Assessment Report | LEAP

Assessment Information
eResource Title	Vendor	Overall Grade
Scott's Directories	Scott's Directories	F

Images

Positioning of Images

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the images positioned prominently and easy to find?	Sometimes	Images are infrequent and only located on "Contact" and "About Scott's" pages. These include three staff photos of the account managers, as well as a visual advertisement. Staff photos are located immediately to the left-hand side of the respective contact information. However, the advertisement is at the bottom of the page after a break in text.

Functional images embedded in the background

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there functional images embedded in the background?	Sometimes	When the window size is adjusted, there is a "Video Tutorial" button in the top-right corner of the page that will dramatically increase/decrease in size, even eliminating the static menu on the side of the page until the window is further readjusted.

Presence of Icons

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there icons where appropriate, such as icons to indicate PDF Full Text, Download, Folder, Citation, etc?	Always	Yes, there are extensive use of icons in relation to options available.

Alt Text

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do informative images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Never	Photos are limited (staff images and one advertisement) but none contain alternative text.
Do functional images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Never	No buttons or embedded images/videos contain alternative text. Note: when clicking on the buttons, alternative text will appear that contains further instructions in relation to those buttons, but not the button text itself.
Do images used as text contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Always	The company logo is the only image that contains alternative text.

Content Scaling

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
When zoomed in at 200%, is text intact, readable, and not cut off?	Sometimes	Text is clear (not pixelated) and readable. However, menus are cut-off and moved around the page, making it difficult to navigate. There are multiple vertical scroll bars within the same page. Images are moved and stacked, in some cases.
Are images clear and unpixelated at 200%?	Sometimes	Most icons and images are clear. However, the problematic "Video Tutorial" button mentioned earlier is blurry and disproportionately maximized to the rest of the page/text.
Is horizontal scrolling minimized at 200%?	Sometimes	When in normal resolution, the menu is located down the left-hand side of the page. However, when zoomed in, the menu is suddenly hidden in an icon and moved to the top right of the page. This prevents horizontal scrolling. However, without knowing that the menu has moved, it initially appears to be lost / unreachable until the brand new icon is found in a new location.

Colour and Contrast

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do text and images have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1?	Never	Images and icons consistently fail contrast ratio tests.

Colour

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do colour coded graphs have text equivalents?	Not Applicable
Are blocks of content separated from one another using visual separation (such as whitespace or borders)?	Sometimes	The "About Scott's" page contains the most text and it it separated by white spaces. Icons on other pages are also separated by white space. However, the search function (when displaying number of results, selected criteria, etc.) contains text within the same whitespace with no visual distinction.
Are text alternatives provided where colour is used to indicate an action?	Never	The database relies on blue and orange as a colour scheme. In some instances, this seems decorative. In others, blue and orange buttons are used interchangeably on the page, but without a clear indication of why they are respectively coloured as such. There is no text alternatives to any coloured images or buttons.

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	Cannot locate any 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?	Sometimes	Most links and buttons contain significant clickable area to make the options easy to navigate. However, the search options along the top of the page do not and also do not indicate they are clickable (the mouse does not convert from an arrow to a pointed finger).
Using your mouse to test links, are links and buttons far enough apart for users to accurately activate?	Sometimes	Buttons are far enough apart. However, the search options at the top of the page and the results list contain pop-up text that appears, when clicked on / hovered over, that can get in the way of the text or link itself.
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?	Never	The only feature available through keyboard navigation are the fields for entering search criteria. But the first field must be clicked on before others can be tabbed through. No menus, links, buttons are accessible via keyboard navigation.

Dynamic content

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Can users pause carousel movement?	Not Applicable
Is all functionality, including navigating between carousel items, operable by keyboard?	Never	When clicking on the search options at the top of the page, dynamic/alternative text appears that gives further instructions on how to use that button, but does not clearly repeat or indicate the button text itself. These small pop-up windows cannot appear (or disappear) through keyboard navigation, but only through the use of the mouse.

Liquid layout

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is the order of the text preserved at all screen resolutions, without overlap?	Sometimes	As the resolution gets smaller, the page rearranges in ways that are not intuitive. The menu moves from the left-hand side of the page to become an icon in the top-right. The vertical text contains scroll bars within scroll bars. The demo video (usually at the bottom of the menu) becomes stacked over the menu options, making them impossible to select.
Do images avoid overlapping at all screen resolutions?	Sometimes	Buttons at top of the page remain visible and usable. However, the demo video within the menu becomes overlapped with links to other pages that contain images, so this cannot be further evaluated.
Is the overall reading experience preserved at all screen resolutions?	Never	Lower resolutions make an already challenging database nearly impossible to navigate outside of the search form.

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?	Sometimes	There are instructions at the top of the search page that detail how to fill in text fields and add filters.
Do user input fields contain labels in addition to overall instructions mentioned above?	Never	No labels apparent for any text fields.
Are descriptions for fields and boxes easy to understand?	Sometimes	There are two ways to search in this tool - by company or by contact. Rather than having separate instructions for each search function, instructions for both are repeated on each page.
Are labels placed above the user input fields and clearly associated with each field?	Always
Are text cues for coloured form control labels available?	Never
Are other visual indicators provided consistently, such as an asterisk for required form fields?	Never

Error Prevention

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are user input fields either reversible, checked, or confirmed? One of the three is acceptable.	Always	Input fields are reversible, but not checked or confirmed.

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?	Never	Even when deliberately creating errors (e.g. entering numbers into the field to search by contact name), the database did not recognize this and simply returned 0 results. There was no function to alert the user to input errors.
Do alert messages clearly indicate the field in which the error has occurred and a description of the error and the fix?	Never
Is the user able to easily access the user input field to correct the error?	Sometimes	Users can return to the input page to correct the error. However, every time they return to this page, it is blank. The input fields do not remember the previous text entered.
Is the user able to resubmit the form and re-validate their submission?	Always	Yes, the user can resubmit the form. However, as mentioned above, the input fields do not remember previously entered text so it must be manually retyped every time.
Do error reports follow a logical reading and navigation order?	Never	There are 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?	Never

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?	Never	There is no alternative text present for any images, buttons, or icons.
Are actions consistently labelled across the site? For example, the “search” button is always labeled “search”.	Sometimes	Text is slightly altered between actions. For example: - Search (in menu) / Search Criteria (in button) - Criteria / Filters
Are icons that have adjacent links consistent?	Not Applicable
Can the purpose of each link be determined from the link text alone?	Sometimes	Some confusion / lack of clarity between the text and the function.

Consistent Navigation

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the eresource have a consistent layout and navigation across all pages?	Always	When using the search functions, the buttons remain the same across the top of the page.
Are search fields located in the same places throughout the website?	Not Applicable	There is only one search page. There is no search field embedded throughout the website.
Do other features occur in the same place throughout the website?	Sometimes	When in a preferred screen resolution, the demo video and automated chat function appear across each page. However, these disappear/move when in a lower resolution.
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?	Always

Headers

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Is page content subdivided hierarchically into appropriate headings and tagged appropriately?	Never	Headings are skipped (level 1 to level 3). No level 2. Many level 4 between headings 1 and 3, which do not clearly indicate actual headings or text.
Are headings concise and clear, and accurately reflect the content under that heading?	Never	Headings are not clearly labelled or hierarchical.

Menus

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do database page menus have a reasonable number of navigation items and drop-down options?	Always	Only one menu and it is succinct.
Does the main navigation and drop-downs contain a reasonable number of menu items?	Always	Same as above.
Can all menus and submenus be accessed with screen readers and via keyboard navigation?	Sometimes	All menus can be accessed with screen readers, but not with keyboard navigation.

Change of context

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the “results” page or item record view avoid opening in a new tab without a warning?	Sometimes	The results page does not open in a new tab or window. However, it is a separate button/option at the top of the page. Once the user inputs their data into the text fields and hits "enter" (there is no submit button), they are not automatically redirected to the results. They must click on the results button separately.
Is there an "update now" button that requests a refresh of content rather than automatically updating the content?	Never	Content is not automatically updated, but there is also no "Update Now" button. When the user returns to the search fields, the text is not remembered and any changes must be reentered manually and then searched again.
Does the database avoid automatic redirection?	Never

Change of Context: Focus

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the form refrain from submitting automatically when a component receives focus?	Always	There is no one "submit" button, as each text field has an "add" option beside it. When focused over this, however, they do not automatically submit.
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	Keyboard navigation is minimal. Menus and buttons are not keyboard-friendly, only some text-fields. Input fields with drop-down menus (e.g. provinces, cities, etc.) are not able to focused on.

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?	Never	Keyboard navigation is very poor. Text input fields can be navigated by tab, but cannot jump from side menu to main content. Certain content (e.g. "Contact Us" page) is not readable via keyboard navigation.
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	Menu navigation and read-aloud is intuitive and logical. However, getting the navigation to the main content of the page (away from the menu) is difficult - if not impossible - without clicking the mouse and is not reading accurately or thoroughly.
When using a keyboard to navigate the interface, is the keyboard focus indicator visible?	Never
Does all interactive functionality work via keyboard, and does it behave consistently and as expected?	Never	Outside of navigating and reading aloud the side menu, functionality is nil.
Does focus order move sequentially across form fields?	Always	Form fields move sequentially. However, the read-aloud function is not identifying the fields by name and simply saying "edit blank" for reach field.

Skip Links

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are there skip links (either visible or invisible)?	Never
Are skip links visible or invisible?	Not Applicable
Are skip links (visible or invisible) positioned prominently near the beginning of the page?	Not Applicable
Are skip links labelled properly?	Not Applicable
Are skip links accessible via keyboard?	Not Applicable
Do anchors (link destinations) appear at the beginning of the relevant content?	Not Applicable
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?	Not Applicable

Frames

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the screen reader successfully navigate from one frame to another?	Never
Does each frame have a meaningful title that tells the user the purpose of the frame?	Always
When navigating the page using keyboard navigation, is the user able to navigate effectively from one frame to the next?	Never

PDFs

Searchable PDFs

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the sampled PDFs image-only?	Never
Are the sampled PDFs locked (secured)?	Always
Are the sampled PDFs fully searchable?	Never	Not extractable

Tagged PDFs

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are alternative descriptions provided?	Never
Is primary language specified?	Never
Is reliable character encoding provided?	Always
Are all page elements tagged?	Never
Are list and table structure correct?	Never

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?	Always
Does the Read out Loud function avoid problematic elements such as excessive blank spaces read as “blank”?	Never
Are the controls consistent and effective for navigating through the document?	Never

Magnification

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
When zooming in to 250%, does all text, images, tables, and other elements appear clear and easy to read?	Always

Images

Positioning of Images

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are the images positioned prominently and easy to find?	Sometimes	Depending on the type of report generated, the PDFs occasionally have the logo in the top-left corner. There are no other images generated in the search results or reports.

Alternative Description

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Do informative images contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Not Applicable
Do images used as titles contain appropriate alt text or an appropriate textual alternative?	Never	Logo does not contain alternative text.
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 are not tagged or navigable with the tab key.
Do table headers allow for easy navigation with screen readers?	Always	Screen reader accurately captures table headings and reads information horizontally.

Additional Navigational Aids

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Does the bookmarks panel display bookmarks?	Never
Do bookmarks link to the correct sections in the document?	Not Applicable

Video Captions

Question	Answer	Notes	Images
Are videos captioned?	Never
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?	Never

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?	Never
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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