This study is a longitudinal replication of a website accessibility study conducted in 2021 to compare if COVID-19 sites had improved, declined, or stayed the same in terms of accessibility. Two ...automated accessibility checker tools, MAUVE++ and WAVE, were used to assess the accessibility of all available U.S. state and territory COVID-19 websites. Each state and territory's home page, testing page, and vaccine page were examined, and accessibility ratings were determined. The number of errors and the overall accessibility ratings were compared between the current (2023) and previous (2021) versions of the sites, both archived using the WayBack Machine. Multi-level modelling methods were employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that the most inaccessible components were those requiring visual interaction, and there were no significant changes in the overall accessibility of websites over the years. A closer examination of individual Success Criteria revealed a significant increase in violation rate of 1.4.11 (non-text contrast) from 2021 to 2023. Overall, this research suggests that there has been a lack of improvement in accessibility of the chosen COVID-19 websites over the past two years, and it has also identified areas that need to be improved.
This paper analyzes the accessibility of web content of medical platforms in accordance with the international guidelines established by W3C and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The article ...presents the results of a May 2018 study on web accessibility for health sites. The evaluation was done on a sample of seven sites using an automated testing tool. The evaluation was performed on a sample of seven sites using an automated test tool - Total Validator. The study demonstrated a relatively low web accessibility of the analyzed eHealth websites and highlighted general accessibility recommendations.
The guidance provided by the ADA regarding online applications can be unclear and has led to the adoption of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act ...of 1973 as the standards for assessing online accessibility and achieving ADA compliance. While these standards are helpful, they are not perfect and have faced criticism due to usability concerns. As a result, our objective is to create review heuristics that combine the guidance of WCAG 2.0 and Section 508, which can serve as a practical and effective tool for assessing web ADA compliance. The heuristics function similar to a usability heuristic evaluation, which has been proven successful for decades. This article will first focus on developing the ADA compliance heuristics, then it demonstrates the use of the heuristics.
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.
•We 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.
The websites of higher education institutions, due to the fact that they are addressed to multiple stakeholder groups, not only need to have an appropriately designed information structure but must ...also be useful. Additionally, in the case of public universities, their services are expected to be accessible to the widest possible audience, especially for people with disabilities. The accessibility tools used on websites should be quickly located, easily identifiable and user-friendly. So far, no standards have been developed regarding these issues, and therefore, there are various solutions on the web. The objective of this study is to analyze various implementations of accessibility tools on university websites in terms of their location, form of presentation and ways that enable access to them. A study was conducted in which web interfaces were evaluated with the participation of users. The experiment consisted of two parts: the first one used the eye tracking technique, whereas in the second one, a survey was conducted. The research material was prototypes of websites from four different universities. Each website had two versions differing in implementation of accessibility tools. In the study, 35 participants were divided into two groups of people. Each group was shown one of the two sets of website prototypes and the users were tasked with finding and activating a specific accessibility tool. After exploring the websites, each participant completed a questionnaire that pertained to their opinions regarding aspects such as appearance, placement and a way to access tools dedicated to people with disabilities. The obtained data, processed to the form of heatmaps and fixation maps, were subjected to a qualitative analysis. The survey results and eye tracking data were analyzed quantitatively. On the basis of performed analyzes it can be concluded that the following factors have an impact on the reduction in efficiency and productivity of users: placement of accessibility tools on university websites in a place other than the upper right corner, an indirect access to these tools or their non-standard appearance.
Information and communication technology (ICT) has made higher education available to many students in a new way. The role of online learning in higher education institutions (HEIs) has grown to an ...unprecedented scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The diversity of higher education students has increased, and accessible solutions are needed. New European and national regulations support these trends. The research reported in this paper was conducted in Finland, which is one of the leading European countries in terms of high technology and digitalisation. The aim of this research is to explore the accessibility of all Finnish HEIs’ (
N
= 38) landing pages based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). The situations before and after recent legislation are compared. Previous studies have shown that HEIs’ landing pages typically have many accessibility errors. Unlike previous studies, this study considered the types of accessibility errors at a detailed level to support HEIs’ development and implementation of accessibility standards. A combination of two automated accessibility testing tools was used, and the performance of individual tools was analysed. The results show that HEIs’ landing pages are not accessible and there are enormous differences between institutions. Two clusters of HEIs were found: one with good accessibility in terms of WCAG 2.1’s four principles (perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust), and one with poor accessibility. On half of the HEIs’ landing pages with poor accessibility, the number of errors increased even given the binding nature of the law. Obviously, there is still work to be done. Implications for practice are also discussed.
Purpose: To analyze the accessibility of official national tourism organization websites of countries around the world, in order to establish possible common patterns and rankings of those with ...exemplary practice through to those with the highest number of issues. The purpose for undertaking such an analysis is to provide a quasi-indicator of inclusive organizational practice for online accessibility for both destination managers and their accessible tourism consumers - domestic and overseas people with disability visiting the websites.
Method: The official tourism websites of 210 countries included in the latest World Tourism Organization report were analyzed. A website accessibility evaluation tool (website accessible test) was used in the analysis, according to AA and AAA levels of conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements.
Results: Different patterns compliance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 were established for the clusters, which were rather similar for both AA and AAA conformance levels. The main issues in the least accessible websites were also identified, mainly focused on the following guidelines: navigable, compatible, adaptability, text alternatives and also referred to other assistive technologies.
Conclusions: Once the main issues were established several alternatives are suggested to address them, such as implementing more prescriptive laws and regulations, complying with mandatory benchmark standards and/or having external agencies audit website designs. However, in addition to using benchmark standards, efforts to improve this situation should also be made by programmers, who should also rely on preexistent experiences and develop more dynamic knowledge. This knowledge may include text alternatives for any nontext content; creation of content that can be presented in different ways without losing information; provide ways to help users navigate, find content, determine where they are and navigate websites to maximize compatibility with assistive technologies and user agents.
Implications for rehabilitation
Access to information - in this case, online information - is an important factor in the process of rehabilitation for people with disability and those supporting them.
Failure to apply homogeneous criteria for website accessibility around the world can hamper access to information by people with disabilities.
Travel planning requires access to mainstream tourist distribution networks where online inclusive practice is a precursor to information searching.
Documents for destination managers and programmers the main problems of accessibility to websites and examples of models or solutions to follow and not.
Establish the main inclusive website design criteria on which to focus on improving the access of people with disabilities to websites (e.g., text alternatives, content presented in different ways, navigating and improving compatibility with assistive technologies etc.).
This paper describes the design and evaluation of a Web Accessibility Information Resource (WebAIR) for supporting web developers to create and evaluate accessible websites. WebAIR was designed with ...web developers in mind, recognising their current working practices and acknowledging their existing understanding of web accessibility. We conducted an evaluation with 32 professional web developers in which they used either WebAIR or an existing accessibility information resource, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, to identify accessibility problems. The findings indicate that several design decisions made in relation to the language, organisation, and volume of WebAIR were effective in supporting web developers to undertake web accessibility evaluations.
Education during wartime has faced new challenges that significantly impact the formation of new perspectives on existing issues. Ukrainians have encountered numerous barriers caused by the war, ...making the question of accessibility a pressing concern. This article analyzes the state of Ukrainian educational institutions’ webpages. The analysis was conducted using the third-party solution WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools, enabling the configuration of verification parameters and the investigation and grouping of issues on web resources. A website was created to visually display the collected data. Modern technologies were utilized in its development, including HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Javascript, React, and NodeJS. Statistics were generated for various indicators, such as page structure errors, contrast inconsistencies, WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications) errors, inappropriate notifications, improvements, and critical aspects. Additionally, the percentage ratios of all and critical errors to the number of elements on the pages were calculated. As a result of the research, 299 main webpages of educational institutions were found and analyzed according to the All-Ukrainian Register of Educational Institutions, and a data model for further investigation was developed. By testing the model, the most accessible resources were identified from the standpoint of technologies, page types, approaches, and practices. The software suite can analyze the dependency of a web resource’s complexity on the number of errors.
PDF
