Web²Access

Results for Facebook

Description

People use Facebook to find and keep up to date with friends. The site is content-driven; users publish their own photos, comments, videos, etc and other users read them. Popular with students as it can be used to arrange events and has a built-in invitation and RSVP system. Members can form groups around interests, clubs and societies. Accessibility information can be found at AFB's blog and the CAPTCHA is offered as an audio sign in. Facebook Accessibility pages are also very helpful. m.facebook.com is an accessible option, although it is designed for the mobile phone.

Accessibility Testing Results

There is a blind user group on Facebook and much has been written about its accessibility. It can be viewed without all the advertisements and widgets. However, not all images have alt tags and some links are not self explanatory. Areas around the site tend to linearise well and navigation is good with access to basic text forms and clear explanations once these have been completed. Colour contrast levels and text make reading easy.

#	Test	Score	Summary
1	Login, Signup and Other Forms Accessible		Labels exist for the signin page but not the signup form. The signup form uses a Captcha which attempts to be accessible to screenreader users by offering an audio version but both the audio and visual forms of the Captcha can be difficult to interpret. A screenreader user may experience problems when signing up to the website.
2	Image ALT Attributes		Image alternative text is not offered, even when an image has a description. Email addresses are shown as images which lack alt tags. This often prevents screenreader users from understanding image content.
3	Link Target Definitions		Small images, which are used as links to larger photos, do not have titles to clarify the destination of the link and there are some occurrences of "click here" links.
4	Frame Titles and Layout		No frames, which can be disorientating for screen-readers, are used in the design. However, some iframes are used past the login page.
5	Removal of Stylesheet		The page is still understandable and functional when it is viewed as a linear document, with no styles.
6	Audio/Video Features		Text captions and descriptions are offered for images and videos, where the owner has set them.
7	Video/animations - audio descriptions		There is no option to add audio descriptions linked to Videos or animations.
8	Appropriate use of Tables		Tables are not used for the design of this website.
9	Tab Orderings Correct and Logical		Tab order is in a logical and consistent top-to-bottom or left-to-right format.
10	Page Functionality with Keyboard		The website is fully accessible without the use of a mouse.
11	Accessibility of Text Editors		Most of the text input on the site is fully accessible. However, there are one or two which are inaccessible without a mouse.
12	Appropriate Feedback with Forms		The product provides suitable feedback when the user performs an action, informing the user of what to do next. No time restrictions are enforced.
13	Contrast and Colour Check		Contrast acceptable, although lots of text on the site fails WAI AAA validation (light blue on white).
14	Page Integrity when Zooming		The website maintains the layout and usability of all critical areas perfectly when zoomed.
15	Text size, style, blinking elements and Readability		The majority of text on the site is size ten and some is smaller, which is readable but may be uncomfortable for some. Sans-serif fonts used for all content, and there is no flashing or blinking content.

Disability-Tailored Results

The following table shows how well the product performs for people with disabilities, as listed in the Disabilities section.

Percentages do not indicate how much of a site is accessible. They indicate the average figure of test results relevant to each disability. Select a disability to see which tests are relevant to it.

Activities you can do with Facebook

• Image Sharing
• Group Discussion
• Appointment Creation and Sharing
• Journal Entries
• Comments and Sharing Views
• Video Sharing
• Finding News
• Real-Time Communication
• Finding People
• Asynchronous communication (e.g.email)