Disability and health.

Les Directrius per a l'accessibilitat al contingut web tenen l'objectiu de promoure l'accessibilitat del contingut web per a persones amb discapacitats, pero tambe d'ajudar a trobar la informacio dins el web i facilitar-ne l'us a tot tipus d'usuaris. Son directrius amb principis i idees de disseny que no expliquen tecniques concretes de codi ni estan actualitzades a la darrera versio; de programari o maquinari existent. Aquestes directrius han estat publicades per la Iniciativa d'Accessibilitat al web (WAI) del Word Wide Web Consortium i es complementen amb altres directrius i documents del mateix grup. Un grup de professors de la Facultat de Biblioteconomia a la Universitat de Barcelona han realitzat la traduccio al catala

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

/pdf/introduction-to-web-accessibility-1bl4xpivqu.pdf

Introduction to Web Accessibility

Society is become increasingly reliant on data, making it necessary to ensure that all citizens are equipped with the skills needed to be data literate. We argue that the foundations for a data literate society begin by acquiring key data literacy competences in school. However, as yet there is no clear definition of what these should be. This paper explores the different perspectives currently offered on both data and statistical literacy and then critically examines to what extent these address the data literacy needs of citizens in today’s society. We survey existing approaches to teaching data literacy in schools, to identify how data literacy is interpreted in practice. Based on these analyses, we propose a definition of data literacy that is focused on using data to understand real world phenomena. The contribution of this paper is the creation of a common foundation for teaching and learning data literacy skills.

https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/JoCI/article/download/3275/4298

Creating an Understanding of Data Literacy for a Data-driven Society

Mobile devices are a substantial part of our lives, supporting communication, work, and play. However, situational visual impairments (SVIs) can make completing tasks a challenge (e.g., browsing online in bright sunlight) and poorly designed content can cause or exacerbate SVIs. We surveyed 43 mobile content designers and ran four follow-on interviews to understand what designers currently do regarding SVIs, what resources they know of, and what is required to best support them in designing to reduce SVIs. Our findings highlight key similarities and differences between accessibility and designing to reduce SVIs. Our participants requested improved guidelines, education, and digital design tools for SVIs. To accommodate the growing number of people affected by SVIs and improve the inclusion of accessibility in design, we introduce recommendations that leverage the overlap between accessibility and SVIs to minimise the effort required in extending current design processes.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3196709.3196760

Designing for Situational Visual Impairments: Supporting Early-Career Designers of Mobile Content

To better understand what researchers and practitioners consider to be the key components of the definition of web accessibility and to propose a unified definition of web accessibility, we conducted an analysis of 50 definitions of web accessibility. The definitions were drawn from a range of books, papers, standards, guidelines and online sources, aimed at both practitioners and researchers, from the across the time period of web accessibility work, from 1996 to 2014 and from authors in 21 different countries. The analysis extracted six core concepts that are used in many definitions, which are incorporated into a unified definition of web accessibility as "all people, particularly disabled and older people, can use websites in a range of contexts of use, including mainstream and assistive technologies; to achieve this, websites need to be designed and developed to support usability across these contexts".

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2745555.2746653

Towards a unified definition of web accessibility

Despite the existence of web accessibility guidelines - e.g. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - to help developers and designers to create more accessible websites, many websites are still not accessible. Studies showed that guidelines do not cover all the problems encounter by users with disabilities. This study investigates the problems found by seven accessibility experts in 62 accessibility evaluation reviews of mobile and desktop websites as well as mobile applications. Each evaluation conducted an accessibility review using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA. In addition, experts highlighted potential issues which were not covered by these guidelines but could be potential issues encountered by people with disabilities. The study depicts those issues that were raised by experts during those audits but were not covered by the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Finally, the study provides additional knowledge into potential problems as identified by experts and recommends techniques that developers and designers can use to create more accessible websites.

Beyond Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Expert Accessibility Reviews

The web is an eminently visual medium. However, not everyone accesses web content visually. Research shows that using the web is challenging for blind users. To create a good user experience for blind users on the web, we need a comprehensive understanding of the users’ problems. Currently, there is little knowledge about the problem differences between blind and sighted users, which makes it difficult to suggest and test design solutions that address these problems.
This research aims to provide a further understanding of the problems blind users have on the web by comparing and contrasting problems between blind and sighted users and testing how design solutions to prevalent problems benefit blind users’ experience.
The first study draws together the research literature into a common unified definition of web accessibility that was used to operationalise studies. The second study compared which verbal protocol (concurrent or retrospective) is better in user-based studies. The results showed that retrospective verbal protocol is a better option for eliciting problems on the web for blind and sighted users.
Then, an empirical study compared the problems between blind and sighted users on the web. The results showed that the problems the two user groups encounter largely differ. There are specific problem types distinct to blind users, but also the characteristics of the problem types that had instances by both user groups were very different. Moreover, many problems blind users encounter were in relation to the search and browse features of the websites.
A further investigation by two studies with blind users of how specific design solutions to prevalent problems users had (poor page structure, lack of feedback and excessive effort) in this specific design aspect showed that simple design solutions improve specific aspects of users’ experience. Although, for major improvements in the overall user experience a combination of design solutions is needed.

Understanding accessibility problems of blind users on the web

Verbal protocols are widely used in user studies for evaluating websites This study investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of concurrent and retrospective verbal protocols (CVP and RVP) for both blind and sighted participants, as well as participant workload and attitudes towards these methods Eight blind and eight sighted participants undertook both protocols in a website evaluation RVP was more effective as measured by problems encountered for both groups, although it was no more efficient than CVP The severity of problems identified by both protocols was equivalent As measured on the NASA TLX, participants found RVP found more demanding than CVP Sighted participants found rating problems during CVP more disruptive than blind participants These results show that RVP is a more useful protocol for practitioners and researchers even though it takes more time and is more demanding for participants It is equally applicable for both blind and sighted participants

/pdf/comparing-concurrent-and-retrospective-verbal-protocols-for-39wht9ly87.pdf

Comparing Concurrent and Retrospective Verbal Protocols for Blind and Sighted Users

Verbal protocols are often used in user-based studies of interactive technologies. This study investigated whether different types of problems are revealed by concurrent and retrospective verbal protocols (CVP and RVP) for blind and sighted participants. Eight blind and eight sighted participants undertook both CVP and RVP on four websites. Overall, interactivity problems were significantly more frequent in comparison to content or information architecture problems. In addition, RVP revealed significantly more interactivity problems than CVP for both user groups. Finally, blind participants encountered significantly more interactivity problems than sighted participants. The findings have implications for which protocol is appropriate, depending on the purpose of a particular study and the user groups involved.

/pdf/types-of-problems-elicited-by-verbal-protocols-for-blind-and-rxm8m5bxn7.pdf

Andreas Savva

Papers

Towards a unified definition of web accessibility

Beyond Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Expert Accessibility Reviews

Understanding accessibility problems of blind users on the web

Comparing Concurrent and Retrospective Verbal Protocols for Blind and Sighted Users

Types of Problems Elicited by Verbal Protocols for Blind and Sighted Participants