Usability Testing: Accessibility Audit
This project involved remote accessibility testing of subscription e- resources (such as PubMed or EBSCOhost) with freely available digital accessibility evaluation tools. I am working on this project as a Research Assistant. The Principal Researcher is the Content Strategy Librarian for the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, Nora Burmeister. I will highlight my tasks for the project in this post.
Purpose:
We’re performing usability tests to gather evidence of accessibility issues in frequently used electronic databases’ interfaces so that we can reach out to them individually and suggest ways to bring their interfaces in compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guide 2.0 standards.
Process:
Nora created Qualtrics surveys to walk participants through the e-resources, how to evaluate them, and to collect the data. She sent them to library employees working from home. As part of the support we provided to our testers, I created a training video on how to use VoiceOver (a free screen-reader available on Macs) to evaluate accessibility.
I did the data analysis, which was a combination of quantitative and qualitative findings, by creating a one-page summary of each resource’s issues and rating them on a scale of 1-3 in terms of severity.
I emailed each vendor, listing out the standards and the accessibility issues our testers noted. Vendors who replied either provided roadmaps for remediation plans or invited us to video calls about upcoming accessibility upgrades.
Outcomes:
This project resulted in direct communications with upwards of 75 vendors about accessibility issues our testers highlighted in comparison with federally-mandated standards. Vendors such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Euromonitor have committed to improving their interfaces as a direct result of our findings.
We presented our findings at 4 conferences so far, including Designing For Digital 2021, LAUNC-CH 2021, and GLAM 2021. A video of our LAUNC-CH presentation is available on YouTube.
Lessons Learned:
This was my first large-scale collaborative project between a coworker and myself, as well as members of another department at the Libraries. I gained experience in communicating with a partner and advocating for my own ideas. I also practiced using different tools (Mural and Excel) to keep track of all communications in a way that both I and outsiders could track the project’s progress.