Abstract
This study examines the compliance of the web sites of Spanish universities with level A of the Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG) v. 1.0 in 2006, and compares the obtained results with those of 2001. On the positive side, in 2006 more use of alternatives to graphics was made, cascading style sheets and the use of Flash and PDF. In addition, more universities (10 in total) complied 100 % with the WCAG at level A. On the negative side, the texts were of poorer quality than in 2001, and fewer complied with accessibility standards with respect to plans of study, which were usually automatically generated. An analysis was also made of the compliance of indicators with American standard 508 (which is not mandatory in Spain) and five other usability indicators. No university complied 100 % with standard 508; compliance with the other indicators was 65 %. The results show that the level of accessibility remains low, similar in fact to the situation in 2001, but with large differences between universities. Indeed, the level of compliance is less than that which might be expected given the changes in Spanish law made to favour access to public web sites.
Highlights
This study examines the compliance of the web sites of Spanish universities with level A of the Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG) v. 1.0 in 2006, and compares the obtained results with those of 2001
The level of compliance is less than that which might be expected given the changes in Spanish law made to favour access to public web sites
Alfonso X el Sabio Antonio de Nebrija Autónoma de Barcelona Autónoma de Madrid Camilo José Cela Cardenal Herrera - CEU Carlos III de Madrid Católica de Avila Católica San Antonio Complutense de Madrid A Coruña Alcalá Alicante Almería Barcelona Burgos Cádiz Cantabria Castilla-La Mancha Córdoba Deusto Extremadura Girona Granada Huelva Illes Balears Jaén La Laguna La Rioja
Summary
El año 2001 los autores del presente artículo ya estudiamos el nivel de accesibilidad de las sedes web de las universidades españolas (Térmens, Ribera, Sulé, 2003). La situación legal ha cambiado bastante en España, en parte por requerimiento de la Unión Europea y en parte como resultado del despliegue normativo de la legislación de accesibilidad en España. Estos resultados han de ser esclarecedores de la situación actual, en un momento en el que la última legislación española reglamenta que a partir de 31 de diciembre de 2008 todos los sitios web dependientes de las administraciones públicas han de ser accesibles no solo a un nivel «A», como el estudiado en el presente trabajo, sino en el nivel superior «AA». La mayoría de gobiernos han optado por establecer en el nivel intermedio «AA» la obligatoriedad en sus respectivas legislaciones de accesibilidad en la web
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