How people use presentation to search for a link: Expanding the understanding of accessibility on the web

It is well known that many Web pages are difficult to use by both visually disabled people and those who use small screen devices. In both cases there exists a problem of viewing a great deal of information with presentation capabilities reduced from the intended formatted large-screen colour display. It is pertinent, however, to ask how the presentation of Web pages on a standard display makes them easier for sighted people to use. To begin to answer this question, we report on an exploratory eye-tracking study that investigates how sighted readers use the presentation of the BBC News Web page to search for a link. We compare the standard page presentation with a "text-only" version and observe both qualitatively and quantitatively that the removal of the intended presentation alters "reading" behaviours. The demonstration that the presentation of information assists task completion suggests that it should be re-introduced to non-visual presentations if the Web is to become more accessible. Finally, we propose that models derived from studies that reveal how presentation is used to aid task completion can form the basis for annotation and transcoding of Web pages to present pages in a more usable non-visual form. Copyright 2006 ACM.