Reuschel William, McDonnall Michele, Burton Darren
American Foundation for the Blind.
The National Research & Training Center on Blindness & Low Vision, Mississippi State University.
J Vis Impair Blind. 2023 Nov-Dec;117(6):479-490. doi: 10.1177/0145482x231216757. Epub 2023 Dec 7.
This study investigated the accessibility and usability of online job applications by individuals with visual impairments who use screen readers.
Three blind, experienced screen reader users on the research team attempted to complete online job applications from 30 randomly selected Fortune 500 companies, with 90 application trials attempted. Each tester used a different screen reader and browser combination.
The testers experienced significant barriers to completing the online job applications: 50 of 90 (55.6%) attempts were successful, but 23 of the 30 (76.7%) sites had critical issues that prevented at least one tester from completing the application. Testers found 694 accessibility issues and gave an average ease of use rating of 3.60 (SD=1.05) out of 5 for the job application sites. Twenty-six of the job application sites were created by eight job application software vendors, with significant variation in accessibility across different applications using the same vendor.
The accessibility and usability issues identified with the majority of online job applications evaluated present an unnecessary barrier to employment for screen reader users. While the 55.6% success rate found in this study is considerably higher compared to previous research, only 23.3% of the job application sites were accessible to all three screen readers.
Job application software vendors and companies that create their own online job applications should take a Universal Design approach by following the WCAG guidelines and implementing recommended solutions to increase the accessibility of their applications. Software vendors are encouraged to only offer accessible options for creating online job applications, such that companies would not be able to create an inaccessible form.
本研究调查了使用屏幕阅读器的视障人士在线求职申请的可访问性和可用性。
研究团队中的三名失明且经验丰富的屏幕阅读器用户尝试完成从30家随机挑选的财富500强公司获取的在线求职申请，共进行了90次申请尝试。每位测试人员使用不同的屏幕阅读器和浏览器组合。
测试人员在完成在线求职申请时遇到了重大障碍：90次尝试中有50次（55.6%）成功，但30个网站中有23个（76.7%）存在严重问题，导致至少一名测试人员无法完成申请。测试人员发现了694个可访问性问题，对求职申请网站的易用性平均评分为3.60（标准差=1.05）（满分5分）。26个求职申请网站由8家求职应用软件供应商创建，同一供应商的不同应用在可访问性方面存在显著差异。
在评估的大多数在线求职申请中发现的可访问性和可用性问题，对屏幕阅读器用户的就业构成了不必要的障碍。虽然本研究中发现的55.6%的成功率比之前的研究高得多，但只有23.3%的求职申请网站对所有三款屏幕阅读器都可访问。
求职应用软件供应商以及创建自己在线求职申请的公司应采用通用设计方法，遵循网络内容无障碍指南（WCAG）并实施推荐的解决方案，以提高其应用的可访问性。鼓励软件供应商仅提供可访问的在线求职申请创建选项，这样公司就无法创建不可访问的表单。
