Survey Tools and Accessibility
New! Reviews of additional survey tools passed along by Rick Hill are now included. Most of these turned out to be software packages. At least they all promised to generate surveys that were Section 508-compliant, and understood the importance of this enough to note it on their web sites.
As you no doubt remember, Kathleen found and posted a list of "online survey generators" a few weeks ago. I emailed each of the organizations listed to learn whether they had even the slightest clue about Section 508 compliance. Much to my surprise, many of them did! However, the fully compliant survey generators tend to be software packages that require a fairly expert technical install and configuration, and even those that were web-based often offer compliance only for the higher-priced versions of their services. In short, there was no such thing as a cheap web-based survey generation tool that created Section 508-compliant surveys. And almost none of the survey generation tools themselves were 508-compliant, meaning a person using a screen reader or other assistive technology would have a very difficult time creating surveys with them.
Yes ... sort of!
All the products below are Section 508-compliant, but they are predominently desktop software or server/desktop software combinations rather than web-based tools.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! Raosoft EZSurvey Appears to be exactly what it says it is, a desktop software product that enables you to produce and host on your own web site fully-Section 508-compliant surveys. But, that means you have to provide the hosting as well as install the software. Reasonably-priced at $399.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! mrInterview An extensive software package requiring purchase of online services to deploy the surveys created with it. SPSS' online product comparison tool asked me a number of questions and then recommended the full-service "Diminsions Service Bureau" rather than mrInterview, but didn't note its price.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! SurveyCrafter Professional A Windows-based desktop software package that enables you to create surveys for web, email or phone. Requires you have your own web server space, and if that server is running Unix or Mac OS X or later, also requires installation of Perl 5. Education users get a discount: $345 for the first licensed copy, with price reductions for additional copies.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! Survey Select ASP There are two versions of this server software; only the more expensive "Advanced Edition" ($179) produces Section 508-compliant code. Requires a Windows server and your own database (SQL Server, MS Access, or MySQL). ClassApps claims that installation is easy, but also notes that it will contact customers' web hosts to determine whether they can support the product and install it at no additional charge.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! Remark Web Survey Desktop software that enables you to create surveys for the web and "easily upload" them to "your own" web server space. Of course, that space requires "a qualified web site administrator with root/admin access to the web server, a Unix or Windows-based web server capable of running Perl CGI scripts, and Perl 5.004 or later," but that's in the fine print. Standard version is $499 per user ($599 with support), professional version is $950 per user ($1140 with support).
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! Ultimate Survey Professional appears to be a fairly sophisticated software package which requires server install and an existing database (SQL, Microsoft Access). Priced at $699 per user.
- NEW review: 11-15-2005! Apian SurveyPro is a software product which sells single user licenses for $1195 (although licenses to cover work groups can also be purchased at something of a discount). To achieve Web survey capability, however, you must also purchase the NetCollect plug-in, which is $845 per single user license. They do say they have special academic pricing, but don't specify what it is. As long as your survey is authored in SurveyPro, they also offer web survey hosting via QuestionWeb, another service priced based on the size of your survey and the length of time you require hosting.
Yes!
All the products below either are Section 508-compliant or offer a Section 508 compliant version!
- Advanced Survey Software. Says its product is fully 508-compliant and one of its biggest customers is National Industries for the Blind.
- Finalsite Survey. Specializes in tools for the education community. They offer a plug-in for their survey product that they claim can "easily" make surveys Section 508 compliant.
- Hosted Survey. Says all its applications are Section 508 compliant.
- Inquisite, produced by Advanced Survey Software. Not only did they answer my question regarding Section 508 compliance, they sent me the documentation of their accessibility testing! BART is listed as one of their major clients.
- Perseus Survey Solutions. Two of their product levels, Survey Solutions Pro and Survey Solutions EFM, generate fully-compliant HTML.
- Qstation. Although the tool itself isn't 508-compliant, the company notes that it can be customized to generate 508-compliant surveys.
- smartASK Web Survey Software. Not really what its name implies. Although this tool can enable you to create and deploy surveys online, it's not a DIY survey generation tool and requires a database backend and sophisticated install. They are rather ahead of the curve, because even their web site proudly states that the product is fully Section 508 compliant ... but it's also $5,000!
- Vanguard Vista online survey software and hosting. Their salesperson says they are "Section 508 compliant in all respects," and was good enough to warn me that "getting fancy" with my questionaire by adding javascript or additional pages of HTML text, could make it unreadable by assistive technologies. (This means their staff actually knows what Section 508-compliance is from a technical standpoint, not just a marketing one.)
- WebSurveyor. These are "do-it-yourself" online surveys, and their Web site states up-front that they are Section 508 compliant.