Accessibility Testing of European Health-Related Websites

Cecilia Sik-Lanyi,Éva Orbán-Mihálykó

doi:10.1007/s13369-019-04017-z

Cecilia Sik-Lanyi, Éva Orbán-Mihálykó

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-019-04017-z

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Abstract

The current development of the Internet and its growing use make it necessary to satisfy the needs of users with disabilities. The primary objective of this study is to examine healthcare-related websites in nine European countries in order to evaluate the status of their accessibility. Such a detailed statistical comparison has not yet been made in Europe, especially as the present study offers a dual measurement system combining both the application of automated testing software and statistical analysis of user feedback. The study compares 48 websites from Eastern Europe with 51 sites from Western and Northern Europe. The research phase was performed in three steps: firstly by using AChecker, secondly by Nibbler and subsequently followed by user feedback questionnaires evaluated by a group of experts. The overall goal of this study is to determine the most common accessibility problems and to draw site owners’ attention to shortcomings so that they can improve the quality of service of their healthcare-related sites in the future. The investigated European websites are grouped into Eastern and Western–Northern countries. We compared our results from different perspectives and ascertained that no significant differences can be established between the two groups predicated on their respective economic situations. Equally, no correlations were observed while comparing the sizes of web pages in Kbytes, the number of barriers and their Nibbler accessibility scores. Furthermore, there appears to be no correlation between the results of the software tests and the percentage of the elderly population in the respective country.

Highlights

The current development of the Internet and its growing use make it necessary to meet the needs of those disabled people who experience accessibility problems, be it related to visual, motor, mobility, auditory, cognitive or intellectual skills
Answer to Q1 Grouping the questions by properties, we cannot find significant differences between the results of the groups in case of V4 and N–W-EU countries
Answer to Q3 There are no significant differences between V4 and N–W-EU countries in the expected number of known and likely errors, but there is in the number of potential errors

Summary

Introduction

The current development of the Internet and its growing use make it necessary to meet the needs of those disabled people who experience accessibility problems, be it related to visual, motor, mobility, auditory, cognitive or intellectual skills. Most software engineering companies have not been developing for users with special needs because they do not see a potential market in these users [1]. Figures have proved that at least 10% of the world’s population has some kind of impairment (http://www.disabled-world.com/ disability/statistics/). This number is estimated to reach 14%. Health and long-term care is expected to increase by 4–8% of the GDP in the forthcoming decades. If companies do not respond to the demand of producing barrier-free websites, they are likely to lose a considerable number of potential customers/users.

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