How *not* to design a resource for people with disabilities

[codeman38]

In surfing for autism-related stuff today, I found this article from NIMH describing a new job training site designed for people with autism and other developmental disabilities.

So, being an autistic person myself, I had to check out the site in question:

http://www.do2learn.com/JobTIPS/

...umm, where's the menu? There's this big blank space where it looks like there should be a menu, and the "helpful hints" link definitely mentions that there should be a toolbar on the left...

::allows site in NoScript::

Ahh, there's... a bunch of images that are rather small and blurry. Let me look at the alt text...

::disables images::

Umm... OK, blank image icons with no ALT text, wonderful. At least the filenames actually indicate what the menu items are, so screen readers can sort of make sense of them, which is better than some sites I've seen. Let me try tabbing to that...

::continues hitting Tab, which skips over the menu entirely::

::turns on screen reader navigation, is able to tab to the menu items, but can't find where the pop-out menu is when I simulate a mouseover event::

::facepalms::

Oh, and to add insult to injury? The company's contact page has its form labels as un-ALT-tagged images (no, designers, it's not obvious to everyone that "eadd.jpg" = "e-mail address", especially with there being no <label> tags either). And an image-only CAPTCHA at the end of the form, on top of that.

I get the distinct impression that the people behind this have never actually met a person with a disability who uses the web.

Comments

[sophie]

Another accessibility fail of that site: If you have a default zoom level that's fairly big, like me, then the you might be left wondering how you access the lower items of the menu because when you scroll the page, it doesn't scroll the menu.

It turns out that the main part of the page is actually in its own scrollable box for some reason. You can use the browser scroll bar to access the lower parts of the menu. (Really, though, having the main part in its own scrollable box is bad design generally too.)

[codeman38]

Oh, yeah, I noticed that too-- in Firefox, the "next page" button sits below that scrolling frame. (Oddly enough, it's on top in Chrome... go figure.)

[jesse_the_k]

OK. Lesson #1 for web designers. If you feel the need to write a "how to use this web site" instruction page, you're doing it wrong.

[codeman38]

Seriously. It's like... did they actually test this site with the target audience? Ever?

[thejeopardymaze]

Why do I get the feeling this 'training' is for the worst low end jobs? Oh yeah, previous experiences under job coaches.

It's been nearly two decades

[thejeopardymaze]

And I try not to look back too much, because it still pisses me off. But there is an incredible amount of condescending attitudes from these people they think they're trying to help.

This isn't to say these services aren't entirely useless, but the state of that website no doubt reflects the problems that still remain.

[codeman38]

That's... kind of the impression I got as well.

I was pleasantly surprised that they actually touch on the stuff in higher-end jobs that actually is troublesome for me, like job interviews and disclosure. 'Course, the advice is largely useless, touching on exactly the aspects that I don't have trouble with... but they tried, at least.

[thejeopardymaze]

At this point I'd just rather take a big risk and start my own business at this rate. It's either that or washing dishes or data entry for the rest of my life, and I think I have the personality for it, despite my own difficulties.

[kyrielle]

...dear and....

I don't even have a disability that would affect web browsing in any way, and that left menu is slightly out of focus and because of all the colors used it seems to swim a little when I look at it.

*shudders*

[pauamma]

I get the distinct impression that the people behind this have never actually met a person with a disability who uses the web.

s/with a disability //

[codeman38]

::giggle:: Good point.