Client
Arlington County

Client Information
Arlington, Va., is a world-class residential, business and tourist location that was originally part of the "10 mile square" parcel of land surveyed in 1791 to be the Nation's Capital. It is  geographically the smallest self-governing county in the United States, occupying slightly less than 26 square miles. Arlington maintains a rich variety of stable neighborhoods, quality schools, enlightened land use, and received the Environmental Protection Agency's highest award for "Smart Growth" in 2002. Home to some of the most influential organizations in the world - including the Pentagon - Arlington stands out as one of America's preeminent places to live, visit and do business.

Services

• User Interviews
• Cognitive Walkthrough
• User Personas
• Section 508 Usability Assessment Report
• One-on-One Training

Problem
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act applies to United States federal government websites and to the sites of those who do business with the federal government. Section 508 requires that all Web site content be equally accessible to people with disabilities. This applies to web applications and web pages such as Arlington County’s external facing website, library website and the payment portal system.

Arlington County has adopted these standards and wanted to ensure they met compliance. 412 Studios teams up with Solar Swift to perform a detailed Section 508 usability study, to quantify the effectiveness of Arlington County’s external facing website’s design and made recommendations necessary as a precaution for users with disabilities.

Solution
The goal of our research was two-fold: to learn how people with low vision, no vision, and motor-skill challenges use assistive technology with regards to the Arlington County website and to provide recommendations on their current web design.

Based on the requirements, we recommended a usability methodology called “Cognitive Walkthrough” - where on an individual basis, we observe a panel of  users performing various online tasks. These one-on-one sessions involved two hours from each user: consisting of an interview (which assists in providing context to our usability report) and enough time to observe qualitative and quantitative data for each predefined task. Each session was moderated by two usability professionals who gather objective feedback to analyze and report their findings. 

The deliverables included a study laying out each user’s persona, a detailed report of problems encountered, and our recommendations to resolve those issues. We also provided the templates we used to conduct these walkthroughs and in addition we also provided one-on-one training to  Arlington County’s IT staff department so they can conduct usability testing in-house.

Project Results
After performing multiple days of usability testing with disabled users we created a detailed Section 508 Usability Assessment Report with a number of recommendations on how the site should be improved for users in both the short and long term. Arlington County is currently implementing the design changes that will take effect in the very near future.