[orca-list] Dynamically Updating Web Pages (AJAX Experiments)

[Darren Lunn <darren lunn cs manchester ac uk>]

Hello all,

We are currently undertaking accessibility research with the Human  
Centred Web Lab (HCW) in the School of Computer Science at the  
University of Manchester. We are currently looking into the use of  
Web 2.0 technologies and their affects on Assistive technologies,  
both in general use and as a method of improving Web page  
accessibility.  To gain more of an insight into this, we have devised  
two small studies that we would like people to participate in.

The first study is to gain an understanding of how current screen  
reader (and browser) technologies cope with dynamic changes to  
pages.  We have developed a set of test pages,  and what we would  
like people to do is explore them, using your normal screen reader  
and browser, then tell us what happens.  There is a more detailed  
introduction and instructions at  <http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ 
research/saswat/experiments/atreview.html>.

The second study is to see if inserting ARIA statements into Web  
pages can aid in the navigation of the pages.  We are looking for  
people who use Windows Eyes, Orca or Firevox in conjunction with  
Firefox 3 and would be willing to take part in a small study in  
July.  Ideally we would like to have 12 participants and are willing  
to offer a bursary of a £10 iTunes voucher (approximately $20 USD)  
for anybody willing to take part.  The study will take no longer than  
an hour and there will be no need to travel as the study will be  
conducted remotely.  Anybody who is interested in taking part in this  
study or would like further information, please contact us directly  
at <hcw-studies cs manchester ac uk>.

I'd like to emphasise that any feedback at all will be useful to us  
and if any person has had experience of using ARIA or Web 2.0 in  
general then please feel free to send us comments.  If you are  
interested in participating in any of these studies, or have comments  
and feedback, then please contact us at <hcw- 
studies cs manchester ac uk>.

Many thanks


Darren





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University of Manchester (UK)
Human Centred Web Lab
http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk