[WXC/VFX] XNet Website Accessibility problems

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] XNet Website Accessibility problems

jmosen

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#17699 7-Dec-2007 14:36

Hi, despite my disappointment that I can't connect my Nokia E61I to VFX, I'm seriously looking at switching, at least to XNet as my ISP.

There is now just one very big issue holding me back. I am totally blind and use screen reading software allowing me to hear, and read in Braille, what's on the screen. The home page and account pages of Orcon, my ISP at present, are very accessible. XNet seems far less so.

Specifically, on the home page at http://www.xnet.co.nz, there is a series of options labelled things like "home, voice, Internet, Support" etc. None of these options is a conventional link. I assume that these options are clickable with the mouse, but they are certainly not standard HTML hyperlinks. If they are Flash, then this can be written in a way that is accessible to screen readers, but in this case, have not been.

Secondly, I did find a link that allowed me to build my own plan with XNet. Again here, I had mixed success. There were standard edit fields that allowed me to key in my data usage, which is around 40 GB per month at present. The slider that allows the user to specify the speed in either direction is completely undetectable by my screen reader. This led me to believe I was getting a fantastic deal with 40 GB at a little over $40 per month, only to find when I phoned that it was a more realistic $90 since I had not selected, or in my case wasn't able to select, the speed.

The reason why all this is significant to me, is that if the public pages have these accessibility issues, I have no confidence that I could use the account and VFX pages allowing me to configure services such as call forwarding etc.

Firstly, is XNet interested in making the site accessible? And secondly, is there a dummy account I can log into so I can find out whether I can even use the service?

I have to say that Xnet's home page is one of the more inaccessible ISP sites in NZ I've used, and I hope that this might be remedied since so many here have good things to report about customer service and service quality.

Jonathan

maverick

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WorldxChange

#98766 7-Dec-2007 15:53

Hi Jonathan

Thank you for the comments and was something that we were not aware of, but in answer to your questions I don’t really have an answer for you at this point, the web site has been built with flash and other tools which I can now appreciate you having difficulty with, the VFX portals themselves are done in such a way that they can be very difficult to modify and at this stage we have not investigated accessibility for screen readers such as yourself, how we address that once again I can’t answer at this stage as it will take a fair amount of work to do so, I’m very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you but I can’t make any commitments at present as I don’t know what the requirements would be to service this request.

I will have some discussions internally to see what some options would be but unsure on how and when we could manage a change, but it is something that we should look at I agree.

Regards

Phillip Moore

Operations Manager

WorldxChange Communications

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

jmosen

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#98770 7-Dec-2007 15:58

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Flash doesn't necessarily equate to inaccessibility. Newer versions of the Flash authoring tool, and the Flash plug-in for IE, can produce some really accessible results.

But I appreciate you taking a look.

Jonathan

Detruire

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#98797 7-Dec-2007 18:11

The usage slider and the majority of naviagation is done via JavaScript.

The labels "home", "internet", "voice", "support" etcetera are headings other links appear under when you mouse-over them.
The links under these headings, however, are plain HTML links.

rm *

jmosen

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#98800 7-Dec-2007 18:28

Yes this makes sense, thanks.

So what about the VFX portal itself. Do you use regular HTML links and controls like combo boxes, radio buttons etc?

Jonathan

Detruire

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#98807 7-Dec-2007 18:57

I'm unsure of what is used with the VFX controls, since I don't have a VFX account, only a DSL one.

rm *

grant_k

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#98810 7-Dec-2007 19:29

jmosen: So what about the VFX portal itself. Do you use regular HTML links and controls like combo boxes, radio buttons etc?

Hi Jonathan,

I remember your name from YEARS ago around 1987 in fact when you bought a PC from our shop at Royal Oak. I met you one day along with Clive Lansink and Mary Schnackenberg I think she was called from RNZFB.

Wow doesn't time fly and it just amazes me that you can participate so effectively in online forums like these!

I have access to the VFX portal and so far as I can see, there is no Flash anywhere. The opening page has a whole lot of GIF icons with standard hyperlinks attached to them. Then when you get into the Phone Features part, it has a whole lot of links which change colour when you mouse over them, but they do contain text because you can copy and paste them. The colour changing is done using using standard Javascript, so I don't think there's too much to worry about there.

If you like, I can save a copy of one or more of the pages in IE's .MHT Web Archive format and e-mail them to you.

How does that sound?

Good to catch up with you again and Merry Christmas

jmosen

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#98820 7-Dec-2007 20:58

Goodness, that does make me feel old! And yes you have the names right after all these years.

These days I am the Vp of a US hardware and software manufacturer, so IT is certainly my life and livelihood.

Please, if you could let me check out those pages, I would appreciate it. As long as I can actually configure the smartphone services etc, I'm in. I just don't want to switch providers only to find I'm stranded with an inability to configure things the way I want.

Cheers,

Jonathan

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

maverick

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WorldxChange

#98824 7-Dec-2007 21:32

I may be able to provide you an actual preiview of a test account if this would help ?

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

grant_k

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#98828 7-Dec-2007 22:40

maverick: I may be able to provide you an actual preiview of a test account if this would help ?

Yes that's a great idea Phil, then Jonathan can actually play around with the controls and see how the pages work.

If I just send him saved files the links won't do anything.

I sent you a PM earlier Jonathan, but Phil's kind offer would be much more useful to you

Cheers,
Grant.

jmosen

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#98846 8-Dec-2007 04:35

maverick: I may be able to provide you an actual preiview of a test account if this would help ?

That certainly would thanks Phil. I'm wanting to be sure I can not only run VFX, but also check my XNet usage and perform any account related functions open to users.

Cheers,

Jonathan

maverick

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WorldxChange

#98852 8-Dec-2007 09:04

At this point I can give you access to a VFX portal, located at

https://myvfx.xport.co.nz (I will PM you the account details)

Once in the portal, you can go to Phone Features and this is the control Web Portal for myvfx, this is one of my test accounts but most of the features are there , maybe a couple more than the residentail service but you will get the idea. I will leave this access open for you over the weekend, let me know if this is enough time for to assess the portal.

As for the usage meter, you can get that here http://www.xnet.co.nz/usagemonitor/ it does require a Xnet broadband connection to work, but if you install it you should be able to see if this works for you.

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

jmosen

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#98864 8-Dec-2007 10:06

Just in case anyone else is following this, I can report back that the VFX portal itself is 100% accessible. And what a cool feature set too!

I do hope at some point that the shop window as it were will be made a bit more useable, but once you get inside the shop, you're good.

I'd like to thank Phil very much for going to the trouble of allowing me to check out the portal. That's fantastic service to someone who isn't even yet a customer, and I really appreciate it.

Jonathan

grant_k

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#98869 8-Dec-2007 10:14

jmosen: Just in case anyone else is following this, I can report back that the VFX portal itself is 100% accessible. And what a cool feature set too!

That's great to hear Jonathan, I'm glad that the feature set is accessible to you.

Back in May I wrote a blog about some new "Advanced" VFX features which I have been trialling for the past few months. I'm guessing that Phil will release them to everybody before too much longer. I don't remember you being on Geekzone that far back, so in case you missed it, the details are here:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/grant_k

maverick

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WorldxChange

#99232 10-Dec-2007 12:30

Just an update,

This has been discussed today and we are taking a look at this now to see what the issues are in trying to better support all users of the site

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications