What can I do for Herdict?

You’ve learned what Herdict can do for you. You’re excited about Herdict’s release. You’ve told all your friends…and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

The first thing you can do for Herdict, of course, is spread the word. But more importantly, we want your participation once Herdict has been released. As I mentioned before, Herdict crowdsources reports of inaccessibility from around the world to paint a real-time picture of Web inaccessibility. But how?

This Herdict Network Health (now Herdict Web) sample screen shows the reports for YouTube.com, the popular video-sharing site. You can see how inaccessible reports for China reach into the thousands – a clear vision of Herdict participation. Although this screen is just a mockup, we hope to see numbers like these (but preferably more green accessible reports than orange inaccessible reports!) Each report denotes that an individual reported whether or not they could see the site in question

So how does one participate in Herdict Web? There are actually three ways to participate! You can download the Herdict add-on for Firefox and IE, directly report a known inaccessible site via Herdict.org or use the web-based Herdict Reporter to test a predetermined list of sites. The Herdict Reporter is one of the coolest things about Herdict…if you want to participate but prefer not to download an add-on or don’t have much time, the Reporter allows you to quickly cycle through a list of sites and simply click the green or orange button, depending on whether or not you can see the listed site.

Stay tuned for more information on Herdict. And follow us on Twitter!

About the Author: Jillian York

Jillian C. York is the Project Coordinator for the OpenNet Initiative and the part of the Herdict team that you should contact if you have any questions about other-language instances of the site or international press. She created most of the textual content on the site, so if you spot something funny, let her know! She's also the face behind the @Herdict Twitter feed.