What does a Web page sound like? To a visually impaired Net user -- relying on software that reads out links on a page -- navigation can be a nightmare.
Research into methods of improving Web page accessibility is due out next week, to be released by The Performance Technologies Group at the Accessibility and Usability Forum in Sydney.
Performance Technologies tests sites for accessibility and has recently advised a major Australian bank of changes required at its Web site.
Visually impaired Web users often have to memorise a site while using a screen reader -- software that reads the text and links displayed on a page.
"We want to compress the time it takes to learn a Web site, consider what kind of cues or information can be provided along the way to let people more quickly develop that model in their head," Performance Technologies director, Craig Errey, told ZDNet Australia.
In order to keep site information active, most users systematically refresh the screen in order to literally memorise the information. They actively eliminate things they think are less important.
However, Web designers "inadvertently put obstacles in their path," Perfomance Technologies consultant Sharon McInnes said, such as badly phrased Information. Users may dismiss a section of a site that in fact contains the information they need.
There a lot of guidelines currently available on how to build a Web site that is accessible, but Performance Technologies claims to be "looking deeper". The area that we're looking "is quite under-researched," McInnes said.
