the home page on any of the other pages >that I have looked at. This is desirable so that people don't have to >go back one step at a time when they want to look for something else. >Perhaps everything is accessible from the left-hand menu on every page, >but that menu looks different from the one on the home page, so people >cannot be sure that they are not missing something. If the content is >the same it would be better to make the home page menu look the same as >the ones on other pages. > >8. Clicking the main headings such as "What is ICOM" on the menu on >pages other than the home page attempts a link to ><http://icom.museum/new/ddd>, which gives a "HTTP 404 - File not found" >error. > >9. It is not clear what the function is of the text "icom.museum" >printed vertically in faint blue characters at the bottom of the >left-hand bar. Is this intended to be purely decorative? It might be >interpreted as a link, or a heading like "news" and "tools" printed in >the same way, but it is neither. > >10. On the page <http://icom.museum/new/institutional.html> there is an >image of an ICOM card which links to ><http://icom.museum/new/card.html>. On that page the same image and >link occur, but the link does not go anywhere because you are already >there. > >11. The menus on pages other than the home page are rather difficult to >interpret. Different parts of them are left open depending on which >item the mouse has last touched. There are four different styles: > >dark blue text on grey >dark blue text on blue >white text on grey >white text on blue > >and it is not clear what the significance of each is. It would be >better to limit the variety to two levels, and use standard drop-down >menus, which would require less jumping about. > > > >I'm sorry that this list has grown rather long as I looked at the site >- I hope that you don't mind and find it helpful in creating the final >version. You did ask for feedback! > >Best wishes > >Leonard -- Willpower Information (Partners: Dr Leonard D Will, Sheena E Will) Information Management Consultants Tel: +44 (0)20 8372 0092 27 Calshot Way, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 7BQ, UK. Fax: +44 (0)870 051 7276 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] ---------------- <URL:http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/> ----------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html