Access To Website Research Articles

Inclusive Recruitment Strategies and Employability of Persons with Disability in State Corporations in Kenya

Purpose: Employability of persons with disability is rooted in the laws of Kenya, with the disability act of 2003 providing that 5% of all jobs be offered to persons with disability (PwDs). Previous research indicates that access and inclusion of PwDs in the labor force remains a global challenge. The main objective of the study was to determine the relationship between inclusive recruitment strategies and employability of persons with disability in state corporations in Kenya.
 Methodology: The scope of the study was limited to state corporations during the financial period 2022/2023. A descriptive survey research design was used and 186 human resource professionals were targeted. Data was collected from 117 respondents, yielding a response rate of 70%. Pilot testing was done before the main study. Data was collected using a semi structured questionnaires. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.
 Findings: The study found, inclusive recruitment strategies positively and significantly influenced employability of PwDs in state corporations in Kenya.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends that organizations should ensure that its management are aware of policies governing diversity, equity and inclusion and work towards establishing inclusive hiring metrics. Implementing internal diversity and inclusion recruitment best practices is important thus state parastatals need to create accessible websites, prepare inclusive job descriptions, and organize for inclusive interviews. The study additionally recommends that state corporations pair PwDs with their seniors for mentorship into top management this will increase their representation at management level.

An accessibility analysis of websites of selected types of universities

Universities have their websites, web and mobile applications that are aimed at different audiences: candidates students, students, employees and business environment. In the case of public universities this software must be accessible to the widest possible range of users, as well as people with disabilities. The requirements have been imposed on public institutions by current Polish laws. Accordingly, it is necessary to periodically review the compliance with accessibility requirements, and if any requirement is not met by a particular service, the accessibility statement should mention it and state the prospect of remedying it. The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the accessibility of websites of various types of selected higher education institutions in Poland, taking into account the type of the university. Accordingly, a study consisting of two stages was performed. The first stage consisted in conducting an expert analysis using a proprietary checklist to verify whether a given site contains selected accessibility features. The second stage consisted in an audit using automated tools that checked various aspects of the application: accessibility (Utilitia, accessiBe), performance (Google PageSpeed Insights) and adaptation to mobile devices (Google Mobile-Friendly Test). Thirty sites were used as research material, each belonging to one of 6 types of higher-education institutions: technical, economic, pedagogical, agricultural/natural science, physical education and a university. The results obtained from the first part of the survey show that university websites are equipped with standard accessibility tools, regardless of which group they belong to - the average accessibility rate for all universities was 63.7%. The second part of the survey showed that the greatest discrepancies between the different types of universities (ranging from 56.4% to 79.6%) occurred in the aspect of website performance. The sites of economic universities performed best in this element (79.6%), while the weakest were those of physical education universities (56.4%).

Predicting the Risk of Sleep Disorders Using a Machine Learning-Based Simple Questionnaire: Development and Validation Study.

Sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea (COMISA), and insomnia are common and can have serious health consequences. However, accurately diagnosing these conditions can be challenging as a result of the underrecognition of these diseases, the time-intensive nature of sleep monitoring necessary for a proper diagnosis, and patients' hesitancy to undergo demanding and costly overnight polysomnography tests. We aim to develop a machine learning algorithm that can accurately predict the risk of OSA, COMISA, and insomnia with a simple set of questions, without the need for a polysomnography test. We applied extreme gradient boosting to the data from 2 medical centers (n=4257 from Samsung Medical Center and n=365 from Ewha Womans University Medical Center Seoul Hospital). Features were selected based on feature importance calculated by the Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) method. We applied extreme gradient boosting using selected features to develop a simple questionnaire predicting sleep disorders (SLEEPS). The accuracy of the algorithm was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve. In total, 9 features were selected to construct SLEEPS. SLEEPS showed high accuracy, with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of greater than 0.897 for all 3 sleep disorders, and consistent performance across both sets of data. We found that the distinction between COMISA and OSA was critical for accurate prediction. A publicly accessible website was created based on the algorithm that provides predictions for the risk of the 3 sleep disorders and shows how the risk changes with changes in weight or age. SLEEPS has the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders by providing more accessibility and convenience. The creation of a publicly accessible website based on the algorithm provides a user-friendly tool for assessing the risk of OSA, COMISA, and insomnia.

Hot Yoga During Pregnancy: A Mixed-Methods Study Examining Perspectives of Studio Management.

Research provides evidence on the benefits and safety of prenatal yoga as well as hot yoga among nonpregnant individuals. However, limited literature on hot yoga during pregnancy exists. The present study aims to (1) describe knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of hot yoga studio management regarding hot yoga during pregnancy; and (2) examine how management teams rank the credibility of information sources (e.g., obstetricians) regarding the safety of hot yoga during pregnancy. Inclusion criteria included being at least 18 years of age and on the management team at a U.S. hot yoga studio. Studios were recruited via emails from publicly accessible websites of major hot yoga studio communities. Thirty-five participants completed a cross-sectional online survey addressing the study aims, and 10 (28.57%) participants reported trying hot yoga themselves while pregnant. Participants reported a median of 4 (interquartile range 1.5-8.5) pregnant individuals at their studio in the past year. All participants reported at least one hot yoga class type that they would recommend to pregnant individuals. Three qualitative themes emerged regarding deciding whether a pregnant individual may practice hot yoga: (1) integration of healthcare and individual knowledge, (2) emphasis on prior practice, and (3) individual bodily intuition and choice. Obstetricians were ranked the highest for credibility, although inferential tests suggested that their rankings were equivalent to those for academic journals, one's own knowledge/experiences, and a friend/acquaintance who had practiced hot yoga during pregnancy. These findings suggest recommendations for future yoga teacher trainings to include specific needs and considerations for pregnant individuals who choose to practice hot yoga.

The Unified Cluster Catalogue: towards a comprehensive and homogeneous data base of stellar clusters

ABSTRACT We introduce the Unified Cluster Catalogue, the largest catalogue of stellar clusters currently listing nearly 14 000 objects. In this initial release, it exclusively contains Milky Way open clusters, with plans to include other objects in future updates. Each cluster is processed using a novel probability membership algorithm, which incorporates the coordinates, parallax, proper motions, and their associated uncertainties for each star into the probability assignment process. We employ Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) up to a G magnitude of 20, resulting in the identification of over a million probable members. The catalogue is accompanied by a publicly accessible website designed to simplify the search and data exploration of stellar clusters. The website can be accessed at https://ucc.ar.

Bridging the gap between website accessibility and lexicography: information access in online dictionaries

AbstractInformation access has been one of the main concerns of lexicography since the first dictionaries were compiled. This paper draws an explicit link between the proposals made from the fields of applied linguistics and website accessibility to enhance the users’ experience in consulting online dictionaries. The paper starts with a reflection on two intertwined notions that are relevant for the discussion: Access and accessibility. After that, it focuses on elements connected to two Web Content Accessibility Guidelines principles, namely perceivability and understandability. It reflects on real practices regarding the way in which information is structured in today’s dictionaries, the use of text alternatives, typographic choice, the writing of definitions, and the use of abbreviations, and proposes measures to tackle the identified challenges. The implementation of easy-to-understand language is highlighted as a relevant resource for prospective lexicographic projects.

User-centered web accessibility : recommendations for ensuring access to government information for older adults

Introduction: This article is the result of the research project “User-Centered Web Accessibility: Recommendations for Ensuring Access to Governmental Information for Older Adults”, developed at the University of Cauca- Colombia in 2023. Problem: Despite the importance of web accessibility, web pages are not adapting to the evolution of web accessibility proposed by the international consortium, which can limit access for users with physical and/or cognitive limitations. Objective: This article presents a set of recommendations for the design and development of government web- sites specifically for older adults, to ensure access to government information and take into account their health, physical, and mental condition. Methodology: A relationship is established between the limitations of older adults and the recommendations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, with the aim of proposing specific design and develop- ment guidelines for government websites to counteract a specific limitation. Results: The implementation of these recommendations will allow government portals to have greater accep- tance among older adult users. In addition, a case study was conducted in which these recommendations were validated and adjusted, which allowed for access to government information as a means of protecting fundamental rights. Conclusion: This article highlights the importance of web accessibility and proposes specific recommendations for the design and development of accessible government websites for older adults. Originality: This article presents a specific approach to web accessibility for older adults and proposes recom- mendations that differ from WCAG guidelines. Limitations: The proposed recommendations focus on web accessibility for older adults and do not address the limitations of other groups with physical and/or cognitive limitations. In addition, they were validated and adjusted in a specific case study and may require additional adjustments in other contexts.

Experience and usability of a website containing research-based knowledge and tools for pain self-management: a mixed-method study in people with high-impact chronic pain.

Smerteinfo.dk is a freely accessible Danish website containing research-based, up-to-date knowledge on chronic pain, written in lay language, with a focus on information, guidance and self-management tools, developed in collaboration between health professionals and persons with high-impact chronic pain. This mixed-method study explored experiences, perceived usability, and challenges of Smerteinfo among patients with high-impact chronic pain. Semi-structured interviews enabling thinking-aloud and participant observation while using Smerteinfo were performed in 11 patients with high-impact chronic pain. Survey data were collected three months after being invited to use Smerteinfo among 200 patients on waiting-list at a Pain Center in Denmark. Three themes captured the depth and variation in patterns of experiences, usability and challenges using Smerteinfo during interviews: 1) Appreciated easy access to new knowledge yet strived for more personalized information, 2) Experienced incentives as well as challenges when navigating the website, and 3) Suggested earlier introduction to the website. Challenges concerned the unknown update frequency of the website, information consisting of mostly text and many links, lack of material to improve self-management and too general information. Survey data revealed that 87 % found the language in the articles easy to understand and 73 % could recognize themselves and their challenges in the articles. A proportion of the respondents reported improved understanding of their pain condition (56 %), improved coping (33 %), and that they had made changes in their everyday life after reading on the website (33 %). Patients with high-impact chronic pain found Smerteinfo valuable. The results suggest attention towards spreading knowledge of the website to general practitioners, who could introduce the site at an earlier stage of illness. Continuously improving the site and expand the applicable tools based on scientific evidence and in collaboration with end-users are crucial to ensure the usability of the website in the future.

Ten-year experience of a global and freely accessible e-Learning website for pediatric endocrinology and diabetes

Ten-year experience of a global and freely accessible e-Learning website for pediatric endocrinology and diabetes

Unraveling the Impact of Lockdowns on E-commerce: An Empirical Analysis of Google Analytics Data during 2019–2022

This paper presents an empirical analysis of e-commerce data obtained through Google Analytics (GA) from two small businesses’ perspectives: an IT components company and a tourism agency website located within the same county in Romania. The objective of our study is to examine the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal variations over the last four years. The data collection spanned from January 2019, predating the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, until mid-February 2023. To facilitate our analysis, we categorize the GA metrics into groups that encompassed website performance, site accessibility, and user behavior for the IT company. As for the tourism agency, we focus on website accessibility, user behavior, and marketing campaigns. Our goal is to empirically group or associate GA metrics according to their intrinsic meaning and check if each group reflects a certain latent concept (such as user behavior or site accessibility). Furthermore, our study aims to formulate and test five hypotheses regarding the immediate and long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of small businesses. Our contribution consists of formulating and verifying the five hypotheses by providing descriptive data from the results of the Pearson correlation test, empirically grouping the GA metrics and verifying whether they reflect certain latent factors or topics, interpreting the results from the application of the ANOVA technique and Scarpello’s adaptation of the one factor test, respectively.

Choose Your Own Marine Energy Adventure Game: Collision Risk

The risk of collision between marine animals (marine mammals, pelagic fish, and diving seabirds) and underwater turbines continues to be the first question raised by regulators for new tidal or riverine energy projects around the world, and the most significant issue that slows down consenting/permitting. The challenges to understanding collision risk stem from the difficulty in observing close encounters and interactions of marine animals with a tidal or riverine turbine, which rotates much slower than a hydroelectric turbine or a boat propeller. To better understand this risk, the marine energy community and the general public need to be educated on the processes and various stages involved in collision risk of marine animals with turbines. This project aimed to develop an interactive outreach tool for the marine energy community and the general public, to educate the audience on the low risk of collision by highlighting the different stages of a collision event at various spatial scales and featuring a fish species of concern, the Atlantic salmon. This tool is a three-dimension educational interactive experience, accessible from any web-connected platform, and is hosted on a publicly accessible website. Throughout the experience, the player is presented with various decisions to take as the salmon approaches and interacts with a tidal turbine. At each step along the way, the player is provided with bite-size scientific information and weblinks to deepen their understanding of the topic. This short but efficient tool with expert messages is a "hands-on" experience for the players, where they are the animals and make the decisions leading up, or not, to collisions. The outcomes of this project will support broad outreach and education goals in order to reduce barriers to consenting/permitting for future deployment of tidal and riverine turbines.

Web Accessibility: A Revisit of U.S. State and Territory COVID-19 Websites After Two Years

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.

Web accessibility and inclusivity of tourist destinations at social media management. An intercultural analysis of Andalusia and Northern Morocco

AbstractTourists with disabilities, representing approximately 15% of the world's population, especially need everything planned for their tourist experiences. Therefore, the contents and level of digital accessibility are vital and significantly impact the final decision to travel to one destination.This work analyses a total of 165 digital contents (152 in Andalusia and 13 corresponding to Northern Morocco) from the perspective of web accessibility and inclusive communication in social media. The method used is multidisciplinary, carrying out a series of analyses through the statistical language R, TAW as an online tool to analyse the website's accessibility and synthesise guidelines for communicating inclusively in social networks.The main results show the scarce involvement of public bodies in inclusive communication and digital accessibility, designing content from the universal design perspective. There is no substantial difference between the two regions studied, identifying that European legislation and national regulatory framework in Andalusia's case do not favour a better level of web accessibility, although this is a mandatory aspect. Furthermore, very few differences have been noted in analysing the level of Smart Tourism Destinations when accessibility is fundamental in their conceptualisation. Finally, this research can be identified as state-of-the-art in tourism marketing as a conceptual approach and a starting point for measuring inclusive communication in social networks.Nowadays, accessible tourism is an opportunity to be placed at the centre of recovery plans in the post-COVID-19 era. Therefore, let us facilitate more inclusive societies, using tourism as a lever to achieve this goal.

Website Assessment and Feature Metrics of University's Website Accessibility: An Evaluation of 15 Top-Ranked Universities of India

Website Assessment and Feature Metrics of University's Website Accessibility: An Evaluation of 15 Top-Ranked Universities of India

The Impact Of Tiket.Com Website Quality And E-Trust On Concert Ticket Purchasing Decision


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This quantitative research aims to investigate the influence of Website Quality and E-Trust on the purchasing decisions of concert tickets among EXO fans using Tiket.com services. Employing a descriptive research method, data was collected from 100 respondents through purposive sampling and analyzed using SPSS. The study revealed that both Website Quality and E-Trust significantly affect the concert ticket purchase decisions of EXO fans. These findings contribute to the understanding of online consumer behavior and hold implications for ticket reservation services, emphasizing the importance of attractive, easily accessible websites and robust online trust mechanisms to foster positive purchase decisions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Highlights:
 
 
 Significance of Website Quality: The study examines the impact of website quality on purchase decisions, emphasizing the need for an attractive and user-friendly online platform to enhance customer engagement and conversion rates.
 
 
 Crucial Role of E-Trust: The research highlights the pivotal role of online trust in influencing consumers' decisions to purchase concert tickets online, underlining the importance of establishing secure and reliable platforms.
 
 
 Insights into EXO Fans' Behavior: The study provides valuable insights into the behavior of EXO fans as they engage with ticket reservation services, aiding businesses in catering to the preferences of this specific target audience.
 
 
 Keywords: Website Quality, E-Trust, Purchase Decision, Concert Tickets, EXO Fans
 
 

The role of online marketing to engage healthcare workers with infection prevention and control information and resources: A pilot study.

The successful adoption and application of infection prevention and control (IPC) principles in all healthcare settings is dependent on the degree to which healthcare workers (HCWs) are aware of the requirements, have access to program resources and information, and engage with the IPC program. This study investigates the impact of redesigning the Infection Control Department (ICD) intranet site based on user feedback followed by a targeted marketing campaign to improve website usability, awareness, and access. In this systematic study, we used a survey plus two focus group interviews to elicit user requirements for the content and look of the ICD intranet page and identify the best communication platforms to use for the marketing campaign to launch the redesigned intranet page. The information was used to redesign the intranet page and develop the marketing campaign. The survey was repeated post-intervention and these results, along with a comparison of website analytics monitoring traffic, were used to determine the success of the intervention. The ICD intranet page redesign increased the information and resources. Post-intervention survey results demonstrated a significant improvement in user satisfaction including ease of navigation and access to IPC information and resources. The marketing campaign resulted in a significant increase in website traffic to the ICD intranet page, demonstrating enhanced engagement with HCWs. This study demonstrated that website redesign based on user feedback, combined with a marketing campaign, can increase the traffic to the website and improve the user experience when accessing and navigating the site making the information and resources more accessible to HCWs.

Instantiation and Implementation of HEAD Metamodel in an Industrial Environment: Non-IoT and IoT Case Studies

Access to resources can take many forms: digital access via an onsite network, through an external site, website, etc., or physical access to labs, machines, information repositories, etc. Whether access to resources is digital or physical, it must be allowed, denied, revoked, or disabled using robust and coherent access control (AC) models. What makes the process of AC more complicated is the emergence of digital transformation technologies and pervasive systems such as the internet of things (IoT) and industry 4.0 systems, especially with the growing demand for transparency in users’ interaction with various applications and services. Controlling access and ensuring security and cybersecurity in IoT and industry 4.0 environments is a challenging task. This is due to the increasing distribution of resources and the massive presence of cyber-threats and cyber-attacks. To ensure the security and privacy of users in industry sectors, we need an advanced AC metamodel that defines all the required components and attributes to derive various instances of AC models and follow the new and increasing demand for AC requirements due to continuous technology upgrades. Due to the several limitations in the existing metamodels and their inability to answer the current AC requirements, we have developed a Hierarchical, Extensible, Advanced, Dynamic (HEAD) AC metamodel with significant features that overcome the existing metamodels’ limitations. In this paper, the HEAD metamodel is employed to specify the needed AC policies for two case studies inspired by the computing environment of Institut Technologique de Maintenance Industrielle (ITMI)-Sept-Îles, QC, Canada; the first is for ITMI’s local (non-IoT) environment and the second for ITMI’s IoT environment. For each case study, the required AC model is derived using the domain-specific language (DSL) of HEAD metamodel, then Xtend notation (an expressive dialect of Java) is utilized to generate the needed Java code which represents the concrete instance of the derived AC model. At the system level, to get the needed AC rules, Cypher statements are generated and then injected into the Neo4j database to represent the Next Generation Access Control (NGAC) policy as a graph. NGAC framework is used as an enforcement point for the rules generated by each case study. The results show that the HEAD metamodel can be adapted and integrated into various local and distributed environments. It can serve as a unified framework, answer current AC requirements and follow policy upgrades. To demonstrate that the HEAD metamodel can be implemented on other platforms, we implement an administrator panel using VB.NET and SQL.

Open Access Websites for Anesthesia Education: Time to Rely on Artificial Intelligence?

Open Access Websites for Anesthesia Education: Time to Rely on Artificial Intelligence?

The rebel, the professor, and the entrepreneur: Qualitative study to explore creator stories of FOAM.

The free open access medical education (#FOAMed, or FOAM) movement creates educational content intended to inform medical education and clinical practice and is distributed in an unrestricted fashion (e.g., open access website). The who, what, and in particular the how of FOAM has raised important questions about the sustainability of the movement. We recruited a diverse research team that included educational researchers, FOAM contributors, a business academician, and medical trainees to design and conduct a qualitative study exploring the work of FOAM creators. We analyzed the transcripts of interviews with 11 participants from top FOAM websites in emergency medicine and critical care. The team met frequently to iteratively identify and discuss emergent themes (major and minor) until saturation of concepts was achieved. Creators of FOAM could be categorized using three archetypes: the rebel, the professor, and the entrepreneur. The rebel was categorized as distinctly rejecting "traditional academic structures" yet was compelled to deliver educational content via alternative routes. The professor retained a traditional academic role, instead creating FOAM to supplement academic activities (teaching courses, disseminating scholarship, promotion). Entrepreneurs focused on creating a sustainable entity in an effort to supplement their income and reduce clinical obligations. While all FOAM creators appear unified in their passion to create, promote, and distribute educational material with unfettered access to educators, their motivations for creating content could be differentiated. Given the grassroots nature of FOAM, creators share concerns related to financing, time commitments, and threats to sustainability of these businesses. The longevity of FOAM and what business models are best suited to support them are uncertain. Further exploration of the implications could investigate the best ways to engage with and support the different FOAM creator archetypes and develop models of sustainability.

Digital Right Management and Accessibility of Libraries Electronic Resources for Blind and Visually Impaired Users

In this digital era, where digital information is available in various formats, Digital Right Management has emerged as a great technology used by content owners to safeguard their intellectual property digitally. Digital rights management restricts the use of copyrighted digital works from unauthorised access. Although Digital Right Management appears to protect writers’ copyrights, it limits the copyright freedom of blind and visually impaired users who depend on accessibility features. The study aims to discuss and highlight the impact of Digital Right Management on the accessibility of libraries’ electronic resources for BVI users. Furthermore, it discusses how complex Digital Rights Management violates the fair-use rights of BVI users by making it impossible for them to access electronic resources. This review article outlines the key research findings on Digital Right Management hindrances encountered by blind and visually impaired users in accessing electronic resources. The results root in the literature surveyed discloses that the majority of libraries throughout the world are falling behind in delivering efficient access to electronic resources for BVI users. Libraries have a variety of obstacles to the accessibility of electronic content, including Digital Right Management challenges, license constraints, website design limitations, accessibility issues, and compatibility issues with assistive software. To overcome some of these barriers, librarians should review the implications of Digital Right Management for accessibility. Moreover, librarians must be knowledgeable about the numerous forms of visual impairments, including these users in accessibility studies, and consider the assistive technology they use. The article will review the literature on the following topics: find out how accessible electronic resources in libraries are for blind or visually impaired users; identify existing accessibility challenges arising from Digital Right Management technologies that impede access to electronic resources by blind or visually impaired users, and identify the challenges that they are facing.