Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Research Articles

Enhanced Accessibility for Visually Impaired & Blind Artists (EAVIBA) using Machine Learning

This research paper introduces EAVIBA, an innovative voice-driven interface aimed at empowering individuals with visual impairments and blindness in the domain of art and creativity. Rooted in principles of accessible design, EAVIBA integrates advanced features including voice commands, text-to-speech functionality, and a customizable graphical user interface, exemplifying a commitment to inclusive technology. The paper delves into the intricacies of EAVIBA's development, elucidating its architectural framework, seamless integration of assistive technologies, and adherence to recognized accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Employing a comprehensive approach, the research paper outlines the iterative process of user testing, providing both qualitative and quantitative insights into critical aspects such as interface clarity, voice command recognition accuracy, and the efficacy of customization options. The results of these evaluations affirm EAVIBA's remarkable success in delivering an inclusive, accessible, and empowering environment for individuals with visual impairments to engage in artistic expression, thereby contributing significantly to the broader landscape of assistive technologies and accessible interfaces. Keywords: Visually impaired, blind artists, voice-driven interface, assistive technologies, voice recognition, machine learning.

AI-Powered Real-time Accessibility Enhancement: A Solution for Web Content Accessibility Issues

The web accessibility landscape is a significant challenge, with 96.3% of home pages displaying issues with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This paper addresses the primary accessibility issues, such as missing Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) landmarks, ill-formed headings, low contrast text, and inadequate form labeling. The dynamic nature of modern web and cloud applications presents challenges, such as developers' limited awareness of accessibility implications, potential code bugs, and API failures. To address these issues, an AI-enabled system is proposed to dynamically enhance web accessibility. The system uses machine learning algorithms to identify and rectify accessibility issues in real-time, integrating with existing development workflows. Empirical evaluation and case studies demonstrate the efficacy of this solution in improving web accessibility across diverse scenarios.

Compliance with web content accessibility guidelines in ophthalmology social media posts

This is a cross-sectional exploratory analysis of publicly available Internet data to examine compliance to web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) on patient education social media posts in ophthalmology. WCAG ensures web content accessibility for those with disabilities (including visual impairment). A total of 100 social media posts were sampled from ten ophthalmology patient education social media pages and ten non-ophthalmology (cardiopulmonary) pages as the comparison group. Three independent graders evaluated the selected posts based on the WCAG 2 checklist by WebAIM, a non-profit affiliated with Utah State University, after its adaptation for social media posts. Validated accessibility standard labels: “0” for not meeting any standards, “1” or “A” for meeting bare minimum accessibility requirements, “2” or “AA” for meeting legal accessibility requirements, or “3” or “AAA” for exceeding accessibility requirements. There was not enough evidence to detect a difference in WCAG scores between ophthalmology and non-ophthalmology posts (p = 0.80). Forty-nine percent of scores for ophthalmology social media posts showed no compliance with any WCAG. The most common reasons that ophthalmology posts failed to meet criteria were due to color and contrast issues (39%). Most ophthalmology social media posts had low WCAG scores, indicating poor compliance to WCAG. Because social media is highly visual, reduced compliance to WCAG may create barriers for low vision individuals to successfully access patient education social media content.

Turning manual web accessibility success criteria into automatic: an LLM-based approach

AbstractWeb accessibility evaluation is a costly process that usually requires manual intervention. Currently, large language model (LLM) based systems have gained popularity and shown promising capabilities to perform tasks that seemed impossible or required programming knowledge specific to a given area or were supposed to be impossible to be performed automatically. Our research explores whether an LLM-based system would be able to evaluate web accessibility success criteria that require manual evaluation. Three specific success criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that currently require manual checks were tested: 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context), and 3.1.2 Language of Parts. LLM-based scripts were developed to evaluate the test cases. Results were compared against current web accessibility evaluators. While automated accessibility evaluators were unable to reliably test the three WCAG criteria, often missing or only warning about issues, the LLM-based scripts successfully identified accessibility issues the tools missed, achieving overall 87.18% detection across the test cases. Conclusion The results demonstrate LLMs can augment automated accessibility testing to catch issues that pure software testing misses today. Further research should expand evaluation across more test cases and types of content.

Improving accessibility of digitization outputs: EODOPEN project research findings

PurposeThe current predominant delivery format resulting from digitization is PDF, which is not appropriate for the blind, partially sighted and people who read on mobile devices. To meet the needs of both communities, as well as broader ones, alternative file formats are required. With the findings of the eBooks-On-Demand-Network Opening Publications for European Netizens project research, this study aims to improve access to digitized content for these communities.Design/methodology/approachIn 2022, the authors conducted research on the digitization experiences of 13 EODOPEN partners at their organizations. The authors distributed the same sample of scans in English with different characteristics, and in accordance with Web content accessibility guidelines, the authors created 24 criteria to analyze their digitization workflows, output formats and optical character recognition (OCR) quality.FindingsIn this contribution, the authors present the results of a trial implementation among EODOPEN partners regarding their digitization workflows, used delivery file formats and the resulting quality of OCR results, depending on the type of digitization output file format. It was shown that partners using the OCR tool ABBYY FineReader Professional and producing scanning outputs in tagged PDF and PDF/UA formats achieved better results according to set criteria.Research limitations/implicationsThe trial implementations were limited to 13 project partners’ organizations only.Originality/valueThis research paper can be a valuable contribution to the field of massive digitization practices, particularly in terms of improving the accessibility of the output delivery file formats.

Investigating Color-Blind User-Interface Accessibility via Simulated Interfaces

Over 300 million people who live with color vision deficiency (CVD) have a decreased ability to distinguish between colors, limiting their ability to interact with websites and software packages. User-interface designers have taken various approaches to tackle the issue, with most offering a high-contrast mode. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) outline some best practices for maintaining accessibility that have been adopted and recommended by several governments; however, it is currently uncertain how this impacts perceived user functionality and if this could result in a reduced aesthetic look. In the absence of subjective data, we aim to investigate how a CVD observer might rate the functionality and aesthetics of existing UIs. However, the design of a comparative study of CVD vs. non-CVD populations is inherently hard; therefore, we build on the successful field of physiologically based CVD models and propose a novel simulation-based experimental protocol, where non-CVD observers rate the relative aesthetics and functionality of screenshots of 20 popular websites as seen in full color vs. with simulated CVD. Our results show that relative aesthetics and functionality correlate positively and that an operating-system-wide high-contrast mode can reduce both aesthetics and functionality. While our results are only valid in the context of simulated CVD screenshots, the approach has the benefit of being easily deployable, and can help to spot a number of common pitfalls in production. Finally, we propose a AAA–A classification of the interfaces we analyzed.

Enhancing Web Accessibility - Navigating the Upgrade of Design Systems from WCAG 2.0 to WCAG 2.1

In this research, we explore the vital transition of Design Systems from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 to WCAG 2.1, emphasizing its role in enhancing web accessibility and inclusivity in digital environments. The study outlines a comprehensive strategy for achieving WCAG 2.1 compliance, encompassing assessment, strategic planning, implementation, and testing, with a focus on collaboration and user involvement. It also addresses the challenges in using web accessibility tools, such as their complexity and the dynamic nature of accessibility standards. The paper looks forward to the integration of emerging technologies like AI, ML, NLP, VR, and AR in accessibility tools, advocating for universal design and user-centered approaches. This research acts as a crucial guide for organizations aiming to navigate the changing landscape of web accessibility, underscoring the importance of continuous learning and adaptation to maintain and enhance accessibility in digital platforms.

The use of WCAG and automatic tools by computer science students: a case study evaluating MOOC accessibility

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been the de facto standard for Web accessibility evaluation for more than two decades and therefore have been introduced into legislation and university curriculum in Computer Science. At The National Distance Education University (UNED) in Spain, we have been teaching the guidelines for the last 15 years but learning how to apply WCAG criteria is complex. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of students’ performance in applying accessibility heuristic evaluation of an online resource (a Massive Open Online Course – MOOC) using WCAG. The experiment was carried out over two academic years to evaluate how accurate and easy it is to understand and use WCAG criteria by trained students as well as their perceptions of usefulness to evaluate accessibility barriers using automatic tools in combination with manual evaluation. Results from the study show that errors identified are aligned with accessibility evaluation literature: 65% of success criteria in WCAG do not reach 80% of agreement among raters which confirms the complexity of WCAG conformance. In total 62 (86%) criteria are marked as not being correctly addressed by automatic tools with an overlap of those showing false positives, and 25 criteria (34%) are indicated as difficult to evaluate manually. While all areas where raters disagree are potential opportunities for WCAG improvement, this research reinforces that WCAG evaluations are complex and difficult even with current automatic tools, and that the possible solutions for the way forward are: (1) a well-defined evaluation protocol including a combination of automatic tools and manual evaluations; (2) better training and professional development opportunities.

Editorial

Dear Readers,  I would like to wish you all the best for the new year! It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to our first regular issue in 2024, which is already the 30th year that J.UCS has been available to authors and readers without any interruptions. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the visionary ideas of Prof. Hermann Maurer, who founded the journal and ran it successfully for many years, preparing the ground for it to become one of the longest-running open content journals in computer science.  Looking back on the past year, we have further increased our visibility and taken steps to fully comply with the Diamond Open Content Standard and prepare to join the KOALA initiative. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Pensoft team and the J.UCS publishing team, we are listed and indexed in more than 40 indexing services worldwide, including DOAJ, Web of Science, and Scopus. The increased visibility and social media presence have also led to a further increase in page views and article downloads. With around 100,000 unique views, interest has doubled compared to the previous year. We can also look back on an increasing number of submitted articles and special issue proposals. We are also very pleased to report that the journal's Impact Factor has stabilised at a high level with a Web of Science Impact Factor of 1.0 and a Scopus Science Score of 2.7. We proudly look back on a total of 12 issues - 11 regular and 1 special issue - with 63 articles by 231 authors from 40 countries on new aspects of various computer science topics. The acceptance rate has fallen to below 15 per cent.  These great achievements were only possible thanks to the commitment and interest of the community and the valuable support of the Editorial Board and the J.UCS Consortium members. In 2023, we welcomed 10 new members to the Editorial Board, bringing our total number of Editorial Board members to 196. We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support of 67 guest reviewers over the past year.   In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Ulrike Krießmann from the Library of the Graz University of Technology, Prof. Klaus Tochtermann from the ZBW, Prof. Christian Eckhardt from California Polytechnic State University, Prof. Krzysztof Pietroszek from the American University in Washington DC, and Prof. Muhammad Tanvir Afzal from Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University in Islamabad in Pakistan for their generous support in offering an open content journal without charging the authors for their articles. Unfortunately, some partners are withdrawing their support for 2024 due to financial restrictions, but we are very happy to welcome the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and are very grateful for their support.  I would also like to thank the J.UCS team, Johanna Zeisberg for taking care of the publication process, Aleksandar Bobic and David Kerschbaumer for their social media support, and Alexander Nussbaumer for his technical support, as well as Pensoft Publishers Ltd. for hosting our journal.  I look forward to continuing to work with our editors, editorial team and technical support to maintain the success of J.UCS. I would be very grateful for suggestions and feedback on how we can improve and develop J.UCS in the future. We also greatly appreciate the generous support of the J.UCS community, especially in promoting the journal and citing relevant articles in their research papers.  In this regular issue, I am very pleased to present 6 accepted articles by 21 authors from 6 different countries, namely Brazil, Cuba, France, Malaysia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.  In a collaborative effort between researchers from Spain and the UK, Bashar Alshouha, Jesus Serrano-Guerrero, David Elizondo, Francisco P. Romero and Jose A. Olivas look into consumer attitudes towards healthcare services by applying a transfer learning approach to detect emotions from consumer feedback. In the second article, Ana Díaz Muñoz, Moisés Rodríguez Monje, and Mario Gerardo Piattini Velthuis from Spain address the design of an environment to measure quality metrics for hybrid, classic-quantum software, propose a set of new measurements for hybrid maintainability, and develop a first prototype as a SonarQube plugin that is capable of measuring these metrics. In a research collaboration between the UK, Malaysia and France, Ngo Le Huy Hien, Ah-Lian Kor, Mei Choo Ang, Eric Rondeau, and Jean-Philippe Georges cover findings on image filtering techniques for object recognition in autonomous vehicles based on the evaluation of 5 different deep learning models, YOLOv5s, EfficientNet-B7, Xception, MobilenetV3, and InceptionV4, and Hessian, Laplacian, and Hessian-based Ridge Detection filtering techniques. Francisco Iniesto and Covadonga Rodrigo from Spain look into the evaluation of MOOC accessibility as students’ experience by applying web content accessibility guidelines and an automatic tool, and investigate students’ perceptions and comparison of the two approaches. Yilena Pérez-Almaguer, Edianny Carballo-Cruz, Yailé Caballero-Mota, and Raciel Year from Cuba explore content-based group recommendations for suggesting restaurants in Havana City enhanced by extended restaurant features, virtual group profiles, and the selection of the most appropriate aggregation approach for composing group recommendations. Last but not least, Raimundo Osvaldo Vieira and Helyane Bronoski Borges from Brazil cover a systematic mapping study on dimensionality reduction for hierarchical multi-label classification.  Enjoy Reading!  Cordially,  Christian Gütl, Managing Editor-in-Chief Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

PAR: Towards a Reference Architecture for Accessible Platforms in Respiratory Therapies

This article focuses on the Accessible Platform for Respiratory Therapies (PAR), designed according to the iPlus methodology with the application of usability and accessibility criteria, following the guidelines of WCAG 2.1. PAR aims to improve the quality of life for individuals with lung diseases by providing therapeutic education to patients in respiratory recovery. This approach aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, and 10 and follows a user-centered design, facilitating access to treatments and techniques to enhance pulmonary function. Additionally, the platform promotes the education and training of professionals in respiratory therapies, reducing disparities in access to healthcare. Sustainability is strengthened by integrating telemedicine technologies, improving efficiency, and reducing costs. Implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 ensures accessibility and usability for all individuals, including those with disabilities. The combination of WCAG 2.1 and the CSUQ questionnaire not only ensures accessibility but also contributes to sustainability and overall improvement of the user experience, even for individuals with cognitive disabilities.

Are Saudi Arabian banks’ mobile applications accessible for blind or partially sighted users?: a customers’ perspective and evaluation

AbstractThis study investigated the accessibility problems and barriers faced by visually impaired Arabic speakers when using banking mobile applications. The sample included mobile applications for the top three banks in Saudi Arabia in terms of their customer base, including applications for AlRajhi, SNB, and Riyad bank. The focus was on the three most popular e-services provided by those applications. Using a mixed method approach, accessibility was inspected manually according to current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). In addition, in-depth usability testing for those applications was conducted with 12 blind Arabic-speaking users. The results revealed that the accessibility level for all sample applications did not conform to WCAG 2.1, which reflected the low accessibility level provided by these applications. However, AlRajhi’s application was the best among the tested applications. In manual inspection, it had the lowest number of violations of success criteria compared to SNB’s and Riyad’s applications. It also achieved the best results in usability testing in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction compared to the other two applications. The overall results showed that the current situation of accessibility of Saudi banking applications is not very satisfactory in terms of number of violations to WCAG 2.1 success criteria. The most violated principle by all the applications was operable, with around 37% of total violations, followed by perceivable, then robust and understandable.

Adaptation of the E-Learning Exercise Creator to the Needs of People with Disabilities with Impaired Access to Education

This article focuses on the implementation of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 guidelines into e-learning courses. The Quizer e-learning platform, which enables the creation of interactive multimedia courses, hasnprovided the basis for the introduction of the WCAG component. The platform includes two basic tools: an exercise creator and an exercise presenter. Once the Quizer Platform Exercise Wizard was analysed, a component was conceptualised and implemented to create e-learning courses compliant with WCAG guidelines and dedicated to people with disabilities. The technology for the implementation of this component was also presented. The function and validity of navigation through the courses using the keyboard and the use of screen readers were discussed as well. The research on the correctness of the WCAG standard implementation into e-learning courses was conducted with the use of designed cyber security quizzes. The final results of quizzes prepared according to WCAG guidelines and without WCAG were also compared. The research involved students majoring in computer science at Lublin University of Technology. Its results indicate the validity of using the WCAG guidelines in the design of educational content for students with disabilities and equalizing their educational opportunities. 

Availability of basic first aid training for cardiac arrest for people with disabilities

Aim. Basic first aid digital training for cardiac arrest opens up opportunities for mass dissemination of knowledge, popularization and motivation of the population to provide assistance, and can also replace the theoretical part of classroom training, reducing the cost of training. However, due to poor design, such training may not be available to people with disabilities (PWD), who constitute a large population of more than one billion potential participants in first aid. The aim was to study the digital accessibility (web accessibility) of massive open online courses in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for PWD.Material and methods. A search was carried out for free English-language online courses teaching the principles and rules of providing first aid in cardiac arrest. In addition, the digital content of online courses was assessed for compliance with the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.Results. All basic CPR online courses analyzed (n=28) were characterized by poor web accessibility. For each course, between 26,9% and 51,3% of the WCAG 2.1 guideline success criteria were not met. All courses have web accessibility errors related to text contrast and visual issues, lack of alternative text descriptions for non-text content, missing abbreviations, and web page layout issues that prevent the use of assistive technologies (such as text-to-speech software). Overall, none of the courses meet all of the criteria for the minimum acceptable level of compliance with WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The discovered problems of web accessibility can serve as serious, sometimes insurmountable barriers to the mastery of courses by students (including older people) with visual impairments, hearing loss, motor, cognitive and neurological disorders.Conclusion. All free mass online courses on basic CPR have deficiencies in the availability of digital content, which significantly complicate the learning of educational materials by PWD. The development of uniform guidelines for accessible educational content, along with the intensification of research and the implementation of organizational and methodological measures to ensure the availability of educational resources on first aid for various categories of the population, should help create equal opportunities for quality training. In addition, this should significantly expand the population coverage with training, and increase the frequency and effectiveness of first aid.

Evaluation of University Websites in Nigeria using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Providing accessible open educational resources (OER) is essential for users with impairments to access university resources. To achieve this, web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) have been developed. In this study, we used the AChecker web accessibility evaluation tool to assess the content of 42 federal university websites in Nigeria and recorded their conformance level to the WCAG. The findings show that at Level A (Minimal Compliance), there were 855 known problems, 55 likely problems, and 7536 potential problems. At Level AA (Acceptable Compliance), 2516 known problems, 58 likely problems, and 15537 potential problems were identified. At Level AAA (Optimal Compliance), 2679 known problems were found, while there were no likely problems, and 16772 potential problems. The results indicated that most websites did not conform to the accessibility guidelines, highlighting the need for educational institutions to comply with WCAG2.1 content standard. The study recommends introducing accessibility training courses in web design and development to ensure effective OER creation for people with diverse abilities. Furthermore, enforcing the implementation of these guidelines by flagging down non-compliant educational websites was suggested. There is a problem of lack of accessibility in federal university websites in Nigeria, leading to unequal access to web content for users with varying abilities. The study aimed to identify aspects of the websites where accessibility needs to be improved and promote diversity and inclusiveness for users with different abilities to have equal access to web content.

Accessibility evaluation of major assistive mobile applications available for the visually impaired

People with visual impairments face numerous challenges in their daily lives, including mobility, access to information, independent living, and employment. Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Computer Vision (CV) has the potential to improve their daily lives, provide them with necessary independence, and it will also spawn new opportunities in education and employment. However, while many such AI/CV-based mobile applications are now available, these apps are still not the preferred choice amongst visually impaired persons and are generally limited to advanced users only, due to certain limitations. This study evaluates the challenges faced by visually impaired persons when using AI/CV-based mobile apps. Four popular AI/CV-based apps, namely Seeing AI, Supersense, Envision and Lookout, are assessed by blind and low-vision users. Hence these mobile applications are evaluated on a set of parameters, including generic parameters based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and specific parameters related to mobile app testing. The evaluation not only focused on the guidelines but also on the feedback that was gathered from these users on parameters covering the apps' accuracy, response time, reliability, accessibility, privacy, energy efficiency and usability. The paper also identifies the areas of improvement in the development and innovation of these assistive apps. This work will help developers create better accessible AI-based apps for the visually impaired.

Accessibility difference in education-related websites from developing and developed countries

In recent years, websites have become the key source of information for most people. There are several websites related to education, healthcare, government, e-commerce, and so on. These websites are used by a large population to access required information. Web content must meet the accessibility guidelines for websites to be accessible to all users, including people with different ranges of abilities across the globe. Thus, accessibility of the web is the prime facet of every website. This paper focuses on identifying accessibility differences in education boards or similar websites anchoring higher-level schools' leaving examinations. We have considered evaluating the accessibility of landing pages of 13 educational websites from a developing and developed group of countries. Six Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) tools from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) were considered for evaluating each website. We have tabulated the results of each tool, highlighted the different accessibility issues for each website, and provided alternate suggestions that web developers can consider for resolve any issues. From the results we noted that the developing group of countries reported the maximum number of accessibility issues when compared to the developed group of countries. Selected webpages of developing and developed countries identified text contrast failures, and non-text contrast failures respectively. The education board websites of India and Japan were identified as having the maximum number of accessibility issues when compared to other selected websites.

EVALUASI PADA WEBSITE SRAGENKAB.GO.ID MENGGUNAKAN METODE WEB USABILITY EVALUATION (WEBUSE) DAN WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG) 2.1

The sragenkab.go.id website serves as a vital platform supporting the operations of the Sragen district government, disseminating accurate and prompt information to the public. However, various issues hamper its functionality, such as interface display problems, unclear layout, non-functional links, excessively simple design, and slow response times. To address these concerns, this study aims to evaluate the sragenkab.go.id website's usability and accessibility aspects using the Website Usability Evaluation (WEBUSE) method and the Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.1 method, respectively. Using the WEBUSE method, a survey questionnaire was distributed to 100 respondents from Sragen to assess the usability level of the website. The obtained score of 0.65 indicated that the website's usability is categorized as "good" and has been accepted by the users. On the other hand, the accessibility evaluation using the WCAG 2.1 method, with the assistance of the WAVE tool and accessibilitychecker, revealed a score below 75%, indicating a significant risk of non-compliance with international accessibility standards. In conclusion, the sragenkab.go.id website exhibits commendable usability; however, it falls short in terms of accessibility. The findings emphasize the importance of optimizing the website's accessibility to adhere to international regulatory standards, ensuring equitable access to information and services for all users. Future improvement efforts should focus on rectifying accessibility issues to enhance the overall user experience and inclusivity of the website.

Enhancing Sustainability through Accessible Health Platforms: A Scoping Review

The digital transformation of healthcare platforms has ushered in a new era of accessibility, making health information and services widely available. This comprehensive scoping review delves into the accessibility landscape of health platforms by analyzing 29 carefully selected research articles. These studies employ automated tools and manual evaluations to evaluate platform accessibility comprehensively. This study revealed that (52%) of these articles are based on automated methods, while 34% combine automated and manual approaches. Most studies show compliance with the latest versions of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), with a significant focus (70%) on compliance with level A. This study reveals recurring issues within the perceivable operable, understandable, and robust categories, underscoring the pressing need for strict the accessibility testing of health platforms. This study demonstrates substantial agreement between raters, reinforced by a Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.613, indicating their reliability in classifying the articles. Future efforts should persist in refining accessibility standards, advocating for compliance with the WCAG, exploring innovative methods to assess the accessibility of healthcare platforms, and conducting user-centered research. This review highlights the paramount importance of ensuring equitable access to health information and services for people, regardless of their abilities or conditions, which resonates significantly with the issue of sustainability in healthcare and its socioeconomic and environmental implications.

Usability of Patient Education–Oriented Cataract Surgery Websites

PurposeTo assess the web accessibility and readability of patient-oriented educational websites for cataract surgery. DesignCross-sectional electronic survey. SubjectsWebsites with information dedicated to educating patients about cataract surgery. MethodsAn incognito search for “cataract surgery” was performed using a popular search engine. The top 100 patient-oriented cataract surgery websites that came up were included and categorized as institutional, private practice, or medical organization according to authorship. Each site was assessed for readability using four standardized reading grade-level formulas. Accessibility was assessed through multilingual availability, accessibility menu availability, complementary educational video availability, and conformance and adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. A standard t-test and chi-squared analysis were performed to assess the significance of differences with regard to readability and accessibility among the three authorship categories. Main Outcome MeasuresThe main outcome measures were the website’s average reading grade level, number of accessibility violations, multilingual availability, accessibility menu availability, complementary educational video availability, accessibility conformance level, and violation of the perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR) principles according to the WCAG 2.0. Results32, 55, and 13 sites were affiliated with institutions, private practice, and other medical organizations, respectively. The overall mean reading grade was 11.8 ± 1.6, with higher reading levels observed in private practice websites compared to institutions and medical organizations combined (12.1 vs. 11.4; P=0.03). Fewer private practice websites had multiple language options compared to institutional and medical organization websites combined (5.5% vs. 20.0%; P=0.03). More private practice websites had accessibility menus than institutions and medical organizations combined (27.3% vs. 8.9%; P=0.038). The overall mean number of WCAG 2.0 POUR principle violations was 17.1 ± 23.1 with no significant difference among groups. Eighty-five percent of websites violated the perceivable principle. ConclusionsAvailable patient-oriented online information for cataract surgery may not be comprehensible to the general public. Readability and accessibility aspects should be considered when designing these resources.

Inclusion or exclusion: Evaluation of hotel websites from an accessibility perspective

This study evaluates the top 100 hotel websites from Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0 based on conformance level AA to understand their compliance with the international accessibility standards for disabled people. The study utilizes an automatic online tool - TAW, to check the web accessibility of hotels. The findings demonstrate that the hotel websites have accessibility barriers that prevent disabled people from using the online facility, especially in the guidelines 1.1, 2.4, 4.1, 1.3 and 1.4. Additionally, the study has also discussed various theoretical and practical implications that can help promote inclusive tourism.