A Heuristic Method to Evaluate Web Accessibility for Users With Low Vision

Patricia Acosta-Vargas,Luis Antonio Salvador-Ullauri,Sergio Lujan-Mora

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2939068

Abstract

Checking the accessibility of a website is a significant challenge for accessibility experts. Users who suffer from age-related changes, such as low vision, poor hearing, and diminishing motor skills, among others, have problems accessing the services offered by the web. Currently, there are qualitative and quantitative methods to check if a website is accessible. Most methods apply automatic tools because they are low cost, but they do not present an ideal solution. Instead, heuristic methods require manual support that will help the expert to assess accessibility by establishing severity ranges. This research used a modification of the Barrier Walkthrough method proposed by Giorgio Brajnik considering the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. The modification consisted of including persistence to determine the severity of an accessibility barrier. This method enabled the measurement of the accessibility of websites to test a new heuristic process and to obtain sample data for analysis. The method was applied to 40 websites, including those of 30 universities in Latin America, according to the Webometrics ranking, and 10 websites among the most visited, according to Alexa ranking. With this heuristic method, the evaluators concluded that although a website is in a high-ranking position, this does not imply that it is accessible and inclusive. However, the manual method takes too long, and it is therefore too costly to solve accessibility problems. This research can serve as a starting point for future studies related to web accessibility heuristics.

Highlights

The constant technological advances and the accelerating development of the web produce significant effects on the way of life, work, and the ideas of understanding the world on the part of its users
One of the advantages of our proposal is to test a new heuristic method with a broader persistence range, which allows evaluators to have a more realistic approximation of the severity of a web accessibility barrier. We suggest replicating this method for users with other types of disabilities, considering the various accessibility barriers
To achieve a better evaluation of the accessibility of a website, the evaluators suggest combining the use of automatic evaluation tools with heuristic methods

Summary

Introduction

The constant technological advances and the accelerating development of the web produce significant effects on the way of life, work, and the ideas of understanding the world on the part of its users. These technologies affect the traditional processes of information exchange, teaching, learning, social utility to connect people, research, and business, which are profoundly modifying the patterns of behavior, family, and social relationships. Websites related to social networking, education, government, businesses, and research have a high impact on building social and economic development.

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