[Accessibleweb] Summary from new Web accessibility/usability study

[Sheryl Burgstahler]

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2825.asp

Part of the summary says:

The research asked a cross-section of more than 200 web users, with a 
variety of impairments, to rank, in terms of importance, the factors which 
aid their ease of use when online. Clarity of content using 
straightforward language and a clear, simple layout was regarded by 88% as 
very important. Good navigation the ability to know where you are within a 
site was regarded as very important by 65%, followed by the use of 
meaningful and clear hyperlinks (63%).

Factors traditionally perceived as the fundamental accessibility issues 
have become comparatively less significant. Good use of 
alt tags, for example, was only regarded as 
very important by a third of respondents - while among the visually impaired users, a 
surprising 25% found alt tags not important at all.

Respondents were also asked to rank the most annoying and most useful 
features of websites. Elements that aid users in finding content easily 
and navigating around sites came up high on the lists, whilst avoiding 
pop-ups was only fourth in the list of top five annoyances, thanks mainly 
to the increased use of blockers which eliminate them before they appear. 
Inevitably scalable text remains an important issue, particularly for 
visually impaired users.

Top five annoyances
1. Not having in-site search
2. No sitemap
3. No internal page navigation/skip to content/back to top links
4. Pop-ups
5. Inability to change font size/colour contrast

Top five most useful features
1. Having in-site search
2. Having a sitemap
3. Clear, well labelled links
4. Having internal page navigation
5. Ability to personalise page view/font size
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Thoughts on this?