Jump Past Navigation
OrbitAccess Home Page Report on Web Accessibility of the Presidential Candidate Sites
Images of the Candidate Sites in Netscape
Images of the Candidate Sites in Lynx
The Candidate Sites as Evaluated by Bobby
Images of the Candidate Sites in Palm V
The Candidate Sites Read by Home Page Reader
On-Line Resources in Web Accessibility

Web Accessibility of the Presidential Candidate Sites, December 9, 1999

Introduction

The transformation of the World Wide Web from an academic resource to an information and entertainment conduit happened very quickly. Because the change took place in an environment of 'browser battles' over features and flashiness, much of the accessibility structure built into the Web's language (HTML, HyperText Markup Language) was ignored or forgotten. Web site 'designers'--graphics artists and publishers--worked to give Web pages the look and feel of paper magazines and brochures.

At the same time, a proliferation of multimedia and clever presentation tools distracted designers from assuring that their sites remained available to all visitors. Phrases such as "best viewed with Netscape" or "you must have the Shockwave plug-in" and "your browser must be Java-enabled" began appearing.

This environment undermined accessibility.

To evaluate the sites, OrbitAccess used six software tools and manual checking:

W3C iconWeb Accessibility Guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium, which develops standards for Web languages and protocols. The Guidelines have three levels of access, where Level 1 is the easiest to meet.

Bobby iconBobby, a Web-based evaluation tool that uses the Guidelines in producing a list of errors and barriers in Web sites, and areas to check by hand.

Lynx iconLynx, a text-only browser used with speech programs and 'screen-scraping' readers that speak the text being displayed.

Home Page Reader iconHome Page Reader, an IBM program made to work hand-in-hand with Netscape to determine what material should be read aloud.

Palm iconPalm V with ProxiWeb, the most-used palmtop computer/organizer along with a Web browser, to evaluate how sites would appear to the mobile voter.

Netscape iconNetscape, to examine how sites were meant to appear in an ordinary graphical view.

OrbitAccess iconOrbitAccess checked each site's home page and selected subsequent pages by hand to determine how multimedia applications, forms, and design and functional scripts (instructions) and applets (programs) were being used.

Sites were not evaluated in terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the real-world effects of the Act are not yet known. By Election 2000, however, some of the issues will be clarified. OrbitAccess will revisit the sites at that time.

Go to next section: Background

OrbitAccess Home Page | Report Index | Previous: Summary | Next: Background | candidate@orbitaccess.com