W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Research Articles

Evaluating the web accessibility of IIT libraries: a study of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and identify the status of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) conformance levels (A, AA, AAA) and accessibility status in terms of Severity (Error, Warning and Review) and Responsibility (Editor, Webmaster and Developer) of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Library websites based on Siteimprove Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.Design/methodology/approachThe library websites of IITs were tested using Siteimprove web-tool to gather details pertaining to W3C's WCAG 2.1 standards. The data thus obtained were then visualized using spreadsheet software for greater insight. A partial correlation test was also done to assess the relationship between the three conformance levels.FindingsThe study could identify significant accessibility-related limitations of the IIT library websites concerning the three WCAG 2.1 conformance levels A (max IIT Bombay), AA (max IIT Dhanbad (ISM)) and AAA (max IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Varanasi (BHU)), Severity and Responsibility. A positive linear relationship exists amongst these conformance levels. The mean value of conformance levels were found to be 18.3 (A), 2.2 (AA) and 3.1 (AAA); Severity scores were found to be 14.4 (Error), 3.9 (Warning) and 5.2 (Review); and Responsibility scores were found to be 6 (Editor), 9.3 (Webmaster) and 8.3 (Developer), respectively.Practical implicationsThe study highlights the comparative picture of accessibility issues and conformance levels of the IITs' library website homepage with the help of results derived/based on Siteimprove Accessibility Checker. The findings of the study reveal that though the library website of IITs' in India possess a well-designed and easily navigable website homepage as far as their accessibility for VIPs is concerned, there are several issues that are still to be resolved.Social implicationsWorld Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Marrakesh VIP Treaty (MVT) and the W3C's WCAG cater to the requirements and rights of the persons with vision-related disability of accessing information and knowledge building a steeper and deeper knowledge divide. Identifying and rectifying the shortcomings in the library websites will bridge the accessibility-divide and make the society more inclusive.Originality/valueNo previous study could be identified evaluating the accessibility issues of the library website of Indian IITs focussed on vision-disabled persons using Siteimprove. The methodology and approach of this paper have value in terms of reusability and reproducibility facilitating future studies.

Usability, Accessibility and Web Security Assessment of E-government Websites in Tanzania

In spite of the fact that e-government agency (ega) in Tanzania emphasize on the use of ICT within public institutions in Tanzania, accessibility, usability and web security vulnerabilities are still not considered by the majority of web developers. The main objective of this study is to assess the usability, accessibility and web security vulnerabilities of selected Tanzania e-government websites. Using several automatic diagnostic (evaluation) tools such as pingdom, google speed insight, wave, w3c checker and acunetix, this study assess the usability, accessibility and web security vulnerabilities of 79 selected e-government websites in Tanzania. The results reveal several issues on usability, accessibility and security of Tanzania e-government websites. There is high number of usability problems where 100% of websites were found to have broken links and 52 out of 79 websites have loading time of more than five (5) seconds for their main page. The accessibility results show that all 79 selected websites have accessibility errors and violate w3c Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0. The results on web security vulnerabilities indicate that 40 out of 79 (50.6%) assessed websites have one or more high-severity vulnerability (SQL injection or cross site scripting-XSS) while 51 out of 79 (64.5%) have one or more medium-severity vulnerabilities (Cross site request forgery or Denial of Service). Based on these results, this study provides some recommendations for improving the usability, accessibility and web security vulnerabilities of public institutions in Tanzania.

Bridging the accessibility gap in Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are being fostered as a global movement for providing educational opportunities to all. However, people with disabilities are still excluded from full participation because of the lack of accessibility of OER websites, as well as of the resources themselves. This work presents a proposal for the design of OER websites that would enable equitable access for all users. This design aims to bridge the accessibility gap through the personalization of the whole OER environment to facilitate an accessible User Experience (UX) based on a user profile that includes the self-identification of disability status. This profile configures not only the “look and feel” of the interface but also the delivery of educational resources suitable for this user profile. To achieve this purpose, the design goes beyond compliance with the ISO/IEC 40500 W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, since it includes the personalization of the accessible experience through usability considerations and adaptations of educational resources. The delivery of educational resources matches the user’s profile with regard to their sensory abilities, cognitive faculties and their requirements of functionality control, display layout and language. As a proof of concept, we have developed an OER website based on this design and have conducted a set of UX tests that include users with different disabilities. The test results confirm the feasibility and suitability of our design regarding accessible UX. Finally, the contribution of this document arises from the explicit recognition of the particular needs associated with the disability profiles to establish the response of the entire OER system which enables a truly inclusive experience by exempting the user from performing configuration tasks.

User Testing is Not a Luxury

Companies need to address Web Accessibility with more than just professional standards of code writing, and adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. With funding from the European Social Fund a team at Salford University, led by the authors, undertook a research project in 2007 entitled Combating eDiscrimination in the North West. The research examined over 100 websites advertising job opportunities both regionally and nationally, and found the vast majority to be largely inaccessible. Professional standards, such as using valid W3C code and adhering to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (1999), were largely not followed. The project also conducted interviews with both public and private sector web professionals, and focus groups of disabled computer users, to draw a broader picture of the accessibility of jobs websites. Interviews with leading web development companies in the Greater Manchester region, showed that there is a view there should not be any additional cost in making w...