{"id":1539,"date":"2015-12-03T08:30:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T08:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2017-07-20T09:37:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T09:37:23","slug":"update-accessibility-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2015\/12\/03\/update-accessibility-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"An update on our accessibility testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a post by\u00a0<\/em>Sam Tilston<\/em><\/a>, one of our\u00a0user researchers, and <\/em>Scott Langley<\/em><\/a>, one of our user experience designers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As part of our on-going accessibility work on www.mygov.scot<\/a>, we recently carried out a round of accessibility testing. It\u2019s an important part of our overall accessibility strategy to carry out testing with real users as they can help identify issues that automated tests and expert audits won\u2019t find.<\/p>\n

Our approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

We interviewed 10 participants over a two-week period at a number of locations across Scotland. We asked the participants to carry out representative tasks on the site and explored a number of key areas, primarily to evaluate the site and ensure it is usable for users with disabilities and users of assistive technology.<\/p>\n

We recruited a spread of participants who had either a physical, cognitive or visual impairment. Although we segmented the participants into these three groups it is important to be careful with categorisation, as there can be large differences within in each category and the severity of the impairment can vary greatly. Additionally, it is common for people to have multiple impairments.<\/p>\n

We tested across a variety of platforms and participants made use of\u00a0their own assistive technology (including screen-magnifiers, screen-readers, styluses and other input devices).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why it\u2019s important<\/strong><\/p>\n

Accessibility impacts a large number of people as nearly\u00a0one in five<\/strong>\u00a0(1 million, or 19%) people of working age in Scotland are disabled. We also live in an aging population, and as we age, most people experience a decrease in vision, hearing, physical abilities, and cognitive abilities, which will in turn lead to an increase in the number of people requiring assistive technology to access the web.<\/p>\n

However, more significantly, it is important to get accessibility right as it impacts everyone. If something is inaccessible for a user with an impairment or disability it is likely that it will impact all users. By improving the accessibility of the mygov.scot<\/a> site we make it a better experience for all.<\/p>\n

Findings relating to the mygov.scot<\/a> site<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given that we\u2019ve been through previous rounds of both usability testing and internal accessibility testing the site had a healthy starting point. However, we uncovered a lot of insight for areas to work on as well as things that we\u2019d like to continue bearing in mind for future iterations.<\/p>\n