Accessibility Analysis of Educational Websites Using WCAG 2.0

Abstract

In recent years, the internet has emerged as the primary information hub, encompassing various domains such as education, healthcare, government, and e-commerce. With a vast user base relying on websites for accessing essential information, ensuring web content accessibility has become imperative. Meeting accessibility guidelines is crucial to accommodate users with diverse abilities worldwide. This article examines accessibility variances among education board websites hosting higher-level school leaving examinations. The study evaluates the landing pages of 13 educational websites from both developing and developed countries, employing six Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) tools endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The study has meticulously compiled the outcomes of each assessment tool, delineating the diverse accessibility concerns encountered on each website. Furthermore, alternative recommendations have been proposed to assist web developers in rectifying these issues. The findings underscore a higher prevalence of accessibility issues within the education board websites of developing countries compared to their developed counterparts. Specifically, the analysis revealed prominent text contrast failures among selected web pages from developing nations, while non-text contrast failures were more prevalent in those from developed countries. Notably, the education board websites of India and Japan emerged with the highest number of accessibility issues among the sampled websites. As a way forward, a case study was shown on using LLM for making websites accessible.