A Case for Making Web Accessibility Guidelines Accessible: Older Adult Content Creators and Web Accessibility Planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aqueasha Martin-Hammond ◽  
Ulka Patil ◽  
Barsa Tandukar
Author(s):  
Ye. A. Kosova ◽  
A. S. Gapon ◽  
K. I. Redkokosh

The purpose of the article is to assess the accessibility of electronic educational resources (EER) published in the university Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). The analysis involved 22 EERs in mathematical and information technology disciplines, located in the Moodle LMS of the V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. The examination algorithm included analysis using the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) and expert analysis of web accessibility using visual, auditory and manual methods based on 89 checklist attributes. In the result of the analysis, multiple accessibility errors of the Moodle platform and the EERs hosted on it were found. The most serious platform problems include: lack of compatibility with text browsers; errors of reproduction by screen readers; errors of content reproduction on mobile devices. The list of accessibility errors made by the authors of EERs includes: incorrect design of hyperlinks (22.7 % of the EERs); lack of subtitles (13.6 %), transcripts (22.7 %), synopses of video lectures (27.3 %); lack of alternative descriptions for figures (68.2 %); time limit for tests (9.1 %); lack of special markup for mathematical notation (36.4 %) and program code (13.6 %), etc. Results of the survey show need in training of EERs’ authors in technologies for developing accessible educational web content. It is advisable to familiarize web developers deploying an LMS at universities with the basics of web accessibility, LMS accessibility functions and modules in order to select the most suitable platform, determine and install the required set of accessibility tools. Before launching all EERs should be subject to mandatory examination for compliance with the web accessibility guidelines.


2011 ◽  
pp. 522-540
Author(s):  
Rui Lopes ◽  
Konstantinos Votis ◽  
Luís Carriço ◽  
Spiridon Likothanassis ◽  
Dimitrios Tzovaras

The Web serves as the principal mediator for information sharing and communication on a worldwide scale. Its highly decentralized nature affords a scale free growth, where each endpoint (i.e., Web site) is created and maintained independently. Web designers and developers have the onus of making sure that users can interact without accessibility problems. However, coping with users with disabilities poses challenges on how to ensure that a Web site is accessible for any kind of user. When (and if) this is done, designers and developers do it in a post-hoc way, (i.e., verify and tweak Web sites according to guidelines such as WCAG). In this Chapter the authors present SWAF, the Semantic Web Accessibility Framework, a base framework for supporting the integration of accessibility services into Web design and development processes. SWAF affords both tailoring accessibility to user needs and specifying the semantic validation of accessibility guidelines in different application situations.


First Monday ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kreps ◽  
Mhorag Goff

The focus of much academic work on Web accessibility has been concerned with the lack of implementation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. There seems, as yet, however, to have been little critical reflection on the Guidelines themselves — save perhaps some awareness of the heterogeneous nature of the Web, and the difficulties facing Web developers trying to ensure their work displays true to their intentions across a wide range of different browsers and devices, making use of continually evolving and contested code. Yet, as this paper highlights, the long drawn out process by which version 2.0 of the WCAG came into being hides many skeletons, including aspects of the process of developing standards that bear closer scrutiny, and reveal much when viewed through Latourian eyes. The findings of this paper suggest that the WCAG2.0 are almost irrelevant today — to the detriment of those for whom they were made — and that the process of creating them was at fault.


Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Alsaeedi

With the growth of e-services in the past two decades, the concept of web accessibility has been given attention to ensure that every individual can benefit from these services without any barriers. Web accessibility is considered one of the main factors that should be taken into consideration while developing webpages. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) have been developed to guide web developers to ensure that web contents are accessible for all users, especially disabled users. Many automatic tools have been developed to check the compliance of websites with accessibility guidelines such as WCAG 2.0 and to help web developers and content creators with designing webpages without barriers for disabled people. Despite the popularity of accessibility evaluation tools in practice, there is no systematic way to compare the performance of web accessibility evaluators. This paper first presents two novel frameworks. The first one is proposed to compare the performance of web accessibility evaluation tools in detecting web accessibility issues based on WCAG 2.0. The second framework is utilized to evaluate webpages in meeting these guidelines. Six homepages of Saudi universities were chosen as case studies to substantiate the concept of the proposed frameworks. Furthermore, two popular web accessibility evaluators, Wave and SiteImprove, are selected to compare their performance. The outcomes of studies conducted using the first proposed framework showed that SiteImprove outperformed WAVE. According to the outcomes of the studies conducted, we can conclude that web administrators would benefit from the first framework in selecting an appropriate tool based on its performance to evaluate their websites based on accessibility criteria and guidelines. Moreover, the findings of the studies conducted using the second proposed framework showed that the homepage of Taibah University is more accessible than the homepages of other Saudi universities. Based on the findings of this study, the second framework can be used by web administrators and developers to measure the accessibility of their websites. This paper also discusses the most common accessibility issues reported by WAVE and SiteImprove.


Author(s):  
Media Anugerah Ayu ◽  
Mohamed Ahmed Elgharabawy

Previous researches have highlighted the importance of web accessibility of a website. Its importance has made the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) come up with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a guideline for developing an accessible website. Amongst websites available in the web wide world, many of them are fall under the education institution website category. These education institution websites are mostly the first door that people will go to visit to get information about education services and courses provided by the institution. Thus, to be accessible is an essential issue for these websites. Another issue that gets much attention in the current competitive internet world is to be visible by popular search engines and ranked at their top lists. For higher learning institutions there is an online ranking that they like to be in the top list, i.e. Webometrics. This paper attempts to address those two issues of web accessibility and being at the top list. It presents a study that investigates whether web accessibility has a contributing effect to ranking position in Webometrics and popular search engines. The research covers websites from higher learning institutions and education domains. Three popular search engines are used in this research, i.e. Google, Yahoo! and Bing. The study produces interesting results that would be useful as a guide for higher learning institutions that want to improve their online ranking.


Author(s):  
Serhat Kurt

The World Wide Web (Web) has become an essential part of our daily life. Web accessibility remains an important issue because many people have limited access to the Web. It is essential to make this content accessible to all people. This chapter provides an overview of the importance of web accessibility. It explains the current status of the issue, accessibility guidelines and techniques to evaluate and achieve web accessibility. Useful resources and practical recommendations to increase accessibility are also included.


Author(s):  
Isabelle Motte ◽  
Monique Noirhomme-Fraiture

Web accessibility is a major question in present ICT legislation. An ageing population is a known phenomenon that makes older people become a specific interest group. In chapter 25 the authors present the evolution encountered in laws and standards due to specific concern about older people. This publication is related to the works of the W3C WAI-AGE group. The authors focus mainly in the adaptations encountered in W3C accessibility guidelines (WCAG) while considering the difficulties related to ageing.  The chapter also proposes some practical recommendations for web designers that want to develop websites targeting seniors, and finally gives some perspectives about accessibility legislation and standards.


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