access
This is the third in a series of articles looking at the accessibility of national newspaper websites in the UK to blind and partially sighted users.

Journalism.co.uk asked blind volunteer John Allnutt to give us his take on several leading UK newspaper websites. John uses JAWS screen reading technology to navigate web pages and find his news online. He was aided and abetted in his assessment by pupils from Dorton College.

(Read our introduction piece for links to our assessment of other newspaper sites. Read the profile of our volunteers and expert)


The volunteers' views on
on Express.co.uk:

John

A positive start to the Express.co.uk for screen reader users as JAWS announced only 162 links when entering the homepage of the site - comparatively fewer than most of the newspaper websites reviewed in this series and an indication that JAWS will fare better dealing with this lower number of links.

Express 1However, the first link that John was presented with was labelled 'front page'. This was out of context as the user assumed they were on the main page of the website. For visual users this link is illustrated with an image of the Express' print edition, but this image is not labelled for the blind user (the same problem occurred with the Independent).

Having a weather report at the top of the site was a positive feature of the homepage, according to John, as it provided instant information without having to search or click through to any other pages.

Browsing through the opening page of the site, however, John found using a JAWS search (the screen reader allows users to quickly search a list of page links) for news was easier than tabbing through the navigation and links provided.

"The first thing I was taken to when searching for news was the news link. But it's very strange to navigate round this site, as when I went past the news link and arrowed back up again, it went to a different set of links."

John said he would have also preferred a navigation bar across the top of the site, such as on Guardian.co.uk, rather than a left-hand navigation, as tabbing through this list of links takes the user to below the main content on the home page.

In assessing how well the Express' own search could be used by a screen reader user to navigate around the website, John's main criticism was that on the search results screen JAWS was initially drawn to the 'popular searches' list of links.

Instead of immediately informing the blind user of how many results they have and taking them to them, out of context links to Madeleine McCann and Princess Diana were the first things communicated by JAWS with no explanation that these were commonly searched for terms.

While the Express site offers scope for user interaction through the 'Have your say' area of the site, John found entering this part of the site very inaccessible.

"My first feeling about this area is I don't know where to have my say - once again I've been taken through the page furniture after clicking on a specific link.

"I've found a field for data entry using JAWS on this page, but it's not clear whether this will allow me to comment or whether it's just a means of finding out more information on a given subject in this section."

He did, however, prefer the Express' layout of its blogs section, which lists its blogs in a similar style to articles with an appropriate headline indicating to the screen reader user what they might get from selecting a particular link.

Josh's views (Dorton College students graded site function 1 (poor) to 5 (good))

Finding the headline news: "You definitely know where the top story of this site is, because the headings are big – not quite as big as the Sun, but better than the Guardian." [5/5]

Finding an article of interest: "It was difficult to navigate my way into different sections of the site as those sections, such as sport, were not divided into sub-sections, so just provided a long off-putting list of stories." [1/5]

User interaction: "In the comment section for articles there are too many headings and links saying 'sign up now', which are confusing and poorly explained." [1/5]

Site search: "On the results page there's a picture displayed alongside main title and text snippet, which can be useful. But it comes up with a list of links directing you away from the results before you've even got to them." [3/5]

Overall design and layout: "It's not a very good font and the colour is a bit muted. It's extremely hard [to skip between stories in this list] because they run into each other. The stories are in the same box and there are no dividing lines." [0.5/5]

The expert's view:

Richard

"A common problem found by your reviewers was the need to listen to an extensive list of links (navigation menus) and other 'page furniture' before getting to the main content of the page. This is because JAWS (and other assistive software) reads the page in the order in which it is written.

"The sighted user has his or her attention drawn to the main story in the middle of the page by the colour and size of the headline font and associated images.

"The blind user has to listen whilst JAWS works it way through all the menus, advertisements and other clutter on the page. To a lesser extent sighted people who cannot use a mouse accurately share this problem. If they want to use a link in the main story they have to use the keyboard tab key to jump through all the preceding navigation links ('site furniture') before they get to the main story."


Accessibility features for visually impaired users on Express.co.uk:

There is no dedicated accessibility section on the Express' website.


Response from Express.co.uk:

Geoff Marsh, online editor

"When we relaunched Express.co.uk in March we took several steps we felt would benefit the visually impaired.

"Your reviewer says that our blogs section is well organised, but fails to mention that - throughout the entire site - we have avoided complex or varied fonts and maintained a simple publishing style which greatly helps users with low vision impairment.

"Unlike many of our rivals, all our stories are published in 'web-safe' colours - i.e. black on white - which gives the highest contrast and is therefore much easier for the visually impaired to view. Our electronic, e-Edition, also allows users to zoom in by up to 300%.

"We are also currently making several other improvements to the site which we hope will improve the experience for all blind and visually impaired users.

"Our new, simplified video player will launch shortly and we are also in talks with National Talking Newspapers about ways in which Express.co.uk can help deliver the news to the blind."

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