Category Archives: Legal

Accessibility, Legal, Programming

A Bit More Responsive

Years ago some websites looked terrible on my smartphone. They looked like websites viewed from 6 meters distance.

The first time I visited my blog with my smartphone, I was really anxious: “Does it look right?”

5 seconds later “What did I worry about?”

Disclaimer

I am not a legal expert. So please have a look at my used sources. Or contact a legal expert.

I am just a tester finding test ideas about accessibility. Thanks for joining in advance.

Some test responsiveness stories

My first tablet app to be tested was intended for an iPad. I had a Windows PC instead of the tablet. This was not right.

My solution was to install Safari and let it emulate an iPad. In other words: “I know you are a Windows machine. Now you function like an iPad.”
It sounds like a hypnosis act.
“What did I worry about?”

This work around did not stop me to demand an iPad. There is nothing like the real thing.

Responsive web design is basically about creating the best possible user experience in the assigned space on the screen.

This blog looks good on a mobile device and a laptop. The same features are shown only in a different order and in a different way, but it feels the same. Really responsive.

The last years I learned CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. CSS determines how the websites looks. It is even possible to change the locations of web elements.

If I look to this website in a browser on a laptop, I can make the window smaller by resizing the window. The effect is that elements of the web page are resized or relocated or not shown any more.

During a debriefing a developer showed me this resizing trick.
Resize and look for bad things like hidden buttons or partially shown texts.
It is a fast way for the first impression.

Can not install on my machine

All that resizing stuff is not an exact science and Safari … cannot simply be installed on a company laptop because of a company policy. So I did a bit of research. If you don’t mind.

Firefox has a special feature Dev Tools. It can be accessed using the F12 key. In the upper right corner of this sub window there is a button with two rectangles, which look like a smartphone and a tablet.
A green eclipse marking a button with a smartphone and a tablet in the menu bar of Dev Tools!

This opens a lot of options to test smartphones and tablets.

It also support the screen orientation like portrait and landscape.

Just look to this website on a mobile phone while holding it in portrait mode. Then change it to landscape. In portrait mode only the headers of my last blog posts are shown, in the landscape mode the last complete blogs posts are shown. Courtesy of my website software.

Chrome and Edge also have Dev Tools which can be accessed using F12 key. Both Dev Tools windows have an emulator tab for mobile devices.

Concerning responsiveness

One of the biggest search engines decided to give a higher ranking to mobile friendly websites. So support for small screens can give a positive boost to let a user find a website.

Most people have a PC or laptop with 1 screen. It is sometimes tedious to switch application. So I tend to resize the applications to fit more of them on my screen. My preference is squeezed and usable.

Another thing for responsiveness is language. Some customers prefer to use a website or application in their own language. OK is translated to OK, but Cancel to Annuleren or Annullieren. So the button should be resized after translation.

Responsiveness is not only about reshuffling web page elements. It is also about resizing the web page elements in case of bigger fonts.

Suppose I have bad eyes, then I need to make fonts bigger so that I can actually read the text. Pressing the Ctrl key and the + key at the same time will enlarge the text in browsers and Windows applications.

Problem solved?
No, I am so sorry.

As a user I have to scroll a lot. It is like watching a picture which is split over three different screens. I have to change my seat to get the whole picture.

In 2024 this could have some legal consequences in Europe.
In Annex 1 of the European Accessibility Act “flexible magnification” is mandatory for specific commercial websites.

In case of American customers for an e-commerce website there is a law already in place at this very moment. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) explicitly points to  the WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines on page 196 of Americans with Disabilities Act Title III Regulations.

In WCAG  also attention must be paid to screen size and orientation.

One more chat

“How would you like your website?”
“Responsive please.”
“No problem.”
“Thank you, my dear.”
“You are welcome, grandma.”

Learning, Legal, Marketing, Programming

Link Missing In Action

“Know the ways of all professions”
– Miyamoto Musashi

UX designer

A few blog posts ago I told about my attempts to make this very blog more accessible. I just walked my talk.

For people who need a story:
As a user with no or bad view I want headers tagged as headers, so that the screen reader can read the headers differently aloud.

Web master

I changed the look of the headers in a lot of blog posts. I went in a flow and gained more speed in the process, until …

A small square disappeared. I just did an undo and continued editing.

The next time I let the square disappear, I had already updated the blog post on the web.

Hit the OK, Jack.
[on the melaody of “Hit the road, Jack”]

This was not good for my user journey. I did not want to lose a user by a missing link. Just stick around.

Tester

There was an easy trick for finding missing links. On the internet there were free websites and add ons for browsers available.

Marketeer

As a marketeer I had some problems with broken link reporters. A reporter had to hit every page and every link in it. So the number of hits would increase significantly.

Even worse there are web pages referring to other web pages. So some pages are counted double. Then there are categories and months referring to pages. So some pages are counted more than twice.

This would hide the real traffic in my daily reports. But this is not a company web site. Otherwise I should have to add a note about a maintenance period. For an auditor. So I could skip this role.

Tester again

First pick of a broken link service stopped half way. The second looked promising, but it had terms and conditions.

Legal expert

Now I was curious. I clicked on the link and landed on a page with lots of legal sentences. Must be American thing.

I tried to distil the information. The most important message was that the service was provided as is. There were no financial consequences for the service providers.

I have a website which does not provide me any income.
So what was I waiting for?

Enter my website and show my broken links you can find.

Author

Now it was the turn for the author to have a fix.
Yeah. Sure.

The first broken link was ejc2008.de. This is short for European Juggling Convention 2008 in Germany. More than 10 years ago. This must be an old-timer.

I entered the URL in the browser and got an error message. After 10 years the website was taken offline. But I needed a link.

Then I looked for internet archive wayback machine in my search engine. This website stores all versions of visited websites. I entered ejc2008.de and found my website.

I picked a link to 2019 copy and replaced the link in the blog posts. This way people can still read about a convention which was visited by more than 3,000 people sharing the fun of juggling.

In my list of broken links I found a link to a Let’s Test conference in 2015. I had a better link available, so I just updated the link. A similar situation for the first TestBash conference in the Netherlands.

It was a simple test tool. No need to switch to tester mode.

Another run of broken link test revealed that I had not changed the About me page. Why did they show up now? No idea.
Anyways. Fixed.

3rd test run revealed no more missing links. But something was wrong. I missed the comeback of the square. Popping back in view.

Web master again

In my memory I tried to locate the square. It was during header 6 handling. Then I remembered the use of anchors.

An anchor is a fast way to get a reader at the right place in a blog post instead of the top of the post. This saves the reader some scrolling. Example time.

In my blog post about a test exercise the following code is shown in my code editor:

My last upload before my workshop was for me <a href="http://mindfultester.com/a-look-behind-the-scenes/#disaster">another exercise in exploration</a>.

In my blog post “A look behind the scenes – in Runö” the following code is shown in my code editor:

<h1><strong><a id="disaster"></a>Flirting with disaster</strong></h1>

A broken link checker only checks whether the link exists and ignores the presence of an anchor. So it was an anchor missing in action.

Now I had to check the 90ish blog posts for anchors. Preferably automatically and not clicking all links myself. Please.

If I could only find them. I got a flash of insight. It was possible to find blog posts with a search engine in my Content Management System or website authoring program.

I looked for #. And yes, all blog posts with anchors and links with anchors were listed. Now it was easy to add missing anchors.

Professions

So I was

  • Tester
  • Marketeer
  • Legal expert
  • UX designer
  • Author
  • Web master

I skipped the auditor though.

Accessibility, Legal

2024 Testing

This year I wrote some blog posts about legal and certification stuff. like January Testing and May 2018 Testing. So it would be appropriate to shed some light on accessibility and laws.

Disclaimer

I am not a legal expert. So please have a look at my used sources. Or contact a legal expert.

I am just a tester finding test ideas about accessibility. Thanks for joining in advance.

What?

During #30DaysOfTesting I recommended to follow Karl Groves and Albert Gareev on Twitter for accessibility. Karl had interesting news for European software suppliers. Some law for accessibility was coming.

Accessibility is coming to EU.
[On the melody of “Santa Claus is coming to town.”]

I started my search engine and found the European Accessibility Act or EAA.
Great, a new abbreviation for upsetting the PO.

On November 8 the EU wrote a proposal to improve accessibility. In section 3.5 “The proposal” of Annex 1 is written, that the implementation should take place within 6 years.

A lot of readers might think:
“No worries, mate.
2024 is beyond the horizon.”

So what?

A lot of companies would think, that this is a rehearsal of the GDPR situation. A lot of companies still think, that everything is under control. Just have a read over a forgotten test.

Okay, a typical reaction about accessibility is:
“There is no law in place.”

Let me give several comments to this statement.

  • It is not ethical. People are dependent from the internet. There are online shops, online bank portals, online government points of access, and so on. People with limitations have a right to use them.
  • There are human rights and right no 9 states, that things must be accessible. Basically the EU bought companies some time.
  • The global organisation World Wide Web Consortium or W3C created Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to help people and companies to make applications accessible. WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is mentioned in EAA. So it is a set of practical information to make websites accessible.
  • Actually there are American laws for accessibility.
    These laws are based on WCAG.

    Accessibility is coming from the States.
    [On the melody of “Santa Claus is coming to town.”]

    Companies are being sued because of these laws at this very moment. So watch out with shipping your software to the States.

  • Websites for European institutions must be accessible.
  • Maybe at the end of this blog post I have some other comments.
    : )
    Just scroll down and up.
    I can wait.

What now?

As a reader you have the right to ask for test ideas.
OK, let’s have a look at an OK button.

  • Is it possible to navigate to this button using the keyboard?
  • Is the contrast of the text “OK” and the background big enough?
  • Is OK written in clear font?
  • Are symbols and colours used to indicate, that a press of the button is a confirmation?
  • Is OK not offensive in this context?
  • Does the screen reader recognise the OK button?
  • Etc.

Imagine the dialog with the “OK” button.
Roll up your sleeves.

  • Are the consequences of pressing the OK button clear?
  • Is a pop up dialog really necessary?
  • And so on. And so forth.

What are we waiting for?

It takes time to find the right combination for accessibility.

Did I already mention, that American companies have a clear advantage?
Or the fact, that government websites in the Netherlands must be accessible to a certain degree.

Accessibility on Dutch goverment websites.
[On the melody of “Santa Claus is coming to town.”]