OIT+Helpdesk


 * Accessibility Homework: OIT's Helpdesk Website**
 * By: Siwatm Piyasirisilp Section 0201**

The website that I chose to critique was UMD’s technology helpdesk website ([|www.helpdesk.umd.edu]). This website is the university’s hub for all campus technology questions. Here you can reset your password, download free software, as well as find all the computer labs around campus. The website is reasonably easy to read, with standard fonts, bolded titles, and interactive menu items. At first glance, it seems to conform to all of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines, below you’ll see just how it stacked up.
 * Intro**

The website has readable fonts (about size 14 for titles, 12 for text) as well as bolding and highlighting. All the text on the website is also zoom-able. The only non-text material on the page is the OIT banner and it is fixed with the text header that says “OIT Helpdesk.” The designers also did a really good job separating the foreground from the background on this page. Each clickable option becomes highlighted when you hover over it, or prompts action menus. Although the content does not seem to be presentable in a different manner, the way that they have it is extremely clear – keeping contact information in the center, news postings below it, and action items on the left hand side.
 * Perceivable - Complete**

The website is certainly operable. It does not employ any flash or action items, which would require the user to have great dexterity. The menu on the left hand column of the page is used to navigate to more in-depth articles. By using interactive menus it is easy to see which option led to which event. For example, hovering over “Get Software” displays a menu where you can choose what types of software you would like to download. The only downside is that not all action items are available from the keyboard. The interactive menu, for example, can only be accessed if the user is using a mouse.
 * Operable – Partial Implementation**

The website does a good job of helping the user understand what services it provides. Right on the front-page of the site, it shows the contact information of the helpdesk group as well as their hours and location. The website splits articles according to their separate categories; password information, email, calendars, security information, software downloads, computer lab information etc. Each of those menu items displays subcategories when you hover over them.
 * Understandable – Complete**

The website was encoded to conform to HTML markup specifications with complete start and end tags, meaningful id tags, and no duplicate elements. The downside is that the site only has 1 form box that you can fill out, which is used to search for OIT articles, however the vast majority of the actions on the page are done with navigating through menus, not through filling out forms.
 * Robustness – Partial Implementation**