[LINK] ABC Mobile Web Site Failed Accessibility Test

[Tom Worthington]

At 08:55 AM 17/03/2009, I wrote:
>The Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched 
>"ABC Mobile" yesterday <http://m.abc.net.au/>. 
>Unfortunately the home page does not appear to 
>have been designed in accordance with guidelines 
>for web accessibility for the disabled and may be unlawful ...

I received the appended comment from Chris Winter 
at ABC Innovation, posted to my blog 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/03/abc-mobile-web-site-failed.html>.

The ABC has now included ALT text on the mobile 
home page. But I would like to see them carry out 
a full accessibility test of the site, before 
spending effort on versions for iPhones and 
Androids. The business strategy of building 
information services for specific models of 
mobile phone is one which has cost billions of 
dollars over the last few years has failed and 
sent a lot of companies broke. Also it worries me 
if the ABC think they can just whip up a mobile 
based service in response to an emergency. 
Experience of the Canberra and Victorian 
bushfires shows that emergency information 
services have to be designed and tested, 
otherwise more lives will be put at risk. I will 
be addressing that topic at the ANU,

16 April 2009

: <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/03/national-bushfire-warning-system.html>.

---
Thanks Tom for your constructive feedback on the 
new ABC Mobile site. The ABC has already 
addressed some of the concerns you’ve outlined 
as follows:1) Unfortunately the home page does 
not appear to have been designed in accordance 
with guidelines for web accessibility for the 
disabled. ABC response: Yes, we are working to 
correct this. 2) As well as the mobile phone 
compatible web site, there are Apple iPhoneand 
Gooogle Android applications offered. However, 
the ABC should have put its resources into the 
basic site, rather than building nice to have, 
but non-essential features.ABC response: We think 
it is strategically important for us to develop 
new services for new platforms to allow audiences 
to access ABC content regardless of which device 
or platform they prefer to use. Although the 
Google Android phone is still very new in 
Australia, we anticipate that it is likely to 
grow and we believe it is important to make our 
content accessible in as many places as 
possible.3) A test using the Test Accessibility 
Web tool (TAW 3.0 3/16/09 10:15 PM) against the 
WAI guidelines (W3C Recommendation 5 May 1999) 
reported: 1 Priority 1, 14 Priority 2 and 1 
Priority 3 problems with the page. The Priority 1 
problem is the most serious. The ABC has not 
included usable alternative text for the main 
navigation menu of the site. As an example, 
"Weather" is displayed as an image with no text 
saying "Weather" for those who cannot see the 
image. Instead the word "image" has been used for 
all the menu items, making the web site 
substantially inaccessible to those with vision 
impairment.ABC response: We have now updated the 
home page with alt tags integrated so text to 
speech software can now recognise most images for 
visually impaired people. The images in the 
navigation menu are properly identified. Thanks 
for pointing this out.4) The W3C mobileOK Checker 
gave the home page of the new site 79/100 on 
mobile compatible tests. This would be a good 
result for an ordinary web site but is poor for a 
site specifically designed for mobile phones. The 
web page is designed for smart phones with large 
screens (about 3 inches and QVGA resolution) and 
would be difficult to use on an ordinary mobile 
phone. The page is 38KB: 9KB for the text and 
29KB of images, which is too "heavy" for a mobile 
(W3C recommend 20 kbytes). There are 15 files 
required to be downloaded (the HTML and 14 
images), whereas W3C recommends a maximum of 10. 
There are numerous errors reported with the HTML 
coding of the web site.ABC response: The ABC has 
created five different mobile-optimised versions 
of the site designed to suit a range of low and 
higher end 3G phones. Larger images are served to 
larger handsets and smaller ones to lower end 
handsets. We have tested these extensively to 
make sure that we are catering for a wide range 
of audiences. Data rate also varies according to 
each of these five versions. We’re wondering 
which version you checked, Tom so we can compare 
notes with our tests?5) With its mobile service 
the ABC had the opportunity to not only provide a 
general news and entertainment service but one 
which would be of use in emergencies, such as 
bushfire and floods. However by not correctly 
designing the service the ABC has limited its 
usefulness.ABC response: This is the first phase 
of our ABC Mobile service. A dedicated emergency 
services information section will follow later 
this year. The editorial team would also be able 
to respond rapidly to emergency situations by 
immediately offering a lower end information 
service if deemed necessary.As with all ABC 
services, we endeavour to improve them and add 
new content and functionality over time, 
particularly in response to audience feedback. We 
are already planning significant developments to 
the ABC Mobile site. We welcome more discussion 
on the site – what works well and what coulld be 
improved and we have set up a dedicated message 
board for this conversation at 
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Board.aspx?b=150Chris WinterABC Innovation
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Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University