Showing papers on "Web accessibility published in 2016"

Self-Conscious or Self-Confident? A Diary Study Conceptualizing the Social Accessibility of Assistive Technology

Abstract: With the recent influx of smartphones, tablets, and wearables such as watches and glasses, personal interactive device use is increasingly visible and commonplace in public and social spaces. Assistive Technologies (ATs) used by people with disabilities are observable to others and, as a result, can affect how AT users are perceived. This raises the possibility that what we call “social accessibility” may be as important as “functional accessibility” when considering ATs. But, to date, ATs have almost exclusively been regarded as functional aids. For example, ATs are defined by the Technical Assistance to the States Act as technologies that are “used to increase, maintain or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” To investigate perceptions and self-perceptions of AT users, we conducted a diary study of two groups of participants: people with disabilities and people without disabilities. Our goal was to explore the types of interactions and perceptions that arise around AT use in social and public spaces. During our 4-week study, participants with sensory disabilities wrote about feeling either self-conscious or self-confident when using an assistive device in a social or public situation. Meanwhile, participants without disabilities were prompted to record their reactions and feelings whenever they saw ATs used in social or public situations. We found that AT form and function does influence social interactions by impacting self-efficacy and self-confidence. When the design of form or function is poor, or when inequality between technological accessibility exists, social inclusion is negatively affected, as are perceptions of ability. We contribute a definition for the “social accessibility” of ATs and subsequently offer Design for Social Accessibility (DSA) as a holistic design stance focused on balancing an AT user's sociotechnical identity with functional requirements.

Exploring the relationship between web accessibility and user experience

Abstract: Understanding the interplay between the user experience (UX) and Web accessibility is key to design Web sites that, beyond access, could provide a better UX for people with disabilities. In this paper we examine the relationship between UX attributes and Web accessibility. We measured accessibility in two ways: the perceived accessibility as reported by participants and accessibility in terms of conformance to guidelines. Findings uncover that perceived Web accessibility is significantly correlated with 27 of the 35 UX attributes analysed, suggesting these two qualities are closely related. The relationship between UX and conformance to WCAG 2.0 is more elusive: we only found significant correlations between the hedonic attributes original, innovative and exciting. HighlightsWe analysed the relationship between perceived accessibility and user experience.Participants' UX and their accessibility perception are significantly related.We examined the relationship between Web accessibility conformance and UX.Original, innovative and exciting attributes are correlated to accessibility.We discuss the practical importance of the identified correlations.

Web Accessibility Evaluation of Government Websites for People with Disabilities in Turkey

Abstract: The Web is a progressively more important resource in many aspects of life: government, commerce and more. As governments to continue to provide businesses and citizens with new value-added e-services, citizens with disabilities are still being deprived from taking full advantage of these services. While the proportion of people with disabilities (visual impairment, hearing impairment, cognitive disability etc.) in society has been rapidly increasing due to the demographic trends long documented by many researchers, governmental leaders have paid little attention to their needs when planning and implementing Web projects. Therefore, it is essential that all citizens must have equal accessible opportunities to all e-government recourses. This research evaluates the accessibility of each of the 25 e-Government websites in Turkey by people disabilities based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 and 2.0 and using automated testing tools. The results of study indicate that the prevalent priority-1 accessibility barriers identified in this study were related to the absence of text equivalents for non-text elements, and the failure of the static equivalents for dynamic content to get updated when the dynamic content changes.

Exploring pedagogical culture for accessibility education in computing science

Abstract: This paper identifies some of the challenges of teaching and learning accessibility through the lens of pedagogy (which deals with the theory and practice of education). We argue that accessibility education in computing science presents a set of unique and challenging characteristics for those engaged in accessibility capacity building. Significant moves are being made to embed accessibility within academic curricula and professional domains. However, through a qualitative thematic review of the accessibility pedagogic literature, we find that the field lacks the pedagogic culture necessary to support widespread excellence in teaching and learning. Nonetheless, our review identifies aspects of this small but important literature that indicate how a pedagogic culture for accessibility can be stimulated through research, debate and discussion, to promote a more pedagogically-grounded approach to the field as a whole.

Accessibility of the Italian institutional web pages: a survey on the compliance of the Italian public administration web pages to the Stanca Act and its 22 technical requirements for web accessibility

Abstract: Accessibility of the Italian public administration web pages is ruled by the Stanca Act and in particular the Decree of the Minister issued on July 8, 2005. In this paper, an objective test is performed on the official web pages of the Italian province and region chief towns to check their compliance to the 22 technical requirements defined by the Stanca Act. A sample of 976 web pages belonging to the websites of the Italian chief towns have been downloaded in the period October---December 2012. Such a data collection has been submitted to Achecker, the worldwide recognized syntax and accessibility validation service. Several accessibility and syntax errors have been found following the automatic analysis. Such errors have been classified, a statistic has been produced, and some graphs are included to offer an immediate view of the error distribution. Moreover, the most frequent errors are pointed out and explained in detail. Although the Stanca Act has been promulgated some years ago, and contains precise indications about updating a web page to be compliant to the 22 technical requirements, all the analyzed websites are not fully compliant to the law. Updating web pages to be compliant to the Stanca Act is a slow process and some grave errors are still present, both in terms of syntax and accessibility.

Implementing Recommendations From Web Accessibility Guidelines Would They Also Provide Benefits to Nondisabled Users

Abstract: Objective:We examined the consequences of implementing Web accessibility guidelines for nondisabled users.Background:Although there are Web accessibility guidelines for people with disabilities available, they are rarely used in practice, partly due to the fact that practitioners believe that such guidelines provide no benefits, or even have negative consequences, for nondisabled people, who represent the main user group of Web sites. Despite these concerns, there is a lack of empirical research on the effects of current Web accessibility guidelines on nondisabled users.Method:Sixty-one nondisabled participants used one of three Web sites differing in levels of accessibility (high, low, and very low). Accessibility levels were determined by following established Web accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0). A broad methodological approach was used, including performance measures (e.g., task completion time) and user ratings (e.g., perceived usability).Results:A high level of Web accessibility led to better per...

Evaluation of the web accessibility of higher-education websites

Abstract: This article describes a study to assess the accessibility of the contents concerning the websites of 20 universities from all around the world. The accessibility assessment was carried out to verify compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The main goal of this study is to determine if even people with disabilities can access and use websites of the universities with higher academic prestige. Besides, in our approach we also make use of the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) is an approach for determining how well a website conforms to WCAG 2.0. The WCAG-EM provides a guidance on using the methodology and considerations for specific situations. From the results, we can conclude that the majority of the tested websites do not achieve an acceptable level of compliance. Universities with high academic prestige do not show a greater level of web accessibility. By performing the evaluation of university websites, we have identified that there are major barriers to a large number of users.

Accessibility analysis of websites of educational institutions

Abstract: Summary Earlier preparing accessible websites was not as important as it is today. Due to the increase in the accessibility issues and compliance of accessibility norms, there is an increasing research on the accessibility. In this paper we have tried to analyze the accessibility of the top educational institutions of different countries. Our main contributions of this paper are (1) Studying the present scenario of web accessibility compliance in the countries across the globe, with special focus on India. (2) Analyzing selected websites of top universities and educational institutions of different countries. (3) Based on the analysis, results have been generated to indicate the web accessibility of the websites. (4) Suggestions on improvement of the web page design of the educational institutions have been given thereafter.

The Role of Social Media Tools: Accessible Tourism for Disabled Citizens.

Abstract: Introduction Information and technology becomes bridge to foster usability, accessibility and equality of the citizens. Societies has intensified need to gain services for accessibility to the travel and tourism opportunities that this requires information, effort and desire. Especially, people with disabilities in the world need for easy access to proceed their lives in equality and usability standards. As travel is a key for continuing globalization to gain information for the development, tourism activities of the societies play a great role in providing accessibility and broadening accessibility for all citizens. For the welfare of the society, accessibility is crucial element for the disabled citizens where literature pays attention on physical and web accessibility for societal and institutional services (Chadwick et al., 2013). In a concrete practice of tourism services and accessibility, in 1980 Manila (Philippines), tourism and accessibility were first merged through Manila Declaration, and later pursued by the World Tourism Organisation. This indicates that tourism become an essential right and crucial for human development. It is a way of social development of disabled citizens and welfare of the society upon tourism economy. This significant right should be supported by governmental policy and needs to be recommended as a regulation for tourist services. There is a concrete attempt for the tourism services accessibility for all citizens. Significantly, web technologies and services within a term of unobstructed information technologies services for social and academic development of disabled citizens become vital empowerment of caring the needs and expectations of those citizens for gaining benefit from societal and institutional services within the society. Facilitating access in terms of infrastructure and tourism services for disabled people is the part of accessible tourism (Alen, Dominguez, & Losada, 2012). In this respect, activities with technology enhanced environment are crucial for the accessible tourism. Accessible tourism covers a variety of activities within free time to tourism. It relies on making people with restricted capacities and fully integrate their functional and psychological thoughts and actions for the individual satisfaction and social development (Alen, Dominguez, & Losada, 2012). Those accessible activities and technology enhanced services provide inclusion and socialisation which are very significant development indicators for disabled people. Being part of the society and active involvement to the societal and institutional services becomes primary right of the disabled citizens within all societies. In addition, UNWTO (2005) points out that accessible tourism is a collaborative process that provides people with access and mobility. This makes equity and dignity through the delivery of tourism services. Within the digital age, technology supported attempts also effect preferences and choices of all individuals which technology and social media also shape choice. Furthermore, changes through information technology and global world standards activate the travellers to become more independent, experienced, and flexible for accessible and reliable information (Buhalis, 1998; Buhalis et al., 2011). Dominguez et al. (2015) adds a value on the work to incorporate disability within tourism policy, planning and development. In addition, developing countries need creation of policy to support tourism services and institutional services through proactive implementation on web accessibility within a master plan. The report of the European Union argues that tourism industry has started to pay attention on a significant consumer group as disabled tourists. Furthermore, social media and networking tools create alternative platforms where people interact freely and easily exchange information (Buhalis et al., 2011; Fotis et al., 2012; Gretzel et al. …

Web accessibility implementation in private sector organizations: motivations and business impact

Abstract: Despite the prominence of the World Wide Web in people's everyday lives, most Web presences in private sector organizations still fail to comply with contemporary accessibility standards. As a consequence, a large group of users--i.e., people with impairments--are excluded from accessing these Web presences. In order to explain the managerial rationale, an exploratory case study was conducted in three industry sectors. The results of the analysis shed light on organizations' motivations to implement or reject Web accessibility standards, reveal positive and negative consequences of implementation, and provide in-depth insights into the determinants for successful and unsuccessful Web accessibility implementation. This study supports organizations in making better decisions on the implementation of Web accessibility.

An evaluation and ranking of children's hospital websites in the United States

Abstract: Background: Children’s hospitals are faced with the rising need for technological innovation. Their prospective health care consumers, who increasingly depend on the Web and social media for communication and consumer engagement, drive this need. As patients and family members navigate the Web presence of hospitals, it is important for these specialized organizations to present themselves and their services efficiently. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the website content of children’s hospitals in order to identify opportunities to improve website design and create benchmarks to judge improvement. Methods: All websites associated with a children’s hospital were identified using a census list of all children’s hospitals in the United States. In March of 2014, each website and its social media were evaluated using a Web crawler that provided a 5-dimensional assessment that included website accessibility, marketing, content, technology, and usability. The 5-dimensional assessment was scored on a scale ranging from 0 to 10 with positive findings rated higher on the scale. Websites were ranked by individual dimensions as well as according to their average ranking across all dimensions. Results: Mean scores of 153 websites ranged from 5.05 to 8.23 across all 5 dimensions. Results revealed that no website scored a perfect 10 on any dimension and that room exists for meaningful improvement. Conclusions: Study findings allow for the establishment of baseline benchmarks for tracking future website and social media improvements and display the need for enhanced Web-based consumer engagement for children’s hospitals. [J Med Internet Res 2016;18(8):e228]

Evaluation of web accessibility in China: changes from 2009 to 2013

Abstract: The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the status of web accessibility in China and to reveal any improvements during the period 2009 to 2013. Two evaluation studies were carried out in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Thirty-eight popular Chinese websites were evaluated in 2009 and fifty in 2013 with reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG). The studies applied the conformance evaluation method with the help of the automatic evaluation tool Hera. The evaluation results indicated that none of the surveyed websites passed all the checkpoints of Priority 1 in both studies, which means no website met the minimum requirement for web accessibility. The average level of web accessibility worsened between 2009 and 2013 due to the increase of website complexity and the amount of content. However, e-government websites had made some significant improvement during these 4 years, which indicated that the government had realized the web accessibility issues and made some effort to address them. The evaluation also revealed five major accessibility barriers existing in both studies, and these barriers also served as technical suggestions for web content providers. The web accessibility of Chinese websites is far from satisfactory, and it is getting worse from 2009 to 2013. However, e-government websites had improved significantly in regards to accessibility due to the release of accessibility regulations. Thus, the reason that explains low web accessibility in China is the lack of awareness rather than lack of technical skills.

Beyond Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Expert Accessibility Reviews

Abstract: 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.

Web Accessibility Challenges

Abstract: Despite the importance of web accessibility in recent years, websites remain partially or completely inaccessible to certain sectors of the population. This is due to several reasons, including web developers’ little or no experience in accessibility and the lack of accurate information about the best ways to quickly and easily identify accessibility problems using different Accessibility Evaluation Methods (AEMs). This paper surveys accessibility literature and presents a general overview of the primary challenges of accessibility barriers on websites. In this sense, we critically investigate main challenges forms related to accessibility including standards and guidelines (WCAG 2.0), during website’s design and development and during evaluation. Finally, a set of recommendations such as enforcing accessibility legislations are presented to overcome some challenges.

Barriers and Facilitation Measures Related to People With Mental Disorders When Using the Web: A Systematic Review.

Abstract: Background: Mental disorders (MDs) affect almost 1 in 4 adults at some point during their lifetime, and coupled with substance use disorders are the fifth leading cause of disability adjusted life years worldwide. People with these disorders often use the Web as an informational resource, platform for convenient self-directed treatment, and a means for many other kinds of support. However, some features of the Web can potentially erect barriers for this group that limit their access to these benefits, and there is a lack of research looking into this eventuality. Therefore, it is important to identify gaps in knowledge about “what” barriers exist and “how” they could be addressed so that this knowledge can inform Web professionals who aim to ensure the Web is inclusive to this population. Objective: The objective of this study was to provide an overview of existing evidence regarding the barriers people with mental disorders experience when using the Web and the facilitation measures used to address such barriers. Methods: This study involved a systematic review of studies that have considered the difficulties people with mental disorders experience when using digital technologies. Digital technologies were included because knowledge about any barriers here would likely be also applicable to the Web. A synthesis was performed by categorizing data according to the 4 foundational principles of Web accessibility as proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium, which forms the necessary basis for anyone to gain adequate access to the Web. Facilitation measures recommended by studies were later summarized into a set of minimal recommendations. Results: A total of 16 publications were included in this review, comprising 13 studies and 3 international guidelines. Findings suggest that people with mental disorders experience barriers that limit how they perceive, understand, and operate websites. Identified facilitation measures target these barriers in addition to ensuring that Web content can be reliably interpreted by a wide range of user applications. Conclusions: People with mental disorders encounter barriers on the Web, and attempts have been made to remove or reduce these barriers. As forewarned by experts in the area, only a few studies investigating this issue were found. More rigorous research is needed to be exhaustive and to have a larger impact on improving the Web for people with mental disorders. [J Med Internet Res 2016;18(6):e157]

Evaluating accessibility of Malaysian public universities websites using AChecker and WAVE

Abstract: Websites become essential means for most universities to communicate, exchange of relevant information and enable transactions among their stakeholders.Therefore, website accessibility accessible website is crucial to students to ensure equal access to of the university's information regardless of their physical disabilities and other possible limitations.This study reports the web accessibility of 20 Malaysian public universities based on AChecker and WAVE.The results suggest a relatively low level of compliance to the guidelines as specified in WCAG 2.0 and Section 508. Among the aspects that deserve immediate attention are the provision of text alternatives for any non-text contents, keyboard accessibility and colour contrast.Other concerns such as navigation, adaptability, input assistance, compatibility, empty link and empty heading can be further improved. Regardless of low conformance, most websites extensively integrated some of the accessibility features as set out by Section 508.Overall, this study offers meaningful insights, particularly to web developers for better compliance with the standards while designing their websites.

An evaluation of the accessibility of top-ranking university websites: Accessibility rates from 2005 to 2015

Abstract: Accessibility evaluation is an important equity step in assessing effectiveness and usefulness of online learning materials for disabled students. With popular uptake of blended and online learning it is timely to evaluate the accessibility attained by universities in their websites and Learning Management Systems (LMS) .The present study considers this question for the period 2005 through 2015. Previous studies in this area have indicated that university websites have become gradually inaccessible, as the complexity of their content increases, and that the amount of attention being paid to this problem by the universities is low. This study employed a comparative quantitative method, and a random sample of universities’ websites was evaluated using the accessibility evaluation tool designed by AChecker. The inclusion of the specific universities chosen for this study was based on their ranking in the world, and/or in the Oceania and Arab regions. Moreover, the evaluation is organised by page type: homepage, administration page or course description/syllabus page. Thus, through a statistical and empirical study, we demonstrated that there was no significant improvement in the accessibility of universities’ web sites between 2005 and 2015. Furthermore, access to media and document files had the most influential accessibility errors. In addition, there were 27,308 (33%) total home page errors among the 180 evaluated pages from 60 of the top world, Oceania and Arab universities’ sites. There are no significant differences in accessibility level between top-ranking universities in developed or developing countries. Therefore, with participation rate at universities expanding world-wide and equity being a common corporate theme there is a growing need for universities to commit to and responsibly address accessibility to online learning materials for disabled students.

Accessibility Evaluation of Arabic E-Commerce Web Sites Using Automated Tools

Abstract: Disabled people encounter many barriers while attempting to access the services on the web. Nevertheless, many tools, which could help them to access the web, are available. E-commerce websites have been also intensively and widely used. The e-commerce market in Saudi Arabia will hit $13.3 billion by 2015. This huge investment requires e-commerce websites to be accessible by different types of users. This paper explores the tools that usually used by disabled users while using the web. It also discusses a number of available tools that help designers, developers and testers to assess web accessibility. It also evaluates the accessibility of 3 popular Arab e- commerce websites using 5 accessibility testing tools; namely Achecker, TAW, Eval Access, MAUVE and FAE. This research has found that Most accessibility guidelines are covered by Achecker tool. Navigation, readability, input assistance and timing are the common found accessibility problems while assessing the accessibility of the targeted websites. It has been also revealed that HTML can influence accessibility evaluation as HTML errors are considered as accessibility problems. It has been clearly observed that improvements are needed for better web accessibility, although some tools did report a small number of accessibility problems for some websites.

An Accessibility Infrastructure for the Global South

Abstract: We propose an "accessibility infrastructure" view to understanding accessibility in real-world settings for people with visual impairments in the Global South. We study six cities --- Blantyre, Freetown, Kigali, Mumbai, San Jose, and Seoul --- all major cities from signatory nations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Using mixed methods including a survey of 219 respondents and 59 in-depth interviews, we examine the gap between the policy promise of technological accessibility and existing social and economic infrastructure. We examine the idea of accessibility infrastructure and specifically focus on its social components through two factors --- stigma related to disability, and the community around technology users --- both of which emerge as important factors in enabling or excluding AT use. We propose that efforts around accessibility, particularly in the post-CRPD global awareness need to closely examine the reasons behind the gaps between the technological capabilities, and the real world possibilities for people with visual impairments where a social infrastructure provides a major barrier to meaningful accessibility.

Web accessibility challenges and perspectives: A systematic literature review

Abstract: With this paper we intend to present a systematic literature review on Web accessibility. During this research project, 782 papers were identified and by following a set of inclusion criteria, 38 stood out and were extensively analyzed. On this context we approach a set of Web accessibility critical issues, such as: guidelines, standards and regulations; mobile accessibility; organizations and user perspectives on the topic. During the full scope of this document we adopt a positive position, always focused on presenting solutions to ensure websites accessibility.

University website accessibility for totally blind users

Abstract: Researchers have discovered significant faults in the accessibility of university websites, especially for visually-impaired users.To determine the requirements for totally blind users, this study conducted a comprehensive literature review and accessibility evaluation on 15 Palestinian university websites.The determined factors were used in designing an accessible web page prototype.An online questionnaire was constructed to evaluate the accessibility of the prototype from the blind users’ perspective.From the evaluation of 16 blind participants, it was found that the prototype was highly accessible (mean score 4.19).The regression analysis test was utilised to determine the relationship between the items and the main principles of accessibility. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between these items. In conclusion, the accessibility factors have been indirectly validated.

Accessibility evaluation using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Abstract: The Homestay websites in Malaysia are gaining popularity, locally and abroad. Thus, it is imperative that it should be designed by using the proper accessibility guidelines However, the current accessibility state of the Homestay websites in Malaysia is still unknown. The main objective of this research is to investigate the accessibility of Homestay websites in Malaysia. There are 328 samples of Homestay websites in Malaysia gathered from www.carihomestay.net portal. The evaluation was done from 15th April 2014 to 15th June 2014 by using an automated evaluation tool (Achecker) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The results show that there are six top critical accessibility errors; (i) Non-text Content: IMG, ALT TEXT (1.1.1), (ii) Info &Relationships: INPUT (1.3.1), (iii) Contrast: LINK, TEXT COLOR (1.4.3), (iv) Link Purpose: ANCHOR, TEXT (2.4.4), (v) Language of Page: HTML (3.1.1) and (vi) Labels or Instructions: BODY, INPUT (3.3.2). This research provides several recommendations to improve the accessibility levels for Homestay websites in Malaysia. Future research includes accessibility evaluation for different genre of websites and applications that are being used in the blended learning environment.

Are e-books for everyone? An evaluation of academic e-book platforms' accessibility features

Abstract: With the increasing prevalence of e-books in academic library collections, faculty and librarians have begun to express concern regarding the accessibility of these digital texts for students with ...

Web Site Accessibility, Quality and Vulnerability Assessment: a Survey of Government Web Sites in the Turkish Republic

Abstract: Websites have evolved into an excellent medium of information dissemination and visibility. Hence governments and organizations around the world have websites as primary medium for information communication. The information in government web sites, which are widely adopted in many countries, must be accessible for all people, easy to use, accurate and secure. 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. In recent years, many people have devoted their efforts to the issue of quality of Web site. The Quality and reliability of the e-government website is a crucial factor for the successful implementation of the information society. In this study the effectiveness of various design parameters (HTML errors, load time and browser compatibility problems etc.) on e-government website will be analysed by taking into considerations different website development standards recommended for them. The main objective of this study is to investigate the usability, accessibility and vulnerability of e-government web sites in Turkish Republic. Analysis was conducted using several automatic evaluation tools. The evaluation results show that the examined e-Government services have one or more accessibility issues. The results indicated that there is an urgent need to improve the design features of e-government website in order to be more effective and user-centric. The study also revealed security vulnerabilities in these web sites. Although the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Policies as the framework for defining Web accessibility policy was launched at 2001, government web sites in the Turkish Republic have not been reviewed and still need great efforts to improve accessibility, usability and security. The author took 51 Government websites of Turkey, analyse their different parameters and on the basis of analysis shows their overall compliance with the standards and guidelines. With the help of the results obtained a table analysis of the websites is made by the authors that determine the effect of these parameters on the efficiency and accessibility of the government websites.

Accessibility analysis of North Eastern India Region websites for persons with disabilities

Abstract: Web accessibility refers to the process of making the web resources accessible to all types of users including persons with disabilities, without any barriers. It also benefit others including elderly persons and people in specific circumstances which leads to situation based disability. Hence the idea of universal design is gaining attention in the digital ecosystem. This paper provides insights into the current state of web accessibility for persons with disabilities (PwD) with respect to websites belonging to North Eastern Region of India. By adapting web accessibility evaluation tools namely EvalAccess and WAVE, we have evaluated 40 websites of North East Region of India and provided the results of the analysis in this paper. The overall results of accessibility analysis of these sites emphasize the need for enhancing the accessibility of these websites further. The study also has observed that some most common checkpoint errors are present which shall be minimized with the inclusion of simple to implement accessibility features. This paper provides a list of these errors, accessibility component metrics and proper suggestions for enhancing the accessibility of these sites belonging to the North Eastern Indian region.

Design, Implementation and Evaluation of MOOCs to Improve Inclusion of Diverse Learners

Abstract: This chapter presents accessibility requirements that need to be considered in the design, implementation and evaluation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to ensure they are inclusive. Accessibility requirements take in account particular needs, preferences, skills and situations of diverse learners, e.g. people with disabilities, elderly people and foreign students. The accessibility needs have to be considered in the design and implementation of MOOCs’ interfaces, contents and learning/assessment activities. Due to its open and massive nature, with an adequate implementation, MOOCs can overcome inclusion barriers for the benefit of potential learners worldwide, both able and disabled. For evaluation, there are accessibility evaluation tools that identify accessibility problems in the content, semantic and structural elements of a website that can be used to evaluate the level of accessibility of MOOCs. Additional expert-based and user-based evaluations are always recommended in order to achieve valid results.

Evaluating Web Accessibility Metrics for Jordanian Universities

Abstract: University web portals are considered one of the main access gateways for universities. Typically, they have a large candidate audience among the current students, employees, and faculty members aside from previous and future students, employees, and faculty members. Web accessibility is the concept of providing web content universal access to different machines and people with different ages, skills, education levels, and abilities. Several web accessibility metrics have been proposed in previous years to measure web accessibility. We integrated and extracted common web accessibility metrics from the different accessibility tools used in this study. This study evaluates web accessibility metrics for 36 Jordanian universities and educational institute websites. We analyze the level of web accessibility using a number of available evaluation tools against the standard guidelines for web accessibility. Receiver operating characteristic quality measurements is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated accessibility metrics.