ux research and accessibility

©2016 McGraw-Hill Education. Confidential and Proprietary. Not for redistribution.

©2016 McGraw-Hill Education. Confidential and Proprietary.

Not for redistribution.

SOCAL UX CAMPUX Research and Accessibility

Brenna GordonAugust 6, 2016

Coordinating Site Visits for Usability Testing

©2016 McGraw-Hill Education. Confidential and Proprietary. Not for redistribution. 4

Coordinating Research – Educational Setting

Recruit Potential Candidates for Site Visits and Usability Testing1. Gather potential candidate information

• Send surveys • Utilize existing customer database• Speak with your internal contacts • Email potential candidates directly

2. Contact sites• Reach out to contacts gathered from surveys• Reach out to the institution’s Disabled Student Services

3. Find proper person to partner with at the site—this is your coordinator• This may take a few rounds of emails• It is crucial to have the proper coordinator

(continued on next slide…)

©2016 McGraw-Hill Education. Confidential and Proprietary. Not for redistribution. 5

Coordinating Research – Educational Setting

Recruit Potential Candidates for Site Visits and Usability Testing cont…4. Work with your coordinator to schedule the visit and testing

• Have coordinator schedule times with participants, ensuring 15+ minutes between each individual and time for a lunch break

• Request proper facilities (e.g. quiet room for testing, electrical outlets, Wi-Fi access, tables, chairs etc.)

5. Follow up with your coordinator to confirm schedule• Ensure they follow up with participants

6. Go on site visit, conduct tests, and gather data!


How do you compensate your usability test participants?Usability testing honorariums vary widely depending on who your participants are. Since accessibility testing participants are a very specific demographic, and they are hard to recruit, we give them a larger honorarium than an easier to find demographic.

For the ALEKS Accessibility project, each usability testing participant was emailed an Amazon gift card.

We chose to email the gift cards to the participants instead of handing them a physical gift card. We tried to find Braille gift cards, but they do not exist. We already knew the participants were computer literate due to the testing requirements, so emailing them was the best choice in order to convey the gift card code and amount.

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Honorariums – Participants

Usability Testing With Participants Who Are Visually Impaired


Prepare yourself for working with participants who are visually impaired• Learn how your participants interact

with your medium• Blind Film Critic – Instagram• Visually Impaired Redditor

• Familiarize yourself with JAWS (or the screen reader of your choice)• Install software• Turn off screen• See how your program works

• Go on an initial discovery site visit to see people in action using technology

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Preparing for Usability Testing

Developers may need to code• Before you conduct user testing,

there will probably need to be updates to coding to Web Content Accessibility (WCAG) standards

https://youtu.be/P1e7ZCKQfMA

https://youtu.be/VBeu01ztoZE

https://youtu.be/VBeu01ztoZE

https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/?currentsidebar=#col_customize&levels=aaa


Usability Test Setup• Two laptops

• Tech Smith’s Morae program • Traditional keyboard• Morae Observer laptop is the laptop

the moderator used to take notes• JAWS

• Video: https://youtu.be/si1_iR5lbyg• Hub• Wi-Fi

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Setting Up The Testing Environment

https://youtu.be/si1_iR5lbyg

https://youtu.be/si1_iR5lbyg


Usability Test Setup

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Setting Up The Testing Environment


What specific accommodations should you consider when conducting usability testing with visually impaired participants?

• When working with a laptop and a screen reader, you will also need a traditional keyboard to plug into the laptop.

• Participants do not use a mouse in conjunction with a screen reader. You only need one if you plan on using it yourself.

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Usability Testing Accommodations


What specific accommodations should you consider when conducting usability testing with visually impaired participants?• Participants often have their own braille displays. Braille displays are single line,

refreshable displays made of round-tipped pins raised through holes in a flat surface that read the text on the screen. They also have keys for users to input information into fields and certain models can store information.

• Braille displays work in conjunction with JAWS and will display the words JAWS reads.

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How does a visually impaired participant sign the waiver/participation release form?

1. Read the waiver out loud to the participant. 2. Ask the participant if they have any questions.3. Bring a pen for the participant to use when signing the waiver. Hand them the pen.4. Place the pen on the line for the participant to sign. 5. Date and print the participant’s name on the form for them.

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It is useful to have a signature guide for participants to use when signing the waiver. A signature guide is the size of a credit card (see image below).


What other things should you keep in mind when working with visually impaired participants?• It is okay to say the words “see” or “blind”• Be mindful of guide dogs• Try to vocalize your actions as much as possible• Offer your arm if you need to move areas• Be specific when describing where to sit; place their hand on the back of the chair

Remote user testing via JAWS JAWS has a built-in screen share feature called Tandem. It is easier to run than a traditional screen share such as WebEx or GoToMeeting, especially when using Morae (the usability testing software we use at ALEKS). Plus there are no extra add-ons to install, and the participant doesn’t need to learn a new software since they are already familiar with JAWS.1. Run Morae2. Run JAWS3. Use Tandem feature on JAWS4. Use speaker phone5. Record session using Morae

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