First, the new version of the browser remains fast. IE9 works differently to other web browsers in that it makes better use of the graphics card and Windows features to speed up image download times, and on most computers it succeeds. This test was done on a basic Asus Eee PC running Windows 7. There was a substantial performance increase, making IE9 more competitive against browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
In terms of accessibility, all the usual access features have been retained including font size adjustment, ability to specify colours and keyboard navigation. One feature that many people with vision, cognitive and mobility impairments will welcome is the new ‘minimalist’ look of IE9. The bar at the top has been simplified and emphasised. There is now a larger back button, followed by the address bar and some smaller ‘reload’ and ‘stop’ buttons. Continuing across the top are the tabs which, unlike IE8, are all part of the one bar, and the few remaining icons such as ‘home’ and ‘favorites’ have been moved to the end.
IE9 seems to have a better balance of implementing user colour schemes without sacrificing webpage content. Previous versions of IE would often lose background images and other images completely when this option was selected. It will be interesting to see if this balance is maintained in the final release.
On the downside, however, is the new feature where the browser’s navigation buttons (e.g. the ‘back’ button) change colour to match the web page’s colour scheme. For people with a vision impairment this is likely to make the buttons harder to see if they visit a web page with a low colour contrast. Fortunately this issue can be resolved if the user specifies their own colour scheme in the IE9 settings.
It should be stressed that this is an early beta of IE9 and as such it is likely that changes will occur. A more in-depth analysis will be provided by Media Access Australia upon its release. You can download the beta of IE9 from the Microsoft IE9 website. Further information on browser accessibility can be found in the new media section of this website.
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