Assessment Report | LEAP

Assessment Information
eResource Title	Vendor	Overall Grade
Choice Reviews	American Library Association (ALA)	C+

Images

Positioning of Images

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the images positioned prominently and easy to find?	Sometimes	Most images are in the centre of the page. However, the image with the database logo that redirects to the home page is in the upper left-hand corner.

Functional images embedded in the background

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there functional images embedded in the background?	Sometimes	Everything stays in position when the font size is changed. When the browser zooms in very closely, the logo and top row of options are obscured by the search bar.

Presence of Icons

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there icons where appropriate, such as icons to indicate PDF Full Text, Download, Folder, Citation, etc?	Not Applicable	I have not been able to find any icons of the type referred to. Where there are icons like on the home page for different topic areas, the icons include the name of the page, plus identical alt text.

Alt Text

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do informative images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Always
Do functional images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Sometimes	When you hover over Functional images, they have a pop-up text box which appears reading, for example on a print icon, Login to print search results. As it is not a constant alternative and requires you to hover for it to appear, I don't know if this would constitute an appropriate textual alternative. Keyboard navigation also seems to skip these options.
Do images used as text contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Always	There is a logo for the Choice Review website. It contains the words "Choice Review" and there appears to be alt text reading "Choice logo."

Content Scaling

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
When zoomed in at 200%, is text intact, readable, and not cut off?	Always
Are images clear and unpixelated at 200%?	Always
Is horizontal scrolling minimized at 200%?	Always

Colour and Contrast

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do text and images have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1?	Sometimes	Sometimes - there are consistently two errors on each page that seem to be contrast ratio.

Colour

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do colour coded graphs have text equivalents?	Always	Graphics always seem to include text as part of the graphic.
Are blocks of content separated from one another using visual separation (such as whitespace or borders)?	Always
Are text alternatives provided where colour is used to indicate an action?	Not Applicable	Color doesn't seem to be an important indicator of actions on this website.

Text to speech

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is there a choice embedded within the database that offers text to speech or read aloud options?	Never	I don't see any options for text to speech or read aloud options.

Clustered Links

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Using your mouse, is the clickable area around links and buttons large enough for users to see and activate easily?	Always
Using your mouse to test links, are links and buttons far enough apart for users to accurately activate?	Always
Using any method to test links, are all links and buttons functional (i.e., not dead)?	Always
Are links or buttons accessible via keyboard navigation?	Sometimes	I'm finding it very difficult to navigate via keyboard, at least in the early going. I can start the navigation, but it's not clear where my cursor goes after that, although I can hit enter and access different options, but not in any logical order. You have to look at the URL that appears at the bottom of the screen as you tab between options, and that is not intuitive. Eventually, your indicator reappears on the screen, but it takes a lot of tabbing before you get to that.

Dynamic content

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Can users pause carousel movement?	Never	There is a carousel on the home page. It holds each frame for a decent amount of time, and you can choose which image you want to see, but you can't stop it from moving.
Is all functionality, including navigating between carousel items, operable by keyboard?	Never	As far as I can determine, you cannot navigate between carousel items through keyboard navigation.

Liquid layout

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is the order of the text preserved at all screen resolutions, without overlap?	Always
Do images avoid overlapping at all screen resolutions?	Always
Is the overall reading experience preserved at all screen resolutions?	Always

Labels and Instructions for Interactive Elements

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are user input fields accompanied by clear instructions on what the user needs to do to successfully complete the form?	Never	I do not see any instructions beyond the form labels.
Do user input fields contain labels in addition to overall instructions mentioned above?	Sometimes	The Wave extension reveals many missing form labels - on one search result page, there were 162 listed. Visually, things look fairly straightforward. There is use of placeholder text, but it usually supplements a word describing the box, i.e. Vol. and then the placeholder text reads 52. Some instructions are only available in placeholder text, however. For example, in the Advanced Search, it says Published by in front of the box, but then in the box, the placeholder text reads Enclose publisher's name in quotation marks There are Submit buttons on all forms.
Are descriptions for fields and boxes easy to understand?	Sometimes	For the most part, they are straightforward.
Are labels placed above the user input fields and clearly associated with each field?	Never	Form labels are always in front of the input fields, on the same line.
Are text cues for coloured form control labels available?	Sometimes	The website does not appear to use coloured form control labels. But when I tried to submit a form without filling out all the required fields, the missing fields were highlighted in red. One of the three fields did have an asterisk, but the other two had no other indicators that they were the missing required fields.
Are other visual indicators provided consistently, such as an asterisk for required form fields?	Sometimes	A couple of forms - ordering a missed issue, subscribing - don't have an asterisk next to required information - postal codes, state/province

Error Prevention

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are user input fields either reversible, checked, or confirmed? One of the three is acceptable.	Sometimes	You can go back and change a field that you've already completed. One form I filled out asked me to review the information before I submitted, and also had Go Back options at the bottom of the screen. The only instance of data being automatically being check for accuracy was to see if all the mandatory fields had been filled out.

Error Reports

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are alert messages clearly visible to the user, either at the top of the form field, inline, or through a dialog box?	Always
Do alert messages clearly indicate the field in which the error has occurred and a description of the error and the fix?	Always
Is the user able to easily access the user input field to correct the error?	Sometimes	Two fields - State/Province and Zip Code/Postal Code - are required fields but do not have an asterisk. When the form is submitted, the error message comes up, but on the next page where the user is supposed to input their billing information. There is no option to add this information. It is possible to use the back browser to return to the form and add this information, but it is not intuitive.
Is the user able to resubmit the form and re-validate their submission?	Always
Do error reports follow a logical reading and navigation order?	Always	No error reports.

Search function spell-check

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
When a user spells a word incorrectly, does the search function offer spelling suggestions or synonyms?	Sometimes	The incorrectly spelled word was underlined in red as one would find in a Word document. If you right-clicked on the word, a pop-up would come up offering alternative spellings/words.

Functionality of Interactive Elements

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are icons such as to save, download, or print consistent across the site?	Always
Is alternative text clear and consistent for each icon type?	Always
Are actions consistently labelled across the site? For example, the “search” button is always labeled “search”.	Always
Are icons that have adjacent links consistent?	Always
Can the purpose of each link be determined from the link text alone?	Always

Consistent Navigation

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the eresource have a consistent layout and navigation across all pages?	Always
Are search fields located in the same places throughout the website?	Always
Do other features occur in the same place throughout the website?	Always
Are links, buttons, images, and other components that are used repeatedly throughout a website labeled consistently?	Always

Pop-up windows/Interruptions

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the electronic resource avoid the use of pop-up windows which open automatically in a new tab if a user clicks on a button?	Always
Does the database avoid launching pop-up windows automatically when the database is loaded?	Always
Where pop-ups occur, are users able to postpone or suppress any pop-ups?	Not Applicable
Does the database avoid launching pages in a new browser window with the usual browser controls missing?	Sometimes	There is a Quick Start Guide on the Subscribe page that launches in a new tab. It is in the usual browser window with all the normal functions, but because it's a new tab, the back button doesn't work. The Free Trial form is the same.

Headers

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is page content subdivided hierarchically into appropriate headings and tagged appropriately?	Always
Are headings concise and clear, and accurately reflect the content under that heading?	Always

Menus

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do database page menus have a reasonable number of navigation items and drop-down options?	Always
Does the main navigation and drop-downs contain a reasonable number of menu items?	Sometimes	There are 34 menu options under Reviews. Articles contains 18 menu options. There don't seem to be any sub-menus.
Can all menus and submenus be accessed with screen readers and via keyboard navigation?	Never	I wasn't able to open any of the menus or submenus using keyboard navigation. When you tab from the Choice Reviews logo at the top of the page, you are able to tab to different search options in the dropdown menu, but there is nothing to indicate that that is what you are doing. The keyboard focus just disappears and you can see as you tab that the URL is changing by a popup at the bottom left of the screen with a black bar containing a URL.

Change of context

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the “results” page or item record view avoid opening in a new tab without a warning?	Always
Is there an "update now" button that requests a refresh of content rather than automatically updating the content?	Never
Does the database avoid automatic redirection?	Sometimes

Change of Context: Focus

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the form refrain from submitting automatically when a component receives focus?	Always
Does the database avoid launching new windows when a component receives focus?	Always
Does the database avoid change of focus when a component receives focus?	Always
Are you able to tab through a page using keyboard navigation without the keyboard focus moving away from the control?	Sometimes	When you first start keyboard navigation on a page, I had to hit tab 37 or 38 times before the focus reappeared. It appears when you first hit tab at the Choice Reviews logo, and then you're tabbing through a bunch of invisible options until the focus finally reappears on Reviews, the next logical focus point. It seems to tab through menu options from the dropdown menus on the screen, but I only could determine this by looking at the black popup at the bottom of the screen with the search navigation, and then comparing it to the URL indicated when hovering over the searches in the menu dropdown.

Navigation Links

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Can the purpose of each link can be determined from the link text, or from the link text together with its surrounding context?	Always

Keyboard Navigation

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Can keyboard focus be moved to all page elements?	Sometimes	The answer is really always, but. The focus will disappear sometimes and you can't tell which invisible elements it is focusing on - in some cases, it's options on the dropdown menus, but that's not visible to you - the menus don't drop down, just the URL that the keyboard is pointing at changes, but there is no other visible indication on the screen.
If moving keyboard focus away from a component requires more than arrow or tab keys, is this clearly indicated on the page?	Never
Is default keyboard navigation order logical and intuitive, following the visual flow of the page as described above?	Sometimes	For the most part, yes, except, again, when the focus disappears. But when it finally reappears, it's where you would expect it to be.
When using a keyboard to navigate the interface, is the keyboard focus indicator visible?	Sometimes	Not always - see above notes.
Does all interactive functionality work via keyboard, and does it behave consistently and as expected?	Sometimes	Again, see above notes. Otherwise, when it's visible, it behaves usually as expected. When you hit enter on any of the links with dropdown menus, nothing happens. These links are accessible through tabbing but there is no visual representation of where you are tabbing to on the screen except the changing URLs. And they are accessible before you get to the tab - so on the home page, you tab past the logo, the cursor disappears for over thirty tabs while the URL keeps changing, and then you move on to Reviews. The invisible tabbing that you just did was to access the dropdown menu options.
Does focus order move sequentially across form fields?	Always

Skip Links

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there skip links (either visible or invisible)?	Sometimes	I couldn't find evidence of skip links using keyboard navigation, but the screen reader seems to indicate that one exists on the subscribe page.
Are skip links visible or invisible?	Sometimes	Invisible.
Are skip links (visible or invisible) positioned prominently near the beginning of the page?	Sometimes	I hear them listed at the beginning of the Subscribe page. I can click on it and it lets me skip to the relevant content..
Are skip links labelled properly?	Sometimes	They are invisible, so not labelled at all visibly. The audio is accurate on the screen reader.
Are skip links accessible via keyboard?	Never
Do anchors (link destinations) appear at the beginning of the relevant content?	Sometimes	Again, just on the subscribe page, which is really a different website - www.choice360-org rather than choicereviews.org
Do skip navigation controls appear in the same place on every page?	Not Applicable

Tables

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the reader capture accurate information as it appears in the table and the columns and rows?	Always

Frames

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the screen reader successfully navigate from one frame to another?	Not Applicable
Does each frame have a meaningful title that tells the user the purpose of the frame?	Not Applicable
When navigating the page using keyboard navigation, is the user able to navigate effectively from one frame to the next?	Not Applicable

PDFs

Searchable PDFs

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the sampled PDFs image-only?	Sometimes	There is a Rate card available that is image-only, but there are forms that are both extractable searchable. There are not a lot of pdfs on the website.
Are the sampled PDFs locked (secured)?	Never
Are the sampled PDFs fully searchable?	Sometimes	33%. One of three pds that I found was image-only.

Tagged PDFs

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are alternative descriptions provided?	Sometimes	All three documents failed on Figures Alternate Text. The image-only pdf failed everything, the two forms passed all the other alt-text catagories.
Is primary language specified?	Sometimes	Again, yes for forms, no for image-only.
Is reliable character encoding provided?	Always
Are all page elements tagged?	Sometimes	Yes for forms, no for image-only.
Are list and table structure correct?	Sometimes	Yes for forms, no for image-only.

Structure: Reading Order

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the Read Out Loud function read the PDF in a logical way, preserving the order of the text and various sections?	Sometimes	For the most part, yes. It is even able to read the image-only pdf, although it cannot read the table on that pdf properly. I also struggles with the signatures of one of the forms - it reads each line straight across instead of down, so Licensee ALA Name Name Title Title Signature Signature Date Date.
Does the Read out Loud function avoid problematic elements such as excessive blank spaces read as “blank”?	Sometimes	Forms with long lines - underscores - the read out loud function reads as underscore for as many characters as the line occupies. So, for example, Email underscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscoreunderscore etc. So for one form that is mostly long lines that the user must fill in, this is very frustrating. Also, on one form where there are check boxes, the read out loud function reads all three words on the line, and then says check box graphic three times.
Are the controls consistent and effective for navigating through the document?	Always

Magnification

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
When zooming in to 250%, does all text, images, tables, and other elements appear clear and easy to read?	Sometimes	Two two forms are easy to read, the rate card is a little bit blurry - legible, but just not as clear as at 100%.

Images

Positioning of Images

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the images positioned prominently and easy to find?	Not Applicable	No images.

Alternative Description

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do informative images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Not Applicable	No images
Do images used as titles contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Not Applicable
Do rich images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Not Applicable

Tables

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are tables tagged and described with in-text summaries where appropriate?	Never	Tables read down the columns on the image-only pdf. They read along row by row on the forms.
Do table headers allow for easy navigation with screen readers?	Sometimes	They read in order but the navigation isn't all that easy.

Additional Navigational Aids

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the bookmarks panel display bookmarks?	Sometimes	On the form pdfs, not the image-only one.
Do bookmarks link to the correct sections in the document?	Always

Video Captions

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are videos captioned?	Not Applicable	No videos.
If captions are closed, and need to be turned on by the user, is that process straightforward and intuitive?	Not Applicable
Are captions typo-free and grammatically correct (unless slang and grammatical errors are intentionally used in the video)?	Not Applicable
Does caption placement avoid blocking any important visual components necessary to understand the video?	Not Applicable
Are the captions in sync with spoken words?	Not Applicable
For videos that contain captions, are transcripts provided?	Not Applicable
For videos that do not contain captions, are transcripts provided?	Not Applicable

Described Video

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do videos include described video, or if not, is there a text equivalent of the video provided on the same page or via a link?	Not Applicable	No videos.
If the video includes described video or a text equivalent of the video, is it an accurate description of the video contents?	Not Applicable

Audio Accessibility

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is a link to a text transcript provided in reasonable proximity to the audio clip?	Not Applicable
If a transcript is provided, does it accurately capture the content of the audio?	Not Applicable

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