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		Products & Services > Quality > Resources for assessing quality in e-learning > Usability/accessibility

Usability/accessibility There is a whole range of definitions of the term 'usability' as the list below from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) confirms. These definitions are drawn from a range of ETSI documents. On inspection, most of them are saying more or less the same thing: the systems/resources have to be usable in the most complete sense by the targeted user group. Jakob Nielsen's Ten Usability Heuristics (below) provides useful and non-expert guidelines to good usability practice. Also useful in terms of understanding the principles of usability is Sameer Chavan's What is Usability? and Heuristics (below). Accessibility is an important dimension of usability but extends the concept to ensure inclusiveness of target users. According to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), 'an accessible Web means unprecedented access to information for people with disabilities'. Click here for a WAI slide show. Usability ETSI list of definitions of 'usability' Search using the term 'usability'. STC Usability SIG This website is a forum to share information and experiences on issues related to the usability and user-centred design. It is the home of the Usability Special Interest Group of the Society for Technical Communication. Jakob Nielsen Jakob Nielsen is a usability expert and his website contains research papers and other information about usability. Particularly useful as a guideline are his Ten Usability Heuristics. Usability 101 is a good introduction. (Summary: What is usability? How, when, and where can you improve it? Why should you care? This overview answers these basic questions.) Web course usability Web course usability is an article by Dave Smulders (quality assurance editor for the British Columbia Institute of Technology) on the E-Learning 1.0 The basics of e-learning page of the Learning Circuits website. What is Usability? This page, together with Heuristics, offers useful explanations of usability and guidelines for understanding good practice. Website usability standards ISO Standards Ergonomic requirements for visual display terminals. Accessibility CAST The Centre for Applied Special Technology is a not-for-profit organisation that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, especially those with disabilities. Their website contains tools and resources centred around Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which is a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and assessment, drawing on new brain research and new media technologies to respond to individual learner differences. Special Education Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) A useful websites supporting the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) This website lists World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) documents relating to accessibility of the web. WAI, in coordination with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development. Bobby Bobby is a comprehensive web accessibility software tool designed to help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines. Bobby is designed for developers to test web pages and generate summary reports highlighting the most critical issues effecting site accessibility before posting to the web or to intranets. Thoughts about Accessibility and Distance Learning. Why Care About Accessibility? This is a useful article on accessibility and distance learning. Towards a barrier free Europe for people with disabilities (pdf) This communication paper from the Commission of the European Communities outlines a collection of specific objectives and measures and serves as a policy tool to recast the whole Commissions approach to disability along the principles of non-discrimination and inclusiveness. Design for all Design for All and Assistive Technologies in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is a mandated standardisation activity. The aim of these activities is to provide specifications that, when implemented, allow a wider participation in the information society including elderly and disable people. Microsoft accessibility hub A useful website which provides information about developing technology that is usable and accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. IBM accessibility guidelines Provides information about accessibility and understanding disability issues when designing websites. Accessibility requirements for all NLN e-materials Good practice advice for designing accessible e-learning materials from NLN ...continue to technical standards Back to Previous Page Back to top Copyright © 2004 City & Guilds. All rights reserved.