SiteMorse rails at the DRC
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We are probably going to see more of this in the immediate future - checklist and automaton driven testing versus practical user testing. I'm frankly disguisted with the approach SiteMorse have taken in this press release:
SiteMorse press release
Red Ant portfolio list: SiteMorse
My rant on the subject
Health warning: SiteMorse website is particulaly inaccessible. Since they pride themselves on their automated testing tools and valid markup checks, its an open season on criticism -especially when they criticise the DRC for not using their tool or methods.
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I wasn't too happy about the long scrollbar and low contrast plus the nice auto without warning popup window._________________
};-) http://www.xhtmlcoder.com/
WVYFC chose the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as the main charity to fund raise for in 2006
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made me giggle..._________________
Patrick H. Lauke / webmaster / University of Salford
co-lead: WaSP Accesibility Task Force
take it to the streets ... WaSP Street Team
personal: splintered | photographia | redux
co-author: Web Accessibility - Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance
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I couldn't get through the who sidemorse page as the text and window was too small, but what I did read seamed like the usual garbage we get from this company. I especially love Red Ant's site - you know, the one with the pulsating flash of the sitemorse site, very lucky my wife wasn't at the computer, she could've had a fit.
grrr - these people really annoy me!
sidemorse =
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The whole piece just read like a rant written by someone who needed to let off some steam but never expected it to be published. If this is Sitemorse's idea of a professional press release then I'd advise them to change their PR advisors.
I smiled when I read that the writer admitted he was no expert. So what was he doing the piece for? Own goal for SiteMorse.
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Great rant by Isofarro. Amongst the many problems on the redant pages, one that drives me nuts: accesskey using e.g. '"t" and "h". Always a dead giveaway that the designer wants to put in all the accessibility features but never actually tests for the consequences (as Isofarro says in his article). Gimme my browser back 
As for claiming AAA-compliance (either WAI or Bobby), that's just cheeky - and blatantly wrong.
I particularly like the link from the news page to a radio interview with Gavin Massey. I haven't linked directly to the interview page, because on loading it up a sound file (swf) plays automatically with (as far as I can see) no way of stopping it other than leaving the page. I don't use a screenreader, but I can't imagine it's anything other than confusing. And again, this page is 'AAA'.
The front page of Sitemorse is one of the most distracting I know. I'm trying to read the text, and that flashing text at bottom-left is constantly drawing my attention away. Truly awful.
Richard
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...or something.
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Yes, I saw this last week and I was similarly disgusted. What is worrying is that people belive this rubbish and that Sitemorse have a highly active marketing department that gets this info on to the desks of senior people who can be so easily taken in. I’ve seen it several times over the last couple of years.
The writer himself obviously belives that Sitemorse is the answer to everything and the only test that counts. Also, how can he call the comments from the DRC’s spokesman ‘shocking and confusing’ when he quite rightly says that there is no standard in UK law.
What makes a company like this think they know more about disability rights and the law than two of the leading exponents?
What really kills this article is the complete misunderstanding of the very straightforward comments made by the DRC. I hope many of the readers realise this and that this becomes what it should be – a shot in the foot for Sitemorse.
Cheers
Kevin
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i think i may have to extend my "bobby? bobbins..." experiment to include sitemorse, provided they have their own lovely user agent, and write an slightly nastier rebuttal/education peice for them...
| KLewis wrote: |
| What is worrying is that people belive this rubbish and that Sitemorse have a highly active marketing department that gets this info on to the desks of senior people who can be so easily taken in. |
indeed. the fact that i hear almost any manager i get into contact with mentioning "bobby" as soon as the subject of accessibility is broached is testament to this.
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Patrick H. Lauke / webmaster / University of Salford
co-lead: WaSP Accesibility Task Force
take it to the streets ... WaSP Street Team
personal: splintered | photographia | redux
co-author: Web Accessibility - Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance
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On the other hand, the DRC's website is tragic. I have no disability and use a standard resolution and workstation, and find it completely unusable in navigation terms, as well as difficult to read because of a lack of definition between page divisions.
Given this, I usually opt to use the telephone service, which I generally don't find to be an adequate alternative to the website (e.g. nothing I order every turns up!), and so ...
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Kajun
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| Kajun wrote: |
| On the other hand, the DRC's website is tragic. I have no disability and use a standard resolution and workstation, and find it completely unusable in navigation terms, as well as difficult to read because of a lack of definition between page divisions. |
Just looked at their new design for the first time - visually its quite an improvement. Could you point to something specific - I'm having a hard time imagining the problems you are encountering.
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I'd assume with the DRC Kajun meant there was no hover on some links and the focus was weak plus the colour changer was confusing in that it used squares maybe a coloured font on the square may have made more sense._________________
};-) http://www.xhtmlcoder.com/
WVYFC chose the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as the main charity to fund raise for in 2006
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For a start, Alt-D is used as an access key, so it breaks the way I browse.
The layout of pages is indistinct - a sea of whitespace (harsh white too - grand for dyslexic people) with dots of unconnected content (a sidebar, a footer bar, the main content) that could seriously do with some borders or changes in background colour to help focus the eye on the actual content, rather than having to work out where it starts and ends.
But more so than anything else, I simply can't work out how to find the information I'm looking for there. Menus lead to sidebars which lead to sub-sidebars which aren't distinct enough from the parent item, which lead into microsites which have the same layout with subtly different colours, but change some of the main navigation options yet keep others - I've already been to "Your Rights" on the main site, would I be likely to go again on the Education microsite unless I somehow knew it was different?
Plus what Rob says, and I find Verdana excruciating to read.
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Kajun
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Hmmm, more company squabble over web accessibility. Not ever been too impressed with SiteMorse.... was impressed, however, with your rant Isofarro._________________
Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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At Red Ant we are happy to receive both criticism and compliments for our websites. Although we strive to improve accessibility on our websites we know that we are not always perfect. Some of the flaws in our site pointed out in this thread have now been fixed and the remainder will be fixed in due course. Thank you for bringing them to our attention since we do genuinely try to make our sites usable and accessible.
Within the next couple of months we should have our new website up and would appreciate any feedback you wish to give.
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| rconyard wrote: |
| Some of the flaws in our site pointed out in this thread have now been fixed and the remainder will be fixed in due course. Thank you for bringing them to our attention since we do genuinely try to make our sites usable and accessible. |
Cool - everyone here is geared towards helping others and the cause of accessibility on the Web, and I have no doubts that you are any different from the rest of us. No-one is perfect.
| rconyard wrote: |
| Within the next couple of months we should have our new website up and would appreciate any feedback you wish to give. |
Please do pop over and post in the Site Critiques section when it is ready and we'll take a look.
PS - welcome to the forum.
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Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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