Showing papers on "Web accessibility published in 2022"

Investigation of COVID-19 Vaccine Information Websites across Europe and Asia Using Automated Accessibility Protocols

Abstract: Websites content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) ensure that websites should be perceivable, understandable, navigable, and interactive. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the importance of accessible websites and online content grew throughout the world. Therefore, in this study, we examined COVID-19-related official government websites. This research covered 21 government websites, with 13 websites from European countries and 8 websites from Asian countries, to evaluate their accessibility following WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The overall goal of this study was to identify the frequent accessibility problems that might help the website owners to identify the shortcomings of their websites. The target websites were evaluated in two steps: in step-1, evaluation was performed through four automatic web accessibility testing tools such as Mauve++, Nibbler, WAVE, and WEB accessibility tools; in step-2, evaluation went through human observation, such as system usability testing and expert testing. The automatic evaluation results showed that few of the websites were accessible; a significant number of websites were not accessible for people with disabilities. In addition, system usability testing found some complexity in website organization, short explanations, and outdated information. The expert testing suggested improving the color of the websites, organization of links, buttons, and font size. This study might be helpful for associated authorities to improve the quality of the websites in the future.

Evaluating Progressive Web App Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Abstract: App development is a steadily growing industry. Progressive web apps (PWAs) constitute a technology inspired by native and hybrid apps; they use web technologies to create web and mobile apps. Based on a service worker, a caching mechanism, and an app shell, PWAs aim to offer web apps with features and user interfaces similar to those of native apps. Furthermore, technological development has created a greater need for accessibility. An increasing number of websites, even government ones, are overlooking the need for equal access to new technologies among people with disabilities. This article presents, in a systematic review format, both PWAs and web accessibility and aims to evaluate PWAs’ effectiveness as regards the corresponding accessibility provided.

Popular Accessibility Settings in Digital Games: What accessibility settings do players with disabilities use and need?

Abstract: This study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. What accessibility settings do people with disabilities use in digital games? and 2. What accessibility settings would make games more accessible for players with disabilities? The questions are answered by using survey data focusing on playing digital games as a disabled person, in total 93 answers were analyzed. The findings suggests that people with disabilities use different accessibility settings which are mostly centered around controlling the game, language, gameplay, visuals, audio, and adaptive devices. Yet, these same options are mentioned as also wished for settings to improve game accessibility. These findings suggest that already existing accessibility settings are useful and should be added to all games to make them more accessible, and that the lack of game accessibility experienced is not necessarily due to lack of knowhow on how to implement accessibility but the lack of commitment in implementing it in mainstream games that it remains a wish.

Web accessibility performance analysis using web content accessibility guidelines and automated tools: a systematic literature review

Abstract: Web accessibility is expressed as the ability of all target users, including the disabled, to access, use, understand and interact with the website. This study aims to systematically review the literature on automated tool utilization in web accessibility research. A comprehensive review was carried out covering the last two decades from 2002 to 2021. 72 articles were reached from widely used databases by using a search strategy. These identified articles were classified according to publication type, publication year, publisher, automated testing tool, website type, and accessibility guide. The findings show an increasing trend in its use in web accessibility evaluations with the popularity of automated testing tools year by year. We hope that this literature review and classification will provide an overview of research on web accessibility analysis using automated testing tools, and present as a roadmap to guide future research in this area.

Web Simplification Prototype for Cognitive Disabled Users

Abstract: Information and communication technology (ICT) and World Wide Web (WWW) are increasingly being used in daily life and becoming important in community, business, personal performance, and improvement of livelihood. people with disabilities (PWDs) can easily perform many tasks using WWW which might be difficult or impossible for them. However, many websites applications such as e-learning, e-commerce, and e-government are not specifically designed keeping in view PWD users. Through the web accessibility guidelines, web developers can build a web program accessible to PWDs. In this paper, we have investigated the issues related to website design that make it unavailable for PWDs. Keeping in view these issues, we have built a framework to make the web easier for PWDs. In addition, these issues are assessed using the GTmetrix, Netcraft, and WAVE accessibility tools and the results are generated using Google Analytics. Based on these results, we have proposed a simplified web version to improve website access for people with disabilities. The proposed prototype is also implemented on a website called Easywebcare by incorporating our recommendations for resolving the investigated issues. Analytics shows that the proposed type surpasses all existing activities in improving website accessibility for people with disabilities.

Design of Navigation Applications for People with Disabilities: A Review of Literature and Guideline Formulation

Abstract: Abstract A mobile navigation application (App) can provide flexible wayfinding guidance, save time, and reduce stress for people in unfamiliar buildings or environments. Wayfinding is also a challenging task for individuals with disabilities. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive set of guidelines for designing navigation apps for individuals with disabilities. A review of the literature was conducted on scientific studies and commercially available navigation apps using Web of Science, Compendex, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Wiley Online, Science Direct, SpringerLink, Taylor & Francis, Apple store, and Google Play. The findings led to 82 design guidelines categorized based on Nielsen’s usability principles. The guidelines were implemented in an interface prototype to help users navigate places within a shopping mall. The prototype demonstrated that the proposed design guidelines are easily applicable and provided a roadmap for the future design of navigation apps for people with different types of disabilities.

Accessibility Feedback in Mobile Application Reviews: A Dataset of Reviews and Accessibility Guidelines

Abstract: User reviews represent a valuable source of information for developers and researchers to learn about the challenges users are facing when using mobile applications (apps). However, studies analyzing mobile app reviews from an accessibility perspective are limited. This paper aims to better understand how accessibility issues are expressed in reviews to reveal potential associations with accessibility guidelines. To this end, we categorized 1,200 accessibility reviews using accessibility categories from previous studies and the W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). Our results indicate that accessibility user reviews contain accessibility-specific information. This information, while expressed by users in terms that may differ from the technical terms, were still indicative of specific accessibility guideline violations. Our new dataset can potentially be used by app developers to better understand users’ accessibility experience.

Studying industry practices of accessibility requirements in agile development

Abstract: Although many companies are aware of the need to deliver systems accessible to all, many websites and web applications present accessibility limitations, making it impossible for some people to use. This may be also observed when those applications are developed in an agile context. We are interested in studying how agile teams address accessibility. In this paper, we conducted an online survey with 13 companies that apply agile development. The main objective was to understand how these companies deal with accessibility requirements in their web projects and what methods, tools, or techniques are used to help agile teams in this process. Our empirical results revealed that most participants only have basic knowledge of web accessibility and are unfamiliar with accessibility guidelines and assistive technologies. Acceptance criteria are the artifact more used to specify these requirements. Also, the survey reveals that accessibility is not a priority item by the companies, and no specific methods or tools assist teams in this process. In general, respondents reported that lack of training and the unexpressed need imposed by customers are the main reasons for not prioritizing these requirements in their projects.

Accessibility challenges of e-commerce websites

Abstract: Today, there are many e-commerce websites, but not all of them are accessible. Accessibility is a crucial element that can make a difference and determine the success or failure of a digital business. The study was applied to 50 e-commerce sites in the top rankings according to the classification proposed by ecommerceDB. In evaluating the web accessibility of e-commerce sites, we applied an automatic review method based on a modification of Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0. To evaluate accessibility, we used Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) with the extension for Google Chrome, which helps verify password-protected, locally stored, or highly dynamic pages. The study found that the correlation between the ranking of e-commerce websites and accessibility barriers is 0.329, indicating that the correlation is low positive according to Spearman’s Rho. According to the WAVE analysis, the research results reveal that the top 10 most accessible websites are Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Walmart, Target Corporation, Macy’s, IKEA, H&M Hennes, Chewy, Kroger, QVC, and Nike. The most significant number of accessibility barriers relate to contrast errors that must be corrected for e-commerce websites to reach an acceptable level of accessibility. The most neglected accessibility principle is perceivable, representing 83.1%, followed by operable with 13.7%, in third place is robust with 1.7% and finally understandable with 1.5%. Future work suggests constructing a software tool that includes artificial intelligence algorithms that help the software identify accessibility barriers.

Accessibility analysis using WCAG 2.1: evidence from Indian e-government websites

Abstract: E-government is a global phenomenon. Many governments throughout the world are using e-government websites to deliver government services to their stakeholders. Consequently, it is now quite crucial for the governments to make sure that e-government websites must be accessible to all stakeholders regardless of their visual, cognitive, and hearing ability. However, many prior studies have shown that most of the e-government websites in different countries do not meet the accessibility guidelines prescribed in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In this article, we present the evaluation of the accessibility of Indian e-government websites using a sample of 65 websites of various ministries based on the WCAG 2.1 standard. We found that the majority of e-government websites do not meet Level A conformance with WCAG 2.1. Our findings suggest that designers and developers of e-government websites should pay due attention to the accessibility features during the design and development of these websites to achieve universal accessibility.

Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness

Abstract: The use of online tools is a common practice for evaluating the accessibility of a website, identifying problems, and providing useful feedback on how to fix detected issues. For ease of accessibility validation, many tools have been developed and implemented successfully over the years. Yet, the results of these tools show differences in terms of coverage, correctness, and reporting-related issues. In this study, we compared online accessibility evaluation tools to understand to what extent they differ in detecting accessibility problems in websites. A total of 41 government websites of different countries were tested for violations of accessibility guidelines using six evaluation tools. We observed that each tool generated different evaluation data for the same websites. As some of the tools are complementary to each other, meaning the highest coverage and completeness can be possible with the right combination of evaluation tools. Therefore, we suggest different tools should be utilized to provide consistency and obtain reliable data from online evaluation tools, thereby improving tool effectiveness.

Accessibility evaluation of university hospital websites in Turkey

Abstract: Hospital web pages serve as an interactive communication resource to meet the needs of patients, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders. The aim of this study is to present the accessibility analysis of 58 university hospital websites in Turkey. For this purpose, websites of the selected university hospitals were analyzed using two different online automated testing tools. The results showed that university hospital websites in Turkey had low compliance levels according to the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Most of the websites did not even meet the minimum requirements for compliance level A. In addition, almost all of the websites had broken links and about a third of the websites had problems with accessing from mobile devices. Moreover, some important clues that draw attention to the accessibility problems of websites are also discussed in this study. Hence, the results of this study provide feedback to developers and administrators to improve the accessibility of these websites.

Accessibility of Bulgarian Regional Museums Websites

Abstract: —Web accessibility is an inclusive practise that ensures everyone including people with disabilities can successfully work and interact with websites and use all their functionality. The research in the paper investigates the problem of web accessibility of Regional museums in Bulgaria and the compliance of their websites with the recommendations of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1), published by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The study presents the results of the user experience of people with disabilities regarding the accessibility of museums and exhibits in them. A methodology for automated testing of web accessibility with several software tools is described in the paper. Results from these tests are analysed and visualized with graphical tools. Some important conclusions about most common accessibility problems are given.

The State of Web Accessibility for People with Cognitive Disabilities: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Abstract: Increased digitisation of day-to-day activities was occurring prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic only accelerated the virtual shift, making web accessibility an urgent issue, especially for marginalised populations. Despite decades of work to develop, refine, and implement web accessibility standards, people with cognitive disabilities regularly experience many barriers to web accessibility. To inform ongoing work to improve web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities, a systematic review was conducted. The main question guiding this review is: what are the state-of-the-art of interventions that support web accessibility for citizens, 9 years of age and up, living with cognitive impairment? A set of 50 search strings were entered into three academic databases: SCOPUS, ProQuest, and Web of Science. Systematic screening procedures narrowed the search returns to a total of 45 included papers. A data analysis revealed themes associated with the lived experiences of people with cognitive disabilities, tools for improving web accessibility, and methodological best practices for involving people with cognitive disabilities in research. These findings have immediate implications for ongoing research and the development of meaningful solutions to the problem of web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities.

Large-scale study of web accessibility metrics

Abstract: Abstract Evaluating the accessibility of web resources is usually done by checking the conformance of the resource against a standard or set of guidelines (e.g., the WCAG 2.1). The result of the evaluation will indicate what guidelines are respected (or not) by the resource. While it might hint at the accessibility level of web resources, often it will be complicated to compare the level of accessibility of different resources or of different versions of the same resource from evaluation reports. Web accessibility metrics synthesize the accessibility level of a web resource into a quantifiable value. The fact that there is a wide number of accessibility metrics, makes it challenging to choose which ones to use. In this paper, we explore the relationship between web accessibility metrics. For that purpose, we investigated eleven web accessibility metrics. The metrics were computed from automated accessibility evaluations obtained using QualWeb. A set of around three million web pages were evaluated. By computing the metrics over this sample of nearly three million web pages, it was possible to identify groups of metrics that offer similar results. Our analysis shows that there are metrics that behave similarly, which, when deciding what metrics to use, assists in picking the metric that is less resource intensive or for which it might be easier to collect the inputs.

Local Government Websites Accessibility: Evaluation and Finding from Italy

Abstract: The Internet is dramatically changing the way that governments serve their citizens. Ensuring the municipal website is accessible to all citizens needs to be a top priority on the public digital marketing to-do list. Specifically, when we are in the presence of citizens who suffer from a specific impairment or technical hindrance, local governments have to provide them with equal access to their services. Starting from an analysis of the generic theoretical and legislative framework to which each municipality website must adhere, the paper investigates accessibility issues of local government websites taking into account specifically Italy's case. The Italian federal law, which is also known as the Stanca Act, aims to support access to information technologies for the disabled and addresses accessibility considerations in Italy. For ensuring that Italian government websites meet specific accessibility requirements, in this paper, we propose an evaluation strategy defined by an analysis of two validators: AChecker and VaMolà. 7,713 homepages were evaluated against WCAG 2.0 and Stanca Law recommendations. The analysis of results reveals relatively low web accessibility of municipal websites but highlights how to solve several of them is not a complex task also for non-technical users. For this reason, we developed a web application that allows municipality personnel to change the code of the homepage of a given municipality. All this can be made possible through the implementation of textual suggestions and the correct positional identification of the error within the HTML code of the page in question. Finally, the paper gives some directions on how to adapt the presented methodology for checking accessibility issues of local government websites of other countries.

Aligning accessibility design to non-disabled people’s perceptions

Abstract: Many standards and guidelines have been proposed over the years to help web developers produce accessible content. Being designed to be suitable for application to the widest possible number of web technologies, such guidelines are often perceived as hard to understand, not suitable for practical problem solving, and under some circumstances even not really useful in order to develop an accessible website or application.As a consequence, many accompanying resources have been proposed to support developers in understanding accessibility guidelines and applying them to their projects, as well as a variety of testing tools to let them check the presence of accessibility issues in their code and provide guidance in fixing them. Yet, most web content available on the Inter.net still exhibit critical accessibility issues.In our opinion, this approach is non satisfactory, as the personal understanding of the developers is always mediated by written reports and indirect information that are not immediately understandable and actionable. In this paper we propose our approach to increase integration between development tools and accessibility testing tools in usual web development workflows. In particular they should be capable of mapping accessibility related concepts onto familiar and immediately perceivable information, so that developers can immediately pin ìssues and plan for solving them without lengthy and wordy reports.

Assessing Usability and Accessibility of Indian Tourism Websites for Visually Impaired

Abstract: The tourism industry cannot ignore the needs of people with special needs. Providing accessible tourism is essential because of social and legal obligations, but also because they have large business opportunities. These people with special needs face challenges in every social, economic, and digital environment. One of the greatest barriers they face is the lack of accessible and usable information on the Internet, which thwarts their travel plans. This research is aimed at identifying the usability and accessibility status of official state tourism websites of India. The usability evaluation was done on various web quality parameters using automated online tools. The accessibility evaluation was done to check the compliance of Web Content Accessibility Guideline version 2.0 by the tourism website using the automated tool TAW. Further manual inspection was applied to identify accessibility and language options on the webpage. The result revealed that Indian state tourism websites had low usability and accessibility status, and they need much improvement to make them accessible to people with special needs.

The Accessibility of Data Visualizations on the Web for Screen Reader Users: Practices and Experiences During COVID-19

Abstract: Data visualization has become an increasingly important means of effective data communication and has played a vital role in broadcasting the progression of COVID-19. Accessible data representations, however, have lagged behind, leaving areas of information out of reach for many blind and visually impaired (BVI) users. In this work, we sought to understand (1) the accessibility of current implementations of visualizations on the web; (2) BVI users’ preferences and current experiences when accessing data-driven media; (3) how accessible data representations on the web address these users’ access needs and help them navigate, interpret, and gain insights from the data; and (4) the practical challenges that limit BVI users’ access and use of data representations. To answer these questions, we conducted a mixed-methods study consisting of an accessibility audit of 87 data visualizations on the web to identify accessibility issues, an online survey of 127 screen reader users to understand lived experiences and preferences, and a remote contextual inquiry with 12 of the survey respondents to observe how they navigate, interpret, and gain insights from accessible data representations. Our observations during this critical period of time provide an understanding of the widespread accessibility issues encountered across online data visualizations, the impact that data accessibility inequities have on the BVI community, the ways screen reader users sought access to data-driven information and made use of online visualizations to form insights, and the pressing need to make larger strides towards improving data literacy, building confidence, and enriching methods of access. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for researchers and practitioners to broaden data accessibility on the web.

Accessible services in academic libraries: a content analysis of library accessibility webpages in the United States

Abstract: Purpose This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of current accessibility efforts and practice in librarianship by providing a broad overview of the information about services, resources and facilities on academic library accessibility pages. By compiling and analyzing data from 85 libraries, this study seeks to facilitate comparisons between current and past accessibility practice and to provide perspective on how libraries communicate to users about accessibility efforts across libraries.Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a content analysis of 85 library accessibility pages from a sample population of 98 institutions, consisting of all members institutions of four US academic library consortia. Pages were coded for content elements regarding services, facilities, collections, staffing, assistive technologies and general information. Webpage features, architecture and accessibility/functionality were also assessed.Findings Libraries have broadened and strengthened efforts to publicize/provide services and resources to functionally diverse users. Pages most commonly prioritize information about assistive technologies, services and facilities. Pages varied greatly in size, complexity and detail, but public institutions' pages were more prevalent and informative than their private counterparts. Libraries can work to foreground accessibility pages and increase transparency and evidence of currency to improve communication to their users.Originality/value This study provides a large-scale content analysis of library accessibility webpages. It allows for comparison of the features and information most commonly featured on these important online points of service.

How compliance with web accessibility standards shapes the experiences of users with and without disabilities

Abstract: Benefits for all user groups is one of the most prominent motivations to provide accessible information and services on the web. Designing digital technologies in a more inclusive manner for users with sensory, motor, or cognitive impairments enhances their overall quality. In practice, work on web accessibility often relies on complying with standards. But whether standards lead to improved usability and a satisfying user experience for all user groups is controversial. The present study aims at deepening our understanding of how compliance with web accessibility standards shapes the experiences of both users with and without disabilities. In a randomised controlled experiment, 66 participants with visual impairments and 65 participants without visual impairments solved tasks on an online shop built with either low (NA) or high (AA) conformance to web accessibility standards. The results show no statistically significant effects on outcomes related to usability and user experience. However, analysis of open-ended answers suggests that participants with visual impairments reported more positive experiences, and participants without visual impairments fewer negative experiences while using the online shop conformant to web accessibility standards. We therefore recommend adopting a more differentiated perspective on what can be achieved through compliance with web accessibility standards and emphasise that conformance-based approaches should be complemented with user-centred and participatory design methods. Further, since most participants reported being experienced users and an online shop is often a familiar context, more research in other settings is required. • Explores how web accessibility standards affect usability and user experience. • Provides experimental evidence from users with and without visual impairments. • Shows that beneficial effects cannot be expected from compliance alone. • Suggests complementing compliance-oriented approaches with user-centred approaches.

The Transparency of Automatic Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Design Criteria, State of the Art, and User Perception

Abstract: Several Web accessibility evaluation tools have been put forward to reduce the burden of identifying accessibility barriers for users, especially those with disabilities. One common issue in using accessibility evaluation tools in practice is that the results provided by different tools are sometimes unclear, and often diverging. Such limitations may confuse the users who may not understand the reasons behind them, and thus hamper the possible adoption of such tools. Hence, there is a need for tools that shed light on their actual functioning, and the success criteria and techniques supported. For this purpose, we must identify what criteria should be adopted in order for such tools to be transparent and to help users better interpret their results. In this paper, we discuss such issues, provide design criteria for obtaining user-centred and transparent accessibility evaluation tools, and analyse how they have been addressed by a representative set of open, license-free, accessibility tools. We also report on the results of a survey with 138 users of such tools, aimed at capturing the perceived usefulness of previously identified transparency requirements. Finally, we performed a user study with 18 users working in the Web design or accessibility fields with the goal of receiving more feedback about the transparency of a selected subset of accessibility tools.

Disability <i>e</i>-inclusion for accessible tourism websites

Abstract: This research note discusses the current issue of assessing accessibility conditions of travel information and service websites for persons with disabilities. This paper examines the web accessibility of 246 tourism-related websites across countries and service sectors by utilizing the criteria of web content accessibility guidelines. The results show that global airline websites and hotel booking websites have a relatively higher number of known inaccessibility problems. In addition, tourism websites are likely to be inaccessible by omitting text alternatives for any non-text content (guideline1.1), adaptable contents (guideline 1.3) or distinguishable presentation (guideline 1.4). This study concluded that the issue in tourism websites remains unresolved and the investigation needs to continue.

Qualitative assessment of usability and accessibility of housing design elements for disabled people

Abstract: Accessibility has become a challenge in today's societies where everyone has equal rights to live in a barrier-free and accessible environment. A previous study indicated that those living in high-rise residences have limited access to facilities for the disabled that are provided in accordance to the Garis Panduan Reka Bentuk Sejagat (Universal Design). This paper aimed to determine the level of accessibility of selected six (6) design elements such as the ramp, stairs, main entrance, the lift, handrails, and parking space and the usefulness of legislation and standards in PPR Pekan Batu, Kuala Lumpur. Qualitative assessments were applied for the study using content analysis of planning guidelines and site observation. The results demonstrated that the efficiency of legislation and standards was a factor in the accessibility and usability of housing design elements for PWDs. Three (3) design elements- the stair, parking space, and main entrance, had recorded the lowest compliance scores compared to another two (2) elements- ramps and handrails, which recorded the second lowest compliance score. Meanwhile, the lift was recorded as the most compliant element based on its accessibility. The outcome of this study implied that different types of disabilities require varied housing accessibility requirements. This study improves accessible design elements for the disabled, resulting in a better environment.

Alignment Work for Urban Accessibility: A Study of How Wheelchair Users Travel in Urban Spaces

Abstract: Mobility is the key for people with disabilities to have full participation in life. To support their mobility, previous work primarily focused on accessibility as an attribute of the external environment to be evaluated, labeled, visualized, and improved. Relatively less work has looked at how people with disabilities go out and move around in practice and work to achieve mobility. This paper presents a qualitative study of 14 wheelchair users' travel practices in everyday life in China, highlighting urban accessibility as alignment work -- the use of an awareness of the conditions along the journey to continuously align and re-align various resources to ensure accessibility and mobility across contexts and moments. By highlighting alignment work, we present another side of the story of urban accessibility, and broaden design considerations to support mobility for wheelchair users.