Showing papers on "Web accessibility published in 2013"
13 May 2013
TL;DR: This paper empirically shows the capabilities of current automated evaluation tools and investigates the effectiveness of 6 state-of-the-art tools by analysing their coverage, completeness and correctness with regard to WCAG 2.0 conformance.
Abstract: The use of web accessibility evaluation tools is a widespread practice. Evaluation tools are heavily employed as they help in reducing the burden of identifying accessibility barriers. However, an over-reliance on automated tests often leads to setting aside further testing that entails expert evaluation and user tests. In this paper we empirically show the capabilities of current automated evaluation tools. To do so, we investigate the effectiveness of 6 state-of-the-art tools by analysing their coverage, completeness and correctness with regard to WCAG 2.0 conformance. We corroborate that relying on automated tests alone has negative effects and can have undesirable consequences. Coverage is very narrow as, at most, 50% of the success criteria are covered. Similarly, completeness ranges between 14% and 38%; however, some of the tools that exhibit higher completeness scores produce lower correctness scores (66-71%) due to the fact that catching as many violations as possible can lead to an increase in false positives. Therefore, relying on just automated tests entails that 1 of 2 success criteria will not even be analysed and among those analysed, only 4 out of 10 will be caught at the further risk of generating false positives.
161 citations
TL;DR: The authors identified the major issues and trends in the research about accessibility and disability in the LIS literature throughout a 10-year period, 2000-2010, and found that the strongest theme in the literature is accessibility as it relates to web, database, and software, while the prevailing disability of focus is visual disabilities.
96 citations
TL;DR: Examination of the causes of success and failure suggests that improving accessibility may be due, in part, to changes in website technologies and coding practices rather than a focus on accessibility per se.
Abstract: Over 100 top-traffic and government websites from the United States and United Kingdom were examined for evidence of changes on accessibility indicators over the 14-year period from 1999 to 2012, the longest period studied to date. Automated analyses of WCAG 2.0 Level A Success Criteria found high percentages of violations overall. Unlike more circumscribed studies, however, these sites exhibited improvements over the years on a number of accessibility indicators, with government sites being less likely than topsites to have accessibility violations. Examination of the causes of success and failure suggests that improving accessibility may be due, in part, to changes in website technologies and coding practices rather than a focus on accessibility per se.
92 citations
27 Apr 2013
TL;DR: This work observed that a series of supplier terms and conditions were far beyond what a functionally literate adult could be expected to understand, and presents a browser based plug-in which compares SMOG readability scores to popular books.
Abstract: Terms and conditions are central in acquiring user consent by service providers. Such documents are frequently highly complex and unreadable, placing doubts on the validity of so called 'informed consent'. While readability and web accessibility have been major themes for some time in HCI, the core principles have yet to be applied beyond webpage content and are absent from the underpinning terms and conditions. Our concern is that accessible web pages will encourage consent, masking the complexities of the terms of usage. Using the SMOG readability formula and UK Energy services as a case study, we observed that a series of supplier terms and conditions were far beyond what a functionally literate adult could be expected to understand. We also present a browser based plug-in which compares SMOG readability scores to popular books. The intention is to use this plug-in to assist in surfacing the hidden complexities underpinning online consent.
92 citations
21 Nov 2013
TL;DR: The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness towards a better understanding of the web accessibility challenges that elderly students of MOOCs face.
Abstract: Internet use by older people has increased dramatically during the past 10 years. According to different sources, the number of users over age 65 has more than doubled since 2000. Besides, the inevitable effect of younger users aging will increase the number of older people using the Internet the next decades. Unfortunately, older people face several challenges when using the web due to diminishing capacities related to aging, such as vision decline, hearing loss, decremented motor skills and cognition issues. On the other hand, e-learning can be an opportunity in helping older people become integrated with the rest of society. In this context, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) bring great opportunities to enhance the quality of life of older people by enabling lifelong learning and inclusion in learning communities. However, MOOCs can present some barriers that could hamper full participation by elderly students. In order to avoid these barriers, MOOCs have to meet different user needs, skills and situations: MOOCs have to successfully address web accessibility challenges for elderly students. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness towards a better understanding of the web accessibility challenges that elderly students of MOOCs face.
69 citations
TL;DR: The pursuit of a high search engine relevance ranking for a webpage is not necessarily incompatible with the pursuit of web accessibility, according to the numerous similarities and overlapping characteristics between SEO factors and web accessibility guidelines.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the pursuit of a high search engine relevance ranking for a webpage is not necessarily incompatible with the pursuit of web accessibilityDesign/methodology/approach – The research described arose from an investigation into the observed phenomenon that pages from accessible websites regularly appear near the top of search engine (such as Google) results, without any deliberate effort having been made through the application of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to achieve this The reasons for this phenomenon appear to be found in the numerous similarities and overlapping characteristics between SEO factors and web accessibility guidelines Context is provided through a review of sources including accessibility standards and relevant SEO studies and the relationship between SEO and web accessibility is described The particular overlapping factors between the two are identified and the precise nature of the overlaps is explained in greater detai
68 citations
21 Oct 2013
TL;DR: High-level insights are derived from the data, such as the prevalence of assistive technology incompatibility and the value of middleware for implementing accessibility standardization, which help to narrow the gap between academic and game development standards.
Abstract: A gap between the academic human-computer interaction community and the game development industry has led to games not being as thoroughly influenced by accessibility standards as most other facets of information and communication technology. As a result, individuals with disabilities are unable to fully, if at all, engage with many commercial games. This paper presents the findings of a pair of complementary empirical studies intended to understand the current state of game accessibility in a grounded, real-world context and identify issues and barriers. The first study involved an online survey of 55 gamers with disabilities to elicit information about their play habits, experiences, and accessibility issues. The second study consisted of a series of semi-structured interviews with individuals from the game industry to better understand accessibility's situation in their design and development processes. Through quantitative and qualitative thematic analysis, we derive high-level insights from the data, such as the prevalence of assistive technology incompatibility and the value of middleware for implementing accessibility standardization. Finally, we discuss specific implications and how these insights can be used to define future work which may help to narrow the gap.
53 citations
TL;DR: This paper posits that the way both previous generations of e-Learning have emerged with the prevalent technologies in their kin Web versions (1.0 and 2.0), it can be argued that e- learning 3.0 will provide all earlier generations’ capabilities enhanced with the Web3.0 technologies.
Abstract: Web 3.0, termed as the semantic web or the web of data is the transformed version of Web 2.0 with technologies and functionalities such as intelligent collaborative filtering, cloud computing, big data, linked data, openness, interoperability and smart mobility. If Web 2.0 is about social networking and mass collaboration between the creator and user, then the Web 3.0 is referring to intelligent applications using natural language processing, machine-based learning and reasoning. From the perspective of advancements in e-Learning, the Web 2.0 technologies have transformed the classroom and converted a passive learner into an active participant in the learning process. This paper posits that the way both previous generations of e-Learning (1.0 and 2.0) have emerged with the prevalent technologies in their kin Web versions (1.0 and 2.0, respectively), it can be argued that e-Learning 3.0 will provide all earlier generations’ capabilities enhanced with the Web 3.0 technologies. Furthermore, in this paper, reviewing all the theories of learning and examining closely the theory of connectivism (considered to be the theory of learning for the digital age), it is argued that since most of the technologies that are to be a part of e-Learning 3.0 are addressed by these principles, a call for a new learning theory for e-Learning 3.0 is not justified. Finally, a review of the secondary literature shows that there will be various challenges and issues related to prevalence and adoption of e-Learning 3.0 technologies, for example increased privacy and security risks, web accessibility, readiness of the users, requirement for further standardization of e-Learning technologies and social issues in term of increase of the digital divide.
49 citations
08 Jul 2013
TL;DR: Preliminary results are presented which show that, people perceive segmentation with higher granularity as better segmentation regardless of the web page complexity.
Abstract: Web pages consist of different visual segments, serving different purposes. Typical structural segments are header, right or left columns and main content. Segments can also have nested structure which means some segments may include other segments. Understanding these segments is important in properly displaying web pages for small screen devices and in alternative forms such as audio for screen reader users. There exist different techniques in identifying visual segments in a web page. One successful approach is Vision Based Segmentation Algorithm (VIPS Algorithm) which uses both the underlying source code and also the visual rendering of a web page. However, there are some limitations of this approach and this paper explains how we have extended and improved VIPS and built it in Java. We have also conducted some online user evaluations to investigate how people perceive the success of the segmentation approach and in which granularity they prefer to see a web page segmented. This paper presents the preliminary results which show that, people perceive segmentation with higher granularity as better segmentation regardless of the web page complexity.
45 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured the enterprise web accessibility levels of the Forbes 250 largest enterprises using the fully automatic accessibility evaluation tool Sortsite, and presented the compliance of the evaluated websites to WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0 and Section-508 accessibility levels.
Abstract: The research team measured the enterprise web accessibility levels of the Forbes 250 largest enterprises using the fully automatic accessibility evaluation tool Sortsite, and presented the compliance of the evaluated websites to WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 accessibility levels. Given the recent attention to organizational leaders having ethical duties towards their dedicated employees, we propose that ‘societal citizenship behaviour’ concerns ethical duties of organizational leaders towards society in general and in particular to those who have less means to assert their needs. In effect, we found enterprise website accessibility levels to be in need of significant improvement. An interpretation of a positive path forward to better enterprise website accessibility levels is put forth based on a focus-group interaction and using BNML—a novel Business Narrative Modelling Language.
45 citations
TL;DR: Let users improve Web accessibility in their client browsers through interface refactorings, which offer many customized, accessible views of a single application.
Abstract: According to W3C accessibility standards, most Web applications are neither accessible nor usable for people with disabilities. Developers often solve this problem by building separate accessible applications, but these applications are seldom usable and typically offer less functionality than the original. Another common solution is to maintain a single application, but create an accessible view by applying on-the-fly transformations to each requested page-a solution that rarely suits all audiences. A third solution is described here: let users improve Web accessibility in their client browsers through interface refactorings, which offer many customized, accessible views of a single application.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This study applies usability heuristics and automated analyses to assess a state-wide population of county web portals and finds that portal adoption is associated with each of the demographics above and that accessibility has a weak inverse relationship to per-capita income.
Abstract: Website usability reinforces trust in e-government, but at the local level, e-government tends to have usability and accessibility problems. Web portals should be usable, accessible, well coded, and mobile-device-ready. This study applies usability heuristics and automated analyses to assess a state-wide population of county web portals and examines whether population, per capita income, or median household income are related to usability, accessibility, and coding practices. To assess usability, we applied a 14-point usability heuristic to each site's homepage. To study accessibility and coding, we examined each homepage with an accessibility checker and with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) HTML validator. We also examined the HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of each site to check for mobile-device readiness and to better understand coding problems the automated tools identified. This study found that portal adoption is associated with each of the demographics above and that accessibility has a weak inverse relationship to per-capita income. Many of the sites we examined met some basic usability standards, but few met all the standards used, and most sites did not pass a basic accessibility analysis. About 58% of the counties we examined used a centralized county web portal (not including county commission sites), which is better than a 2006 study that found a 56% portal adoption at the national level. Resulting recommendations include best-practice suggestions for design and for using automated tools to identify problems, as well as a call to usability professionals to aid in county web portal development.
13 May 2013
TL;DR: A customization toolbar called Firefixia is presented, especially designed to support people with dyslexia to adapt the presentation of Web content according to their preferences to highlight the need for end-user customization features that are easy to access, easy to use, and easy to explore.
Abstract: People with dyslexia often face difficulties on consuming written content at the Web. This occurs mainly because websites' designs do not consider the barriers faced by them, since dyslexia is not taken into account as often as other functional limitations. Guidelines for designing accessible Web pages are being consolidated and studied. Meanwhile, people with dyslexia face barriers and develop workarounds to overcome these difficulties. This work presents a customization toolbar called Firefixia, especially designed to support people with dyslexia to adapt the presentation of Web content according to their preferences. Firefixia was tested by 4 participants with diagnosed dyslexia. The participants evaluated and provided us feedback regarding the toolbar most/least useful features. From the presented results, one expects to highlight the need for end-user customization features that are easy to access, easy to use, and easy to explore. Participants reported that the most useful customization features are the text size, the text alignment, and the link color. Finally, this work indicates promising directions for end-user customization tools such as Firefixia.
TL;DR: This article tackles teaching novices to create Web sites for visually impaired audiences using a five-stage, recursive approach, and recommends that novice developers examine how different tools can be used in combination to provide a variety of feedback.
Abstract: Novice Web developers and other technical communicators need to learn not only accessibility standards but also factors that make designs usable to audiences with disabilities. One challenge of teaching accessibility to novices is creating exigency; another is emulating experiences of users with disabilities. This article tackles teaching novices to create Web sites for visually impaired audiences using a five-stage, recursive approach. Teaching best coding practices is only one stage: Instructors should create exigency by introducing real users and their experiences. They should also check for accessibility and emulate screen-reader output using tools such as WAVE and FANGS, respectively. Furthermore, novice developers should examine how different tools can be used in combination to provide a variety of feedback.
Book•
31 Aug 2013
TL;DR: Assistive Technologies and Computer Access for Motor Disabilities investigates solutions to the difficulties of impaired technology access by highlighting the principles, methods, and advanced technological solutions for those with motor impairments.
Abstract: Individuals with disabilities that impede their range of motion often have difficulty accessing technologies. With the use of computer-based assistive technology; devices, tools, and services can be used to maintain and improve the functional capabilities of motor disabilities. Assistive Technologies and Computer Access for Motor Disabilities investigates solutions to the difficulties of impaired technology access by highlighting the principles, methods, and advanced technological solutions for those with motor impairments. This reference source is beneficial to academia, industry, and various professionals in disciplines such as rehabilitation science, occupational therapy, human-computer interface development, ergonomics, and teaching in inclusive and special education. This publication is integrated with its pair book Disability Informatics and Web Accessibility for Motor Limitations.
TL;DR: Improving awareness, training developers and users, and developing formal guidelines of Web accessibility are needed to enable visually impaired and blind users in accessing e-government sites and their services.
Abstract: Accessibility of e-government services is a key issue for people with disabilities. E-government services can significantly save lot of their effort and provide them with lot of easy to reach services. Yet, accessibility of e-government websites is still under-explored topic in Jordan. In order to understand the accessibility of e-government websites and its problems, this study evaluates a set of e-government websites using 20 blind and visually impaired volunteers and at the same time conducts a survey on e-government websites developers. The results from e-government websites accessibility evaluation are compared with expert's review. For both the evaluation and the survey we used a set of accessibility guidelines developed by W3C [i.e. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.0], Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, and other literature review. In order to evaluate a reasonable number of e-government Web sites, a set of common e-government websites visited by the blind community were identified and a set of specific common tasks to test were defined. The analysis of the research results revealed a serious weakness in understanding, adopting and implementing Web accessibility guidelines throughout nearly all Jordanian e-government websites. Improving awareness, training developers and users, and developing formal guidelines of Web accessibility are needed to enable visually impaired and blind users in accessing e-government Web sites and their services. Further research analysis discusses and identifies key areas in which e-government accessibility can be enhanced.
TL;DR: In this article, the European Union's policies on accessible websites and the related legislation are outlined, and the potential impact of the Accessibility Act on the accessibility of European Union public, and ultimately, private websites is evaluated.
Abstract: Websites can be accessible to all if they are designed according to certain principles. Website accessibility has long been a European Union policy priority, particularly with the growth of egovernment services and the related impact on citizenship. A number of studies, while showing some improvement in accessibility, indicate the need for accessibility improvement in relation to egovernment services. This article outlines the European Union's policies on accessible websites and the related legislation. A theme in the development of disability related Directives is fragmentation and the lack of harmonising principles. Public procurement has been used as an extremely effective tool to increase accessibility in the United States, and it is this approach that lies at the heart of the proposed Accessibility Act. This initiative seeks to harmonise standards and policies on accessibility to harness fully the power of the internal market and the commercial impetus in order to increase access. While the Accessibility Act is currently being drafted after recent public consultation, this article evaluates the potential impact it could have on the accessibility of European Union public, and ultimately, private websites.
TL;DR: Thirty community college websites were evaluated for compliance with federal web accessibility standards found in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and found thatcommunity college websites fared poorly in both accessibility and usability.
Abstract: Thirty community college websites were evaluated for compliance with federal web accessibility standards found in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d). Two typical sites were tested for usability by individuals with visual impairments, individuals with reading-related learning disabilities (LD), and a control group of individuals without disabilities. Ten additional sites were selected for Simulated Target Group usability testing. Testing revealed that less than 1% of pages evaluated met Section 508 web accessibility standards. Over half of the users found the online admissions application process frustrating, and less than a third of all users could complete the online application without assistance. The Simulated Target Group usability testing encountered similar usability issues across the additional 10 community college websites examined. All four evaluation techniques found that community college websites fared poorly in both accessibility and usability. However, many of the...
TL;DR: The results of a global survey of managers uncovered that the key factors for influencing a company’s level of website accessibility are the number of IT professionals employed by the firm, the level of accessibility testing performed, and whether the company is mandated to have an accessible website.
Abstract: Over 600 million people worldwide have disabilities ranging from visual and hearing impairments to cognitive and motor skill issues. This number is only growing as "Baby Boomers" age. Previous research reveals that those organizations, such as federal agencies and colleges, which are mandated to have accessible websites, do indeed have higher levels of accessible websites than corporate sites do. This led to the current research, which aims at understanding what factors truly impact a company's decision to provide an accessible website. The results of a global survey of managers from a variety of industries uncovered that the key factors for influencing a company's level of website accessibility are the number of IT professionals employed by the firm, the level of accessibility testing performed, and whether the company is mandated to have an accessible website.
TL;DR: The data from this longitudinal evaluation leads to the conclusion that web page templates do tend to result in more accessible sites within state government.
22 Oct 2013
TL;DR: The evaluation results show that the examined e-Government services have one or more accessibility violations, and in terms of usability, most services were usable and well designed, thus little work is recommended to make them more user-friendly and attractive to citizen.
Abstract: E-Government services offer citizens an easy way to accomplish their work anytime and anywhere. Ensuring the accessibility and usability of such services is crucial to citizens to allow smooth online transaction. In this paper we present an empirical study to investigate the accessibility and usability of a representative sample of top Saudi e-government services. The accessibility will be based on the compliance to WCAG 2.0 recommendations, and the usability will be based on expert reviews. Our evaluation results show that the examined e-Government services have one or more accessibility violations. On the other hand, in terms of usability, most services were usable and well designed, thus little work is recommended to make them more user-friendly and attractive to citizen.
13 May 2013
TL;DR: The impact on these essential components of web accessibility as the Web rapidly evolves into an increasingly mobile and ubiquitous medium is explored, and opportunities for research and development to help make the Web universally accessible to all users are highlighted.
Abstract: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. This includes ensuring that core web technologies such as HTML and CSS provide support for accessibility; developing complementary web specifications to support accessibility, such as WAI-ARIA and IndieUI; and maintaining a set of internationally recognized guidelines that define accessibility criteria for web authoring tools such as content management systems and code editors, for user agents such as web browsers and media players, and for web content including text, images, scripts, audio-visual media, and more. This communication paper explores the impact on these essential components of web accessibility as the Web rapidly evolves into an increasingly mobile and ubiquitous medium, and highlights opportunities for research and development to help make the Web universally accessible to all users.
TL;DR: This work introduces a technique that analyses the code associated with a Web page to identify widgets using combinations of code constructs which enable uniquely identification, and technically evaluates the approach with the most difficult widgets to distinguish between.
Abstract: The Web 2.0 sees once static pages evolve into hybrid applications, and content that was previously simple, now becoming increasingly complicated due to the many updating components located throughout the page. While beneficial for some users, these components (widgets) are often complex and will lead to confusion and frustration for others, notably those for whom accessibility is already an issue. While users and developers often perceive widgets as complete components (a Slideshow, or an Auto Suggest List), they are in-fact heterogeneous collections of code, and are therefore hard to computationally identify. Identification is critical if we wish to reverse engineer inaccessible widgets or ‘inject’ missing ‘WAI-ARIA’ into ‘RIAs’. In this case, we introduce a technique that analyses the code associated with a Web page to identify widgets using combinations of code constructs which enable uniquely identification. We go on to technically evaluate our approach with the most difficult widgets to distinguish between—Slideshows and Carousels—and then describe two prototype applications for visually impaired and older users by means of example.
13 May 2013
TL;DR: A comparative study to understand the difference of the accessibility properties of the Web regarding three different evaluation perspectives: 1) before browser processing; 2) after browser processing (dynamic loading); 3) and, also afterbrowser processing, considering the triggering of user interaction events.
Abstract: With the increasing popularity of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), several challenges arise in the area of web accessibility evaluation. A particular set of challenges emerges from RIAs dynamic nature: original static Web specifications can change dramatically before being presented to the end user; a user triggered event may provide complete new content within the same RIA. Whatever the evaluation alternative, the challenges must be met.We focus on automatic evaluation using the current WGAG standards. That enables us to do extensive evaluations in order to grasp the accessibility state of the web eventually pointing new direction for improvement.In this paper, we present a comparative study to understand the difference of the accessibility properties of the Web regarding three different evaluation perspectives: 1) before browser processing; 2) after browser processing (dynamic loading); 3) and, also after browser processing, considering the triggering of user interaction events.The results clearly show that for a RIA the number of accessibility outcomes varies considerably between those tree perspectives. First of all, this variation shows an increase of the number of assessed elements as well as passes, warnings and errors from perspective 1 to 2, due to dynamically loaded code, and from 2 to 3, due to the new pages reached by the interaction events. This shows that evaluating RIAs without considering its dynamic components provides an erroneous perception of its accessibility. Secondly, the relative growth of the number of fails is bigger than the growth of passes. This signifies that considering pages reached by interaction reveals lower quality for RIAs. Finally, a tendency is shown for the RIAs with higher number of states also exposing differences in accessibility quality.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This research explores the accessibility issues with regard to the e-commerce websites in developing countries, through a study of Sri Lankan hotel websites, and shows that there is no significant correlation between accessibility and geographical or economic factors.
Abstract: This research explores the accessibility issues with regard to the e-commerce websites in developing countries, through a study of Sri Lankan hotel websites. A web survey and a web content analysis were conducted as the methods to elicit data on web accessibility. Factors preventing accessibility were hypothesized as an initial experiment. Affecting design elements are identified through web content analysis, the results of which are utilized to develop specific implications for improving web accessibility. The hypothesis tests show that there is no significant correlation between accessibility and geographical or economic factors. However, physical impairments of users have a considerable influence on the accessibility of web page user interface if it has been designed without full consideration of the needs of all users. Especially, visual and mobility impaired users experience poor accessibility. Poor readability and less navigable page designs are two observable issues, which pose threats to accessibility. The lack of conformance to W3C accessibility guidelines and the poor design process are the specific shortcomings which reduce the overall accessibility. Guidelines aim to improve the accessibility of sites with a strategic focus. Further enhancements are suggested with adherence to principles, user centered design and developing customizable web portals compatible for connections with differing speeds. Re-ordering search results has been suggested as one of the finest step towards making the web content accessible for users with differing needs. A need for developing new design models for differencing user groups and implementing web accessibility strategy are emphasized as vital steps towards effective information dissemination via e-commerce websites in the developing countries.
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: A comparative study of the web accessibility of official websites from countries of the European Union is presented and two automatic evaluation tools have been used to perform the comparison.
Abstract: In a short period of time, the World Wide Web (the Web) has had a huge impact on our society and lives. The Web provides access to news, email, online purchasing, fun activities, etc. However, the Web is often a barrier to access to information and services for some groups of disabled users. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Unfortunately, web developers often lack sufficient knowledge to meet these guidelines. To assure and certify the fulfilment of web accessibility guidelines, various automatic accessibility evaluation tools have been developed. In this paper, a comparative study of the web accessibility of official websites from countries of the European Union is presented. Two automatic evaluation tools have been used to perform the comparison: the W3C Markup Validation Service to check the source code of the web pages, and eXaminator to test the accessibility.
TL;DR: A framework which can be used by the websites of public interest to make their important utilities better accessible and usable to blind web users is proposed, based on providing an alternate access system on the fly using one single website.
Abstract: Despite many assistive tools available for browsing the web, blind persons are not able to perform the tasks using internet that are done by persons without such disability. Even the futuristic social networking sites and other websites using the features of web 2.0 indicate a lesser accessible/responsible web. In this paper, we propose a framework, which can be used by the websites of public interest to make their important utilities better accessible and usable to blind web users. The approach is based on providing an alternate access system on the fly using one single website. The framework makes use of existing technologies like JavaScript, available speech APIs etc. and therefore provides a lightweight and robust solution to the accessibility problem. As a case study, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework by showing its working on a key functionality of the Indian Railways Reservation Website.
21 Jul 2013
TL;DR: An overview of a typical set of web applications used by students and the main concerns regarding accessibility compliance are presented.
Abstract: Higher education institutions (HEI) and students are highly dependent of information systems, implemented as web applications. Students must be able to access this applications, thought accessible web interfaces, in order to perform their academic activities. This paper presents an overview of a typical set of web applications used by students and the main concerns regarding accessibility compliance. The analysis was conducted using the systems at the University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro.
12 Jun 2013
TL;DR: The results of the evaluation show that the proposed system does simplify complex sentences in news articles effectively while maintaining their intended meaning, suggesting that the system can be used in practice to help deaf people to access textual information.
Abstract: Deaf people have particular difficulty in understanding text-based web documents because their mother language, or sign language, is essentially visually oriented. To enhance the readability of text-based web documents for deaf people, we propose a news display system that converts complex sentences in news articles into simple sentences and presents the relations among them with a graphical representation. In particular, we focus on the tasks of 1) identifying subordinate and embedded clauses in complex sentences, 2) relocating them for better readability and 3) displaying the relations among the clauses with the graphical representation. The results of our evaluation show that the proposed system does simplify complex sentences in news articles effectively while maintaining their intended meaning, suggesting that our system can be used in practice to help deaf people to access textual information.
Book•
31 Aug 2013
TL;DR: Disability Informatics and Web Accessibility for Motor Limitations explores the principles, methods, and advanced technological solutions in the use of assistive technologies to enable users with motor limitations.
Abstract: As technology becomes an increasingly vital aspect of modern social interaction, the field of disability informatics and web accessibility has made significant progress in consolidating theoretical approaches and exploring new application domains for those with motor and cognitive disabilities. Disability Informatics and Web Accessibility for Motor Limitations explores the principles, methods, and advanced technological solutions in the use of assistive technologies to enable users with motor limitations. This book is essential for academia, industry, and various professionals in fields such as web application designers, rehabilitation scientists, ergonomists, and teachers in inclusive and special education. This publication is integrated with its pair book Assistive Technologies and Computer Access for Motor Disabilities.