Ad Hoc Accessibility Testing Part N+1

RantWoman is taking a break from pondering important questions:

1.       Does RantWoman want her microwave on the internet any more than she wants her refrigerator on the internet?

2.       Considering all the friendly kid randomness, grownup elementary school classmate reunions in the aisles, and all around marketing funkiness of RantWoman’s neighborhood Grocery Outlet, why would RantWoman shop online? (Okay RantWoman, except for bad vision is comparatively able-bodied and is glad for aisles to move around in and had an actual list which of course got augmented by various whim items.)

But, as a diversion, presenting the latest in RantWoman ad-hoc accessibility testing: the new Whole Life Challenge website play.wholelifechallenge.com   or as an app from the Play Store or the Apple store.

Whole Life Challenge, for readers new to the idea runs a series of 6 week games encouraging people to eat right, do a daily stretch warmup, sleep adequately, stay hydrated, get exercise, have some kind of well-being practice, and write a short reflection. Players track their efforts with a daily scoring process.  The challenge comes with helpful articles and suggestions for exercise.  Players can play solo or as part of a team. More about that below. Players can also record some initial measurements OR share a bunch of lab data. RantWoman has done neither. Nor has RantWoman read any of the site content about organizations contracting with Whole Life challenge. Nope, RantWoman is playing solo and on her own terms.

RantWoman finds the hydration, daily mobilization, and well-being exercises fairly easy. RantWoman is used to carrying a water bottle and to a couple other parts of a hydration routine. RantWoman also always finds it easy to write some kind of reflection. Exercise, sleep and nutrition are another matter.

Exercise takes time. RantWoman sometimes manages to do something minimalist like walk her breezeway for 20 minutes or do housework in ways that get the heart rate up. And sometimes even this minimum is too much, a point RantWoman tends to reflect in her sleep pattern. Ugh.RantWoman also thinks more realistic videos of women with lumpy middle aged bodies doing exercise that recognizes realities—like whether or not certain exercises can be done—would be awesome. Then rantWoman would have fewer excuses not to exercise at least.

Sleep: to get good sleep, RantWoman should avoid food after supper, avoid screens after about 10 pm, go back to bed if she wakes up before 6. Some days RantWoman can manage none of these or has to be up by a time earlier than would allow her to get enough sleep.

Nutrition: There are three levels of food choices, lists of what foods comply with the project’s rules for the different levels. RantWoman still has not ventured above the first level, kickstarter.  In fact, RantWoman barely interacts with the food list.   RantWoman has tried to read the document and really wishes that there were some kind of lookup table where one could choose the level and look up whether a food is compliant or not.

RantWoman is making sure to get at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. RantWoman also eats more dairy than she thinks the food rules consider compliant. However RantWoman has been choosing cottage cheese over ice cream for more calcium and protein and less fat. RantWoman is also kind of hoping exercise, sleep, and hydration will take care of some food issues. To some degree they are: RantWoman finds herself specifically NOT tempted at all about many things, but RantWoman still finds plenty of ways to remind herself that she could stand to look at the lists of compliant foods.

RantWoman is playing solo this time. RantWoman has played twice previously, once with a team of people with pretty guarded styles about what they shared, and how they interacted. These were people RantWoman thinks she knows well but RantWoman was interested to note that everyone including RantWoman has sleep issues. The second time, RantWoman invited herself to join with what wound up being a couple from Seattle. The group did not exactly interact in the app, but it was fine just to see what different people’s ups and downs were.

This time RantWoman has opted not to connect with the member of the first team who RantWoman knows is doing the challenge. RantWoman also did not exchange contact email outside the app with the second team and has not found them in the ways she has looked this time.

Now to the AdHoc accessibility testing.

Rantwoman is testing with Internet Explorer even though it is a technologic relic because RantWoman has not tried to verify that Microsoft Edge now works with Zoomtext. RantWoman also tried to test with Google Chrome. Because it is late and RantWoman threw up her hands, RantWoman means to come back to the Windows platform in daylight.

No RantWoman did not pull some automated test tool out of her Twitter feed. No. RantWoman did not hire a bunch of testers and give them some test cases. RantWoman did poke around various parts of the website and a lot of things work fine, for example for finding and reading articles. Is this enough? Nope. All RantWoman did was try to record her score with the help of Mr JAWS and Zoomtext.

TONS of unlabeled fields. RantWoman could not with Mr. JAWS find any of the fields RantWoman is supposed to click to get credit for the different topics. Bleah.

Maybe RantWoman will just ignore Windows and try the app.