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Findings

Nomenclature


Finding 27: Participants stated that WAI Web site nomenclature was inconsistent

The language used on links, and as section headers was often inconsistent throughout the WAI Web site. Participants expressed confusion in particular when they sought out information on how to join an accessibility-related working group. They noted that the word "join" was used differently on each page they encountered. They suggested that link names and Web page titles should always be consistently identical.

Finding 28: The term "Quick Tips" had little meaning for participants

As a term, "Quick Tips" had little resonance with participants. They stated that its content had "little" to do with its name.

Finding 29: Participants expected to see "Volunteer" instead of "join"

During their exploration of the WAI information pertaining to joining a working group, participants commented that they expected to see the word "volunteer" used to signpost this information.

Finding 30: Participants identified "Presentation" and "Download" as key words for indicating tools

As they mulled over what terms would be most appropriate for identifying materials that they could use for accessibility advocacy, they suggested that "presentation" and "download" were very appropriate terms.

Finding 31: lists of links with similar names significantly confused Participants.

We observed participants as they scanned down the WAI Web pages, and noted that they were frequently confused by link nomenclature that differed only slightly. For example, the WAI Web site typically makes document titles in their entirety into active links. As a result, link names for documents with similar names required users to carefully read each link (sometimes an entire line or even two of text) in order to determine how it differed from its neighbors. Participants suggested "using less link text" and "finding ways" to make the distinctions between link options clearer.

An example of a page participants stated was difficult to parse may be found at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/#te.

In the words of one participant: "This Web site is just one long list of underlined links." We observed that one solution for simplifying links may be to avoid presenting numerical identifiers as links. For example, if a link was named: "1.2 Guideline for...", it may not be necessary to hyperlink the 1.2, and not doing so may make the link easier to parse, visually.

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