The June 2010 issue of PC World magazine has an article by Robert Strohmeyer entitled "52 Incredibly Useful Sites." Many of the 52 websites deal with business, media editing and sharing, and productivity, but there are several that seem to be relevant and of interest to people with visual impairments. This article will review six of the websites from an accessibility standpoint. A personal computer running Windows XP, the latest version of Internet Explorer, and Window-Eyes 7.2 was used to access all of the sites.
RetailMeNot
The RetailMeNot website provides access to electronic coupons or discount codes that can be used to save money with numerous online retailers, a welcome service during these tough economic times.
The homepage opens with over 300 links, but don't get discouraged. Under the heading "Popular Stores" is a list of links for chain stores, service providers, and entertainment options. The list is long and includes Target, Papa John's, Enterprise, and Six Flags amusement park. Don't worry if you can't find a store you want; there are coupons for hundreds of stores. The popular stores list has previous and next arrow buttons that allow you to browse available stores. After the store list and buttons on the home page is a heading listing the day's top coupons.
Clicking the link for "Gap" brought me to a page with several coupons and user comments. Almost all of the coupons were for gap.com and some were past their expiration date. While checking out various retailers from the list, I found the coupon codes to be easy to read. The codes could be copied to my clipboard and pasted into the checkout form on the retailer's website. In some cases, coupon codes were presented as links and the link would take me directly to the store's website. Because there is a lot of information, the easiest way to find coupon codes is to search for the words "coupon code" with your screenreader's find function. The actual code should appear directly below those words.
Toward the top of each page is a link for printable coupons. When the new page loads, there will be a form to enter your zip code. The form consists of an edit box and a search button. The results will be coupons for businesses in your area. To find a business, just move around the page by links. When you find the business you want, click on its link and a separate window will open listing the various coupons available and the option to print them. There is also a link for grocery coupons. That page loads a form with an edit box for your zip code and a combo box to enter a distance radius from your zip code (for instance, 10 miles) within which to search for coupons.
There is a search box near the top of the homepage, but it can be a bit confusing. The form consists of an edit box and search button, but additional information will be read as you fill out the form. You will hear several links before you get to the search button, but it is there. The search results are displayed clearly and are easy to access.
The Bottom Line
This site contains a huge amount of coupons, but with some patience and the use of your screenreader's find command, it is relatively easy to learn.
Eventful
The Eventful website claims to have listings for many events in your local area. This can be useful if you're looking for something to do and don't want to search a variety of websites.
When the website loads, it may be preloaded with your general area at the very top of the page. For example, my page started with New York City, which is the general area where I live. There is a search form, consisting of an edit box and a search button. Between the edit box and search button is some text and the phrase "Sorry, no results." I put my zip code into the search box and when the page reloaded, it listed the actual city where I live. Arrowing down the page can give the reader the idea that no results are found. The best way to find out whether your location has changed to your current zip code location is to look for the word "success." If you find that word, you will discover that your location has been successfully changed. Under this information is a link to a listing of events for your area.
When the new page loads, there is a great deal of information, including a list of worldwide events. Look for the phrase "local events by category." Under that is a list of links for 12 different categories, including "Concerts," "Children and Family," and "Festivals." Under the list of categories is another link to display all events. For any of the categories, results can be narrowed by date, weekend, week, or month.
I was initially excited about checking the results, so I chose outdoor and recreation activities for the weekend. Then my results page came up and listed 4,032 events. Included in my listing were events from other locations around the New York City area. There was no way to narrow down the list based on distance from my home. As my husband said, "This site is hard to use for a sighted person as well. It would take me considerable time to go through this list."
Another issue concerns registration. Not all of the controls in the registration form speak, and there is no audio CAPTCHA available. Using sighted assistance, I registered to determine whether I could set up a profile and limit the number of events in my results. When my registration was processed, a page came up with several locations and I was to choose if I wanted information on any of these locations. The problem was that my choice could not be selected by a link, check box, or any other form control. The only way to make my selection was by choosing one of two unlabeled graphics.
The Bottom Line
It would be nice to have a place where you can check events going on in your neighborhood, but this is not an accessible site. The pages have a good deal of clutter, ads, and misleading information, along with unlabeled graphics.
Teux Deux
The Teux Deux website is designed to organize your "to do" list, mark off completed tasks, and allow you to move items from one day to another. Your list can be accessed from any computer by entering your user name and password.
On the homepage is a link to watch a video about Teux Deux, but the play button is an unlabeled graphic. The video gives a quick overview of what a user can do with the site, but it's not really helpful for someone with a visual impairment. Below the link to watch the video are additional unlabeled links.
The only way to try the website is to sign up. Pressing "enter" on the sign-up link did not work. For Window-Eyes, I needed to route the mouse pointer to the link, turn browse mode off, and then click the left mouse button. The registration form is brief and all of the controls speak. However, there is no button to submit the form. After setting the combo box for your time zone, there is an unlabeled link, which must be pressed to submit the form. When you log into your account in the future, the user name and password boxes will not speak if browse mode is turned off.
Once the form is submitted, a new page will load with edit boxes for each day of the coming week. The daily edit boxes did not speak when Window-Eyes had browse mode turned off to fill out forms. Browse mode needed to be on, but once the edit box for a particular date was located, browse mode could be turned off to fill out the form.
The way to tell if all of the text is in the form is by using arrow keys. Once I turned browse mode on, all of the text was read. After typing an item in an edit box, hit the enter key. This will move your item out of the edit box and onto your list for that day. When typing in another day's edit box, you might hear text that was placed in a previous edit box. Use your screenreader's arrow keys to read what's actually in the edit box you're currently using.
When a task is complete, a sighted person can mark off that task using the mouse. A line will go through the item that was completed. However, this is an unlabeled graphic, so a screenreader cannot read it. Moving items around is simple for a sighted person. If you want to move an item, you can copy it to the clipboard, go into the edit box of the day you want to move it to, paste it in, and then hit enter. This will add the item to that day's list, but the item will still be there on the original day. You cannot cut the item to the clipboard to move it. The only way to perform the task is to drag and drop the item, but this didn't work with Window-Eyes as it was impossible to get the mouse pointer exactly where it needed to go.
The Bottom Line
Teux Deux has accessibility issues from the very beginning. It would be nice to check your to-do list from any computer, but this site is frustrating to use. If you just want to enter information and not manipulate it or mark the task when it has been completed, then the site will work with some effort. However, I would rather not deal with this website.
Speed Test
The Speed Test website allows a user to test his or her computer's upload and download speeds. This way, you can tell if there's a problem with your Internet service provider or with your computer.
The webpage has clearly labeled links and form controls. However, this is where the accessibility stops. In order to tell Speed Test your general area, you must put your mouse pointer on a graphic map of the United States. Once you start the speed test, the results are also presented as an unlabeled graphic. Therefore, this site is completely inaccessible.
The Bottom Line
Entering user information and getting speed test results on this site both require sighted assistance and are inaccessible with a screenreader.
Nutrition Data
The Nutrition Data website provides information on a wide variety of foods. This is a case where a user can get good information with some effort as parts of the site are difficult to read. Unless you are truly into food and nutrition, the amount of information can be overwhelming.
Near the top of the page is a link to compare foods. You can then search for foods that are highest in calories, lowest in calories, highest in carbs, lowest in fat, and so on. The search results can be found by searching for the word "table" with your screenreader's find key. Although the results are presented in a table, Window-Eyes did not recognize it as such.
There is a search form on the homepage to obtain information about a particular food. The form consists of an edit box, a combo box listing a wide variety of food categories, including fast-food restaurants, and a search button. The search results can be difficult to interpret. Columns are not labeled, so it is hard to tell what the numbers refer to. There are also some graphics on the results page.
This website also features articles and information on a variety of topics, including fitness, weight loss, recipes, heart health, and much more. These links are clearly labeled. Depending on the link that is chosen, a page to subscribe to Self Magazine may come up or a new window may open. There also might be a lot of clutter on the page. With some practice, a user could learn to navigate the clutter.
There is a registration form with controls that do speak. There are check boxes at the bottom of the form to choose what kind of material you want to receive from the site. Unless you want to track everything you are eating or are seriously interested in nutrition, there really isn't any reason to register. Unregistered users still have access to articles, recipes, and newsletters.
The Bottom Line
Although some of the information can be overwhelming and difficult to read, Nutrition Data contains some interesting information that can be accessed with a little effort.
Sit or Squat
Have you ever needed to find a public bathroom? The Sit or Squat website claims it can find the public bathrooms closest to your location. The problem is, for a person with a visual impairment, this site doesn't work at all. There's an edit box to enter your location by zip code or intersection, but the results are displayed as unlabeled graphics.
The Bottom Line
This website is completely inaccessible.
Conclusion
Although PC World calls the websites reviewed for this article "incredibly useful," all but two of them are incredibly frustrating for the visually impaired. Many mainstream websites still have a long way to go to make their pages accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
