None of the programs had problems when read with HPR 3.0. Use of HPR 2.5 caused problems with all programs, ranging from the inability to access the chat feature of Blackboard 4 to difficulty logging in or accessing any course sections with the other three programs.
HPR 2.5 had little difficulty navigating Blackboard 4, with one exception. HPR locked up when attempting to use Virtual Chat. The chat program required JavaScript, but gave no warning of this requirement. HPR could not access JavaScript-based applets such as this chat program.
For Prometheus, HPR 2.5 revealed poorly named frames, which were not intuitive. When using HPR, which does not display the content of the entire frameset, the user must rely on the frame name to navigate. If the name is not intuitive, it takes extra time as one guesses what content the frame contains. An incorrect guess means backing up and trying another link. HPR also revealed a large number of redirects while logging in. This can be problematic for browsers that do not support redirects. A redirect is automatic script on a page that tells the browser to go to another location. We do not know why the redirects appear in Prometheus.
Prometheus had a tendency to make HPR forgetful, for lack of a better term. HPR had problems recognizing that the user was logged in. We entered our username and password many times while in Prometheus. The most prevalent occurrences of this were when navigating with HPR's back button. When using other browsers, such as Internet Explorer, we did not have this problem. The submit button problem mentioned above in the JAWS section showed up here as well. In this case, we were unable to find a work-around (even a sighted cheat like a mouse click) to the missing submit button. We were unable to create any content using HPR.
The biggest issue in WebCT appeared with HPR 2.5. The main page, which was within a frame set and implemented with JavaScript, was unreadable. The page redirected our browser to a page titled "Yahoo! Search Results for about:blank." Repeated attempts to access the page yielded the same results. The only solution we could find was to directly enter the URL of the main frame, which is very long and unwieldy. This would be impractical for a student. Many links within the program were JavaScript, which HPR 2.5 did not support.
We were unable to read the Blackboard 5 site with HPR 2.5, except for the text on the first login page. We believe the extensive use of JavaScript was the cause of the errors.
No navigation problems discussed here were present with HPR 3.0.
Content authored by AnnMarie Johnson
and Sean Ruppert. ©2001
last updated
November 19, 2001
by AnnMarie Johnson.