Grading is Work
Some people wonder how we grade sites. Obviously we use our Checklist, and it helps a lot by giving us step-by-step direction, but the process is quite involved. It’s actually more difficult than any of us had ever envisioned when we first launched this project. It involves many hours of work. Of course we knew some of this going into it, though new challenges we didn’t anticipate have presented themselves. Thus we want to better explain the process and describe the new obstacles in hopes that you can help.
After a submitted site is run past our Criteria — which takes a good half hour — it enters our grading queue. Then, about two to three weeks before the site will be showcased, we begin the actual grading. We have at least two graders per submission, and it’s no easy task. It takes about eight man-hours to get through it: roughly four hours per grader. After that, the graders review each other’s work, compare notes, and try to iron out any big discrepancies. The idea behind all of this effort is to try and ensure the grade given is unbiased and as objective as possible. We want to do a good job.
We have many tools at our disposal and use them all. We use the various user agents we own, Browsercam for those we don’t have access to, we use CynthiaSays, WebXact (as aids only), the W3C’s mark-up and style sheet validators, GrayBit, Juicy Studio’s Readability Test and Colour Contrast Analyzer, other tools listed on our Resources page, and anything we can lay out hot little hands on to get the job done. We use screen readers, text browsers, we turn off styles, we turn off images, we turn off script, we stand on our heads, whatever it takes. We do try our best.
These are the things we can control. We have felt the sting just recently, though, of the things we can’t control and we need the serious cooperation of those who submit sites. Our goal is to award one site per week — on a Friday — and to produce at least two articles per month. Until recently we have done well with this and have been consistent in meeting our goals. But we never counted on our most recent challenges, though perhaps we should have. The human factor is what’s getting in our way. Some of the very people submitting sites, hoping for free quality feedback or maybe just the award and prestige, have presented us with challenges we are unable to overcome. It’s difficult to accept this because it is for these very people more than anyone else that we spend these hours and do all this work. Submitters, it seems, can be forgetful. So, here are a few reminders of what can be done to help:
- Keep your site valid and up to par. It was put into the grading queue because it met our submission Criteria. We shouldn’t have to say this, but you have to keep it passable. If you care about your site and its accessibility, we really shouldn’t have to remind you of this; it should be something you are compelled to do on your own.
- Don’t take your site off-line for a redesign after you submit it. If it is rejected (or accepted) we will tell you, as it states in our (just updated) FAQs. Once you submit a site, consider it approved. Unless it is a spam submission; if it remotely smells of spam, it is immediately deleted — it’s not rejected, recorded, or even viewed. Don’t waste your time or ours.
- Communicate with us using our Contact form if there will be changes. Please realize it is a lot of work on our end and be respectful of this fact. This service, if you had to pay for it, would cost you a lot of money. We’re doing it for free to help bring a development methodology you supposedly care about into the mainstream. Don’t make it harder on us to carry out this mission. It’s to your benefit as well as to that of others.
Seeing to it that you adhere to these guidelines will make life a lot easier for us, for you as a submitter, and it will result in consistency for our readers and visitors. It’s all part of the master plan. Being undermined by the very people we’re serving hurts us and it hurts the mission. If you’re a submitter you probably care about accessibility, web standards, usability, as well as design. Help us help you show the world what you’ve done.
If you’re not a submitter and want to help in another way — if you like what we’re trying to do here — there are things you can do, as follows:
- If you feel you are qualified and share our thinking and passion, you can always volunteer to be a grader or help out in another way.
- You can create a style sheet for this site if you want. It won’t be easy, but it is good for the visitors to have different themes from which to choose. Challenge yourself. Sure it’ll be like the Zen Garden on steroids, but it could be fun.
- You can link back to us and help spread the word. In-bound links and promotion are always appreciated.
- You can make a donation. We don’t get paid, and our hosting has been donated by GBHXonline.com, but we do have our annual Browsercam fee to pay for. If we end up with a bucket of money we’ll somehow give it back in another form. We’ll host a conference or something. If you want to donate, just call 603-942-8925 (located on the East Coast, USA, Monday-Friday, 9:00-4:00) and ask for Georgann. Tell her you want to make a donation to Accessites.org. Major credit cards are accepted (or you can use PayPal).
Thank you for reading this, supporting us, understanding our wants and needs, and helping get the job done and carry out our mission.
Note: No awards are being given this week or last. The reason is simple, in case you haven’t figured it out: One site is currently invalid, the other off-line for a makeover.
