Showing papers on "Web accessibility published in 2014"

The role of accessibility in a universal web

Abstract: "Universal design" is the process of creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations; whereas "accessibility" primarily refers to design for people with disabilities. While the focus of accessibility is disabilities, research and development in accessibility brings benefits to everyone, particularly users with situational limitations, including device limitations and environmental limitations. Awareness and understanding of the benefits of web accessibility to users without disabilities is growing in some areas with the rapid increase of web-enabled devices such as mobile phones, tablets, televisions, and more; with the increasing focus on the growing number of older web users; and with wider web reach in areas with high incidence of low literacy, low bandwidth, older technology, etc. Although there is significant overlap between designing for accessibility and designing for situational limitations, addressing one set of needs does not necessarily provide sufficient solutions for other needs. Keeping accessibility focused on disabilities encourages research and development on meeting the specific needs of people with disabilities. This communications paper explains the importance of "accessibility" continuing to focus on people with disabilities, while further integrating accessibility with web design, development, and research in other areas, including those covered under universal design and design for all. It also describes how the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) are working to address accessibility and related user needs throughout the technologies of the Web, and invites all interested parties to participate in research and development to further integrate accessibility for people with disabilities in ways that benefit all.

eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by Persons with Cognitive Disabilities

Abstract: Part I. Opening: 1. Introduction: the struggle for Web equality 2. Web-content equality, the ADA, and participation in society 3. Web equality and the ADA Part II. The Advocates' Path: 4. ADA Title III and Web equality: litigation begins 5. Web equality: second-generation advocacy 6. Future Web equality advocacy Part III. Toward Web Equality for People with Cognitive Disabilities: 7. Web-content equality and cognitive disabilities 8. Web equality in action 9. Toward Web-content equality 10. Equality in pocket usability.

The struggle for web equality by persons with cognitive disabilities

Abstract: This article is based on the book eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by Persons with Cognitive Disabilities (2014, Cambridge University Press). It contends that the rights of individuals with cognitive disabilities to equal access to web content are not only protected under law, but may also be implemented and supported by current user-based, semantic and cloud technologies. Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, web content equality is defined through functional, rather than disability-specific, approaches and techniques to enable personalization and customized usage across online functions. Legal challenges brought forward by individuals with cognitive and other disabilities illustrate the barriers still faced by individuals with disabilities to web equality as well as some of the solutions to and outcomes of these challenges. In closing, a view for the full and equal enjoyment of web content, which considers technology, financial benefits, and the role of advocacy and regulations, is discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accessibility as an integral factor in e-government web site evaluation : The case of Dubai e-government

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which accessibility is taken into account in the assessment and ranking of e-government web sites through the lens of a specific study related to Dubai e-government. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers a case study related to Dubai e-government and it evaluates the accessibility of each of the 21 Dubai e-government web sites, based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and using an automated accessibility testing tool. A bivariate correlation analysis is performed to assess the correlation between web site ranking and accessibility score. Findings – The research reveals that contrary to common intuition and some earlier studies, there is a weak correlation between e-government web site ranking score and web site accessibility. Research limitations/implications – The paper uses an accessibility metric that is a proxy indicator of web accessibility and is not a real assessment of accessibility as experienced by a ...

Designing for people

Abstract: What if we focused on people with disabilities when thinking about designing for people? What if we didn't treat accessibility as a binary, but rather a continuum, where small steps forward count as progress? What if we integrated accessibility into current computer science and design education rather than treating it as a separate topic? What if there were no such thing as accessibility---only good design, and good practice? We are accessible user experience consultants for a US-based accessibility consultancy, The Paciello Group. We work with organizations across sectors, including Google, Pearson, Healthwise, and Stanford University, to improve product accessibility and integrate best practices into organizational culture and practice. This exposure to diverse products and practices has enabled us to see firsthand the challenges organizations face in achieving and sustaining accessibility. In the course of our work we have come to realize that the current approach to accessibility is not working. Accessibility is considered its own entity, assigned to one person or to a consultant to resolve. It is addressed at the end of the product lifecycle, when changes are difficult and costly to implement. People with disabilities are not included in user research activities and their perspective does not inform design decisions. At the same time, obligations around access to digital technologies for people with disabilities are becoming more defined, and organizations are struggling to retrofit existing products for compliance. All the while, web and software development practices are evolving and increasing in complexity to keep pace with technology change. It is no wonder that accessibility is seen as something burdensome that stifles creativity, disrupts project progress, and whose benefits are experienced by only a small number of people. Yet we also know that inclusivity has wide-reaching benefits. We know that including people with disabilities, in our homes, schools, and communities, benefits everyone. We know that addressing the needs of people with disabilities through design results in environments, products, and services that work better for everyone. We know that the attention to detail and structural integrity required for digital accessibility leads to more stable and sustainable technologies. We must change how we approach accessibility and take advantage of the benefits of inclusivity. It's time we turn the tables on current approaches to accessibility and make accessibility simply designing for people. In our talk we will share our views on how Accessible User Experience (AUX) can help us transition from Accessibility and User Experience as separate disciplines to where including people with disabilities is done as a matter of course, as a fundamental aspect of design and development activities. To get there we must inspire and encourage change in the way digital products and services are conceived of, designed, and implemented. We must influence how digital content creators and consumers understand how technology supports the diverse needs of people. Underlying these efforts must be a shared understanding that access to digital products and services is a fundamental human right. From that starting point we can take responsibility for ensuring that our creative use of technology as an innovation---as a means to provide information and services---provides inclusion rather than exclusion for people with disabilities. Academia and industry share responsibility in achieving these milestones. We look forward to engaging with conference delegates to discuss how we can work together to make accessibility a given in any technology project.

Personalized accessibility map (PAM): a novel assisted wayfinding approach for people with disabilities

Abstract: Accessibility information is necessary to support the everyday mobility of people with disabilities. As a service to aid the mobility of students with disabilities, some universities and colleges provide maps with accessibility information for their campus on the Web. Other maps, while not focused specifically on students, provide information about indoor accessibility and can be extended by users. In this paper, accessibility requirements published in the literature, the criteria used in existing geo-crowdsourcing services and the data used by campus accessibility maps (which are commonly based on the ADA standards) are used to provide an optimal set of requirements for personalized accessibility map (PAM). PAM is discussed and analysed in detail, a prototype PAM developed for the University of Pittsburgh is described, and challenges and future work are highlighted.

Egovernment and web accessibility in South America

Abstract: The number of e-government websites has increased greatly in recent years. Many countries have laws to ensure that e-government sites satisfy web accessibility requirements. The objective of web accessibility is to ensure that people with disabilities can access websites just like everyone else. However, laws that enforce web accessibility do not automatically guarantee compliance: e-government websites are not always prepared to provide a correct service to persons with disabilities. This paper analyses the accessibility of a group of e-government websites of all South American countries and Spain. Three official websites from each country has been analysed: the government, the Parliament and the Senate websites. Different automatic evaluation tools have been used to perform the analysis. The preliminary results of our research show that the majority of e-government websites do not provide adequate levels of web accessibility.

Web accessibility standards and disability: developing critical perspectives on accessibility

Abstract: Purpose: Currently, dominant web accessibility standards do not respect disability as a complex and culturally contingent interaction; recognizing that disability is a variable, contrary and political power relation, rather than a biological limit. Against this background there is clear scope to broaden the ways in which accessibility standards are understood, developed and applied. Methods: Commentary. Results: The values that shape and are shaped by legislation promote universal, statistical and automated approaches to web accessibility. This results in web accessibility standards conveying powerful norms fixing the relationship between technology and disability, irrespective of geographical, social, technological or cultural diversity. Conclusions: Web accessibility standards are designed to enact universal principles; however, they express partial and biopolitical understandings of the relation between disability and technology. These values can be limiting, and potentially counter-productive,...

A survey of open accessibility data

Abstract: This paper presents the research of using Linked Data for enhancing accessibility data, especially for accessible travelling. With the aim of addressing the gap between users' special needs and accessibility data, this research initially explores the current situation of open accessibility data. Open accessibility data is the data related to the accessibility issues and associated with geographical data, which could benefit people with disabilities or special needs. This paper proposed a survey of open accessibility data in UK based on the datasets retrieved from five different resources. After examining the features of each dataset, a mapping approach using Semantic Web technologies is proposed to interlink these datasets together to generate a linked open accessibility repository and link this repository to other resources on the Linked Open Data Cloud (LODC). As a result, this research would not only benefit people with disabilities, but also contribute to a novel method to address accessibility information barriers by establishing a linked open accessibility data repository for publishing, integrating and consuming the accessibility data.

Usability evaluation of academic websites using automated tools

Abstract: In a bid to reposition the universities in Nigeria, the management of various universities in the country has been embarking on various technology innovations aimed at increasing and improving the web presence of their institutions. This involves re-designing of websites using the latest state of the art technology so as to improve its usability. This research was conducted in order to know the usability level via accessibility evaluation of the federal universities in Nigeria. The automated tools used are Web Accessibility checker, HERA and WAVE. The tools inspected the conformity of the websites with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0 and 2.0) by reporting violations in forms of errors and problems. Results show that all the websites have a number of accessibility errors hence they are not in total compliance with WCAG. Recommendations for improvement on the websites are included.

Accessibility barriers for users of screen readers in the Moodle learning content management system

Abstract: In recent decades, the use of the Internet has spread rapidly into diverse social spheres including that of education. Currently, most educational centers make use of e-learning environments created through authoring tool applications like learning content management systems (LCMSs). However, most of these applications currently present accessibility barriers that make the creation of accessible e-learning environments difficult for teachers and administrators. In this paper, the accessibility of the Moodle authoring tool, one of the most frequently used LCMSs worldwide, is evaluated. More specifically, the evaluation is carried out from the perspective of two visually impaired users accessing content through screen readers, as well as a heuristic evaluation considering the World Wide Web Consortium's Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines. The evaluation results demonstrate that Moodle presents barriers for screen reader users, limiting their ability to access the tool. One example of accessibility problems for visually impaired users is the frequent inability to publish learning contents without assistance. In light of these results, the paper offers recommendations that can be followed to reduce or eliminate these accessibility barriers.

Web accessibility evaluation of massive open online courses on Geographical Information Systems

Abstract: This paper describes some of the challenges that exist to make accessible massive open online courses (MOOCs) on Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These courses are known by the generic name of Geo-MOOCs. A MOOC is an online course that is open to the general public for free, which causes a massive registration. A GIS is a computer application that acquire, manipulate, manage, model and visualize geo-referenced data. The goal of a Geo-MOOC is to expand the culture of spatial thinking and the use of geographic information, enabling geospatial web technologies for widespread use. However, the Geo-MOOCs, by nature, have inherent problems of accessibility. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Article 24, recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. “States Parties must ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others” [1]. Therefore, it is important to have accessible Geo-MOOCs. In this paper, we present the results of the evaluation of a Geo-MOOC called “Maps and the Geospatial Revolution” using three tools available for free on the Internet: Chrome Developer Tools - Accessibility Audit, eXaminator and WAVE; and included a selection of web content and geographical data representative of the course. This provided feedback for establishing recommendations to improve the accessibility of the analyzed course. Other Geo-MOOCs can also benefit from these recommendations.

Investigating the appropriateness and relevance of mobile web accessibility guidelines

Abstract: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develop and maintain guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 and the MWBP 1.0 are internationally regarded as the industry standard guidelines for web accessibility. Mobile testing sessions conducted by AbilityNet document issues raised by users in a report format, relating issues to guidelines wherever possible. This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation that examines how effectively and easily these issues can be related by experts to the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0 and MWBP 1.0.

Improving academic library website accessibility for people with disabilities

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain how Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library improved the accessibility of their web site, aiming for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 Level AA. It describes the results obtained. Design/methodology/approach – Initial testing by consultants was conducted in October 2012. The web site was defined as all webpages which appear part of the library web site, including supplier webpages, plus pages from the university web site and library web site. Library staff applied the recommendations to pages which they could edit, and discussed the recommendations with suppliers to improve their product ' s accessibility. The web site was re-tested in June 2013. Findings – ECU Library web site failed WCAG 2.0 Level A standard in the initial testing and re-testing. Many individual pages which failed initially passed the re-test. The smallest improvement was seen in suppliers’ web sites. Practical implications – This paper could help libraries to improve ...

Internet Justice: Reconceptualizing the Legal Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Promote Equal Access in the Age of Rapid Technological Change

Abstract: Although a range of laws and regulations have been created in the United States to promote online accessibility for persons with disabilities, tremendous disparities persist in access to Internet technologies and content. Such inaccessibility is an enormous barrier to equality and participation in society for persons with disabilities. The current legal approaches to online accessibility have not proven successful, focusing on specific technologies and technical solutions to accessibility. This paper argues for a reconceptualization of the approach to promoting legal guarantees of online access for persons with disabilities, focusing on information and communication goals, the processes of accessing information, and new approaches to monitoring, guidance, and enforcement. Without a broader conception of accessibility under the law, persons with disabilities risk being increasingly excluded from the technologies and content of the Internet that are coming to define social, educational, employment, and government interactions.

A universal design resource for rich Internet applications based on design patterns

Abstract: Rich Internet applications have removed most of the constraints of Web 1.0 while giving users more responsiveness and advanced browsing and interaction experiences. These new horizons, however, raise many challenges for people with disabilities or using limited hardware and software technologies, whose risk to be excluded from the benefits deriving from advanced web applications. To address this problem, WCAG 2.0 guidelines have been released as the newest World Wide Web Consortium recommendation for accessible web content, and WAI-ARIA is a candidate recommendation which provides reference specifications for accessible rich Internet applications. However, both specifications contain a huge amount of information that often discourages most web designers from dealing with accessibility issues. Moreover, guidelines are suitable and usually adopted to judge a design solution a posteriori, but they do not suggest how to face a design problem constructively. This paper proposes a design pattern language for accessibility. The language can be regarded as a universal design resource for helping web designers create accessible rich Internet applications compliant with the most recent standards. Knowledge representation through design patterns reflects the problem-solving approach usually followed by software and web designers, while pattern organization in a structured language aims to guide web designers throughout the design process. The language has been implemented as an accessible rich Internet application itself, thus allowing designers with disabilities to participate in web design. In order to evaluate the design pattern language, a three-step process was carried out including: (1) a heuristic analysis with a group of human---computer interaction experts, (2) a survey study with a group of web designers, and (3) a validation on the field with two designers who have been requested to apply the language in real design cases.

Monitoring for Accessibility and University Websites: Meeting the Needs of People with Disabilities.

Abstract: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities are guaranteed access to all postsecondary programs and services. The purpose of this study, conducted by the Center for Excellence in Disabilities, was to evaluate the current status of a major university’s web accessibility. The results indicated that in 2011 only 51% of 509 web pages (sample) at a large public university in the northeastern United States passed automated web accessibility tests with Cynthia Says for Section 508 compliance (WCAG 1.0). Only 35% passed using the WAVE Accessibility Tool for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 Level A) Priority 1 compliance, which is a more rigorous evaluation level. The stricter the level of testing, the more university web pages failed. Stricter web accessibility requirements may be legally imposed instead of Section 508 in the future. Universities will succeed in meeting an important mandate of the ADA by making institutional websites accessible to current and future students and employees with disabilities.

Accessibility of American University Special Education Departments' Web sites

Abstract: In the last 20 years, the World Wide Web (Web) has gone from being the means of disseminating information for a few scientists to a universal means of disseminating information across the globe. While the Web provides an unprecedented level of access to information for many, if not properly designed, Web sites can actually create a number of barriers to information access to persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accessibility of home pages of University Departments of Special Education. A total of 51 Special Education departmental Web sites were located using a popular online search engine and evaluated for accessibility. Two Web site evaluation programs were used to determine whether the Web sites meet minimum accessibility guidelines, and one of them was used to quantify the number of accessibility errors on each site. The results indicated that most (97 %) of the pages evaluated had accessibility problems, many (39 %) of which were severe and should be given a high priority for correcting. The good news is the majority of errors can easily be corrected. The work reflects a need for Departments of Special Education to examine the accessibility of their home pages. Direction for improving accessibility is provided.

Banking websites in India: an accessibility evaluation

Abstract: Accessibility refers to making websites usable for people of all types of abilities and disabilities, regardless of what browsing technology they are using. Since the web is an important resource of information for millions of people at all levels, accessible websites can help people with disabilities too to participate and contribute more actively in society. The objective of this study is to analyze the status of accessibility of banking websites as it allows people with disabilities to be independent and more in control of their own financial requirements. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are universally accepted guidelines for website accessibility evaluation. The automatic evaluation tool is used to evaluate the website accessibility based on WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 guidelines. To further assess the reasons for accessibility barriers, complexity score was calculated. The accessibility score of different disability was also computed. The difference between the mean accessibility errors of public and private sector banks in India was also computed. The correlation of accessibility with the popularity and importance of the web sites was also evaluated. It was found that none of the websites that were evaluated were completely accessible to people with disabilities, i.e., there were no web sites that had no violations of web accessibility guidelines. There was no significant difference found in the accessibility of public and private sector banking websites in India. A framework to categorize the websites into fully accessible, partially accessible and inaccessible was also proposed.

A revaluation of the cultural dimension of disability policy in the European Union: the impact of digitization and web accessibility.

Abstract: This is the accepted version of the following article: Ferri, D., & Giannoumis, G. A. (2014). A revaluation of the cultural dimension of disability policy in the European Union: The impact of digitization and web accessibility. Behavioral sciences & the law, 32(1), 33-51., which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2102.

Widget Classification with Applications to Web Accessibility

Abstract: Once simple and static, many web pages have now evolved into complex web applications. Hundreds of web development libraries are providing ready-to-use dynamic widgets, which can be further customized to fit the needs of individual web application. With such wide selection of widgets and a lack of standardization, dynamic widgets have proven to be an insurmountable problem for blind users who rely on screen readers to make web pages accessible. Screen readers generally do not recognize widgets that dynamically appear on the screen; as a result, blind users either cannot benefit from the convenience of using widgets (e.g., a date picker) or get stuck on inaccessible content (e.g., alert windows). In this paper, we propose a general approach to identifying or classifying dynamic widgets with the purpose of “reverse engineering” web applications and improving their accessibility. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, we report on the experiments that show how very popular dynamic widgets such as date picker, popup menu, suggestion list, and alert window can be effectively and accurately recognized in live web applications.

Wizard-of-Oz evaluation of speech-driven web browsing interface for people with vision impairments

Abstract: People with visual impairments typically interact with the Web using screen readers that perform serial text-to-speech narration of the content. Although they rely on keyboard shortcuts to navigate through the content quickly, browsing fatigue caused by too many keyboard presses and clicks, increased cognitive load caused by having to remember many shortcuts, and information overload from having to listen to irrelevant content, are all too common. Speech-based interaction modality has the potential to address these shortcomings by allowing users to engage in a dialog with an intelligent agent capable of translating user commands/requests to system actions and generating appropriate responses to them.This paper presents empirical findings of a Wizard-of-Oz user study conducted with 24 blind subjects to provide a baseline for gauging the usability and effectiveness of speech interfaces for non-visual web access. Specifically, study participants were required to complete a set of typical web browsing tasks using unrestricted speech commands ranging from simple commands such as "click the search button", to complex commands such as "buy this product". Unknown to the participants, these commands were executed by the wizard and appropriate responses were generated with the help of a screen reader. An important byproduct emerging from the study is a new dialog corpus for non-visual web access that will provide pivotal reference data for exploring the design space underlying the development of high performance dialog systems for web accessibility.

Web Accessibility Myths as Negotiated Industrial Lore

Abstract: Web content accessibility, the practices by which web content is made usable by people with a variety of disabilities, is growing in importance and visibility. Currently, however, there are few formalized paths for accessibility training, leading many professionals to self-educate using textbooks, websites, and social media, which exert significant power over the meanings and practices of accessibility.In this paper, I analyze over 40 web references published between 1997 and 2012, and focus particularly on the genre of the “web accessibility myth list,” in which authors list misconceptions about accessibility and debunk them. These myth lists exert productive power within the industry and serve as a space of contestation. Myth lists encourage the production of professionalized, neoliberal worker identities, create community by reinforcing accessibility's historically oppositional relationship to web design, and promote conflicting ideologies of disability. Ultimately, study of this professional community...

Improving accessibility of Web interfaces: refactoring to the rescue

Abstract: Universal access should be a target for all public Web sites. However, it is very hard to achieve, and even Web applications that comply with accessibility standards may still lack usability for disabled users. This paper proposes refactoring as an essencial technique to incrementally improve the accessibility and usability of a Web interface. Some accessibility refactorings are described and classified by the problems that each refactoring addresses. The way mainstream Web sites struggle with accessibility is illustrated, and two evaluations of email clients are presented as empirical evidence of the significance of accessibility refactorings at a low implementation cost.

Accessible Web Page Design for the Visually Impaired: A Case Study

Abstract: Section 508 of the Rehabilitations Act of 1973 states that federal agencies are required to maintain accessible web-based information for persons with disabilities, namely, visual impairments. Studies spanning over 1 decade conducted by The American Foundation for the Blind and Towson University’s Universal Usability Lab investigated federal home pages for Section 508 violations. Both studies concluded that numerous university, corporate, federal, and federal contractor websites are largely inaccessible to people with disabilities—specifically in terms of clarity, consistency, and fidelity to standards. Due to inconsistencies across federal agencies, constant website updates, and webmaster turnaround, there is a need for practical guidelines for web page design compliant with Section 508, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, with particular focus on the visually impaired.