CUBill&Pay: Accessibility Considerations

Background

CUBill&Pay is CU-Boulder’s service for bill review and payment. It is hosted by Nelnet Business Solutions, and is available via various links on MyCUInfo, such as “Make Payment”, “View and Print Bill”, and “Authorize Others to View and Pay Your Bill.”

In February 2015, CU-Boulder commissioned an expert accessibility review of bill payment within CUBill&Pay. The review identified a number of issues that are likely to make using the site difficult for people with certain disabilities. Many of those issues have been repaired since that February review, but some still remain.

Who is affected?

People who use screen readers, people who can’t use a mouse, and people with low vision. In addition, some defects may affect people with cognitive disabilities or mobility issues.

What is the impact?

The issues mean that navigating and comprehending the CUBill&Pay pages is likely to be more difficult for users who are affected. One issue makes payment impossible to complete for keyboard-only users. Specific issues follow:

  • When entering a payment amount, the cursor can become trapped in the “Payment Amount” text box, rendering further keyboard navigation impossible.
  • For security reasons, the CUBill&Pay pages will time out and expire the user’s session after 5 minutes. However, users aren’t notified that a timeout is about to take place, and are only told of the timeout once it has already occurred. This behavior may cause frustration for users who require more time to work with the pages.
  • The navigation menus do not indicate to screen readers and keyboard users which link is currently selected.
  • Some page elements are not in a logical order when tabbing through them, which can cause confusion or frustration.
  • Some page elements lack a visual indication of focus, which can make it difficult for keyboard-only users to determine where they are on the page.
  • Some pages offer a “virtual keypad” which is difficult to navigate via keyboard. Moreover, the expand/collapse link for that keypad does not tell screen reader users that the link is expandable, and whether it’s currently expanded or not.
  • Dropdown controls on some pages are not labeled, leaving screen reader users to deduce for themselves how they work.
  • A table on the “Payment Plan Options” page is marked as having 10 columns when it only has 4.
  • Some error messages indicate importance with the color red, which may be missed by users with visual limitations.
  • Some graphical icons have alt text which needlessly duplicates adjacent text on the page, which can create an odd redundancy or repetition when read.
  • The PDF version of the billing statement is not a tagged PDF document, which can make it more difficult to comprehend and navigate for screen reader users.

Are there workarounds?

For the keyboard trap issue, there is currently no workaround. If you find your cursor has been trapped in a form element, you will need to have a mouse user help with changing focus on the page. In addition, there is currently no way to increase the time limit for CUBill&Pay pages. If you are logged out of the system, you’ll need to re-enter using the link on MyCUInfo.

Other accessibility issues make the page difficult but not impossible to use. Tips for using CUBill&Pay with assistive technology and/or without the mouse:

  • Although the navigation links do not provide a visual indication of focus, the current focus can be deduced by users who are able to detect the currently selected URL. All CUBill&Pay URLs contain the string “/cu/qp/”, followed by different suffixes. Here’s a map of the navigation menu items and the suffixes they connect with:
    • Message Board: “/messageboard/index.do”
    • Payment Profiles: “/profile/index.do”
    • Authorized Payers: “/authorization/index.do”
    • User Preferences: “/preference/index.do”
    • View Accounts: “/ebill/index.do”
    • Account Detail: “/ebill/currentStatusDispatcher.do”
    • Current Statement: “/ebill/currentStatementDispatcher.do”
    • Statement History: “/ebill/prepareSelectStatement.do”
    • Make Payment: “epay/index.do”
    • Transaction History: “/history/index.do”
    • Payment Plan: “/paymentplan/agreement/index.do”
    • Messages: “/message/index.do”
  • The information provided on the PDF version of the bill is also fully provided on the HTML version of the bill, available from the “Current Statement” page. Consequently, while the PDF is not tagged, it also does not provide any unique information.

What is the current status?

CU has notified Nelnet that the keyboard trap issue is a major accessibility barrier, rendering the most critical function on the site inaccessible to keyboard-only users. We are requesting that Nelnet fix the issue before their next major software release.

On the other end of the priority scale, because the PDF provides only the same information as the HTML bill, accessibility of the PDF is not a high priority. We have asked Nelnet to provide a road map for when the document will be properly tagged, but are not pushing for a rapid resolution.

For all the rest of the issues, Nelnet is planning to address them in its next software release, which CU will adopt during the spring semester of 2016.

Where can I get more information?

If you’re a CU-Boulder user and have an inquiry related to accessibility issues, please contact the IT Service Center, at 303-735-HELP (303-735-4357), or at help@colorado.edu.