Difference in task completion time between fast and slow sites

The time taken by testers to complete their tasks was analysed in various ways. This is broken out by impairment type and also by speed of completion.

There was a marked difference between the time that testers took to complete a task for the faster sites (sites with low task completion time) versus the times for the slower sites (sites with higher task completion time). This is illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1: User tester impairment type by average task completion time for fastest and slowest sites

User tester impairment type	Average task completion time (minutes)
	Five fastest sites	Five slowest sites
Mobility	1.0	7.6
Deaf	1.1	5.6
Low vision	1.6	5.4
Blind	3.3	7.2
Reading	3.4	7.3

Table 1 shows the average task completion time (in minutes) for the five sites where tasks were completed the fastest, and the five sites in which tasks were completed the slowest. These times are further divided out into the various impairment types of the test panel.

There is a significant difference in task completion time between the fastest and slowest sites. The slowest sites can take from two times to seven times longer to complete tasks depending upon the tester’s impairment.

The time required to complete tasks is directly affected by site accessibility. Accessibility is not simply a ‘nice to have’ feature of a website. It directly affects how much time users need to complete tasks.

Taken together, the five tasks required some testers five to ten minutes to complete on some sites, but on other sites it took 25 to 35 minutes.

This longer time needed to access information demonstrates an impact of accessibility barriers on people’s daily lives. Disabled people would experience a disadvantage compared to non-disabled people if these tasks in accessing government information were an integral part of being an active citizen.

In the future, where the business of government is increasingly being directed online, the impact of poor accessibility will affect more people more often.

The effect of accessibility barriers on government websites will mean that:

• people may be deterred from using government sites, and therefore have to use other avenues to get the information or service they  need (such as call centres, service centres, etc)
• people may miss out on accessing important information or services that would improve their quality of life.

Reducing accessibility barriers is an investment for government. Websites are generally the less expensive option for government to communicate information to the public compared with other avenues, such as call centres. By putting resources into making government websites fully accessible, government departments will increase their ability to effectively communicate with the public and may save money on other contact mechanisms.

Task completion time for all sites

People with different types of impairment experience different barriers in the use of websites. This is evident by looking at the overall speed of task completion and satisfaction ratings by different impairment type.

Table 2 shows individual task completion times (in minutes) by user tester impairment types over all the 30 sites tested.

The generic tasks were scheduled for users as task 1, 2, 3 and 5.  Task 4 related to specific information on each site.

Table 2: Tester task completion time for all 30 sites by tester impairment type

Tester impairment type	Task completion time (minutes) for all 30 sites
	Task 1: Contact details	Task 2: Purpose statement	Task 3: Accessibility statement	Task 4: Site specific	Task 5: Feedback	Average all tasks
Deaf	1.7	1.6	2.5	4.1	1.7	2.3
Low vision	2.4	2.1	2.4	5.3	3.0	3.0
Mobility	2.5	4.9	3.5	5.0	3.7	3.9
Blind	3.1	4.9	4.2	6.7	5.4	4.9
Reading	3.5	6.6	5.2	6.8	5.1	5.4

There is a significant difference in how fast the testers completed the tasks depending on the testers’ impairment.
On average for all tasks, the completion times from fastest to slowest by tester impairment types were:

• Deaf
• low vision
• mobility
• blind
• reading

User satisfaction in task completion

Users were asked to record their satisfaction in completing tasks on a scale of 1 to 4, where the ratings were: 1 – impossible, 2 – hard, 3 – average, 4 – easy.

Table 3 shows satisfaction ratings by user impairment type and individual tasks. The higher the satisfaction rating, the easier the task was to complete.

Table 3: User tester satisfaction in task completion by impairment type and task

User impairment type	User tester satisfaction in task completion (1 = impossible to 4 = easy)
	Task 1: Contact details	Task 2: Purpose statement	Task 3: Accessibility statement	Task 4: Site specific	Task 5: Feedback	Average all tasks
Deaf	3.6	3.6	3.0	2.6	3.1	3.2
Low vision	3.4	3.3	3.1	2.2	2.9	3.0
Mobility	3.7	2.7	2.7	2.4	2.6	2.8
Blind	3.4	2.7	2.8	2.3	2.3	2.7
Reading	3.4	1.8	2.7	1.6	2.5	2.4

Satisfaction of sites from highest to lowest by user tester impairment were:

• Deaf
• low vision
• mobility
• blind
• reading