scholarly journals Physics webpages create barriers to participation for people with disabilities: five common web accessibility errors and possible solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Scanlon ◽  
Zachary W. Taylor ◽  
John Raible ◽  
Jacob Bates ◽  
Jacquelyn J. Chini
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Postsecondary Institutions ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Text Content

Abstract Background While there have been numerous calls to increase the participation of people with disabilities in STEM, many postsecondary institutions are not equipped to support students with disabilities. We examined the accessibility of 139 webpages from 73 postsecondary institutions in the USA that contained information about the undergraduate physics curriculum and graduate research programs. We selected these webpages as they are common entry points for students interested in pursuing a physics degree. We used Tenon and Mac OS X’s VoiceOver software to assess the level of accessibility of these webpages as measured by alignment with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Results We found that only one webpage had minimal accessibility errors (i.e., 10 errors), while the other webpages had numerous accessibility errors. Five specific error types accounted for the majority of all errors. The five most common errors were related to information, structure, and relationships of content (1.3.1 Level A; 39.7%); text alternatives for non-text content (1.1.1 Level A; 27.0%); information about link purpose (2.4.4 Level A; 14.7%); capability to resize text (1.4.4 Level AA; 10.0%); and information about the name, role, and value of user interface components (4.1.2 Level A; 11.2%). Conclusions We present and describe the five common accessibility errors we identified in the webpages in our sample, suggest solutions for these errors, and provide implications for students with disabilities, instructors and staff, institutional administration, and the broader physics community.

scholarly journals La accesibilidad web. Un reto en el entorno educativo ecuatoriano

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 90-98
Author(s):  
Milton Campoverde Molina
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Color Contrast ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Web Portals ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Automatic Tool ◽  
Text Content ◽  
Content Information

 Es un estudio retro prospectivo que revela la evaluación de accesibilidad de los portales web de 31 Unidades Educativas y colegios de la ciudad de Cuenca – Ecuador,  aplicando las Pautas de Accesibilidad para el Contenido Web (WCAG) 2.0 con un nivel de conformidad;  para el análisis se aplicó la herramienta automática TAW Online y la evaluación se hace sobre las tecnologías HTML y CSS,  utilizando las WCAG 2.0, dando como resultado que los portales web no cumplen con las directrices de Accesibilidad Web definidas en la WCAG 2.0 con un nivel de conformidad A y sus errores se deben a que las páginas web no son lo suficientemente robustas para ser interpretadas de forma fiable por una amplia variedad de agentes de usuario, incluyendo las ayudas técnicas; además, se debe proporcionar alternativas textuales en todo el contenido no textual, información y relaciones, secuencia con el significado, características sensoriales, uso del color, contraste, redimensionamiento del texto e imágenes de texto.Abstract It is a prospective retro study revealing assessment of accessibility of web portals 31 Education and Schools Units Cuenca - Ecuador applying Accessibility Guidelines Web Content (WCAG) 2.0 with a level of conformity A, for analysis automatic tool TAW Online was applied and the evaluation is done on HTML and CSS technologies using WCAG 2.0, resulting in the web portals do not meet the guidelines web Accessibility defined in WCAG 2.0 with a level of conformity a and errors are because web pages are not robust enough to be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies also should provide text alternatives for all non-text content, information and relations, Sequence with meaning, sensory characteristics, use of color, contrast, resizing text and images of text.  

The BenToWeb Test Case Suites for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

2008 ◽  
pp. 402-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Strobbe ◽  
Johannes Koch ◽  
Evangelos Vlachogiannis ◽  
Reinhard Ruemer ◽  
Carlos A. Velasco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Test Case ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

Silent Maps as Professional Communication: Intersections of Sociospatial Considerations and Information Accessibility

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-439
Author(s):  
Leah Heilig
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postsecondary Institutions ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Digital Maps ◽  
Interactive Maps ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Information Accessibility

Using interactive digital maps is now common practice for most universities. Increasingly, more users are introduced to their academic workplaces through online content such as Google Street View and virtual tours. Students with disabilities depend on environmental information to navigate the barriers they face on campus. While most webmasters for postsecondary institutions in the United States know their legal obligations for accommodation in the delivery of web content, legal conformance does not necessarily reflect awareness for social or spatial considerations in the design of campus digital maps. This study discusses an accessibility audit and content analysis of these interactive maps.

Code in action: Closing the black box of WCAG 2.0, A Latourian reading of Web accessibility

First Monday ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kreps ◽  
Mhorag Goff
Keyword(s):  
Web Accessibility ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Heterogeneous Nature ◽  
Version 2.0 ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
Web Developers ◽  
The Web

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.

Accessibility as an integral factor in e-government web site evaluation

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faouzi Kamoun ◽  
Mohamed Basel Almourad
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Site ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Content Type ◽  
General Evaluation ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Bivariate Correlation ◽  
Government Web Sites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Site Ranking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which accessibility is taken into account in the assessment and ranking of e-government web sites through the lens of a specific study related to Dubai e-government. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers a case study related to Dubai e-government and it evaluates the accessibility of each of the 21 Dubai e-government web sites, based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and using an automated accessibility testing tool. A bivariate correlation analysis is performed to assess the correlation between web site ranking and accessibility score. Findings – The research reveals that contrary to common intuition and some earlier studies, there is a weak correlation between e-government web site ranking score and web site accessibility. Research limitations/implications – The paper uses an accessibility metric that is a proxy indicator of web accessibility and is not a real assessment of accessibility as experienced by a person with disability. Practical implications – When re-examined through the lens of Rawls's moral theory, this research suggests that accessibility should be given a higher priority in the general evaluation and ranking of e-government web sites. Social implications – The paper promotes universal accessibility to e-government information and services. Originality/value – The paper uses ethical arguments to highlight the need to comprehensively consider accessibility as a major criterion in the assessment and ranking of e-government web sites.

Accessibility evaluation using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Mohd Isa ◽  
Ahmad Iqbal Hakim Suhaimi ◽  
Nadhirah Ariffrn ◽  
Nurul Fatimah Ishak ◽  
Nadilah Mohd Ralim
Keyword(s):  
Web Content ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Accessibility Evaluation ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility

scholarly journals Comparing Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools and Evaluating the Accessibility of Webpages: Proposed Frameworks

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Alsaeedi
Keyword(s):  
Web Accessibility ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Evaluation Tools ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Web Contents ◽  
Accessibility Evaluation ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
Web Developers

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.

Determining the Accessibility of e-Government Websites in Sub-Saharan Africa Against WCAG 2.0 Standard

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silas Formunyuy Verkijika ◽  
Lizette De Wet
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Active Population ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Country Analysis ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the conformance levels of government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and examine which macro factors influenced the accessibility these websites. The findings indicated that the majority of government websites in SSA still had a long way to go to become accessible based on the WCAG 2.0 standards. None of the 217 government websites examined adhered to all the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Cross country analysis showed that there are three macro factors influencing e-government accessibility in SSA, namely Human Development Index (HDI), Corruption Perception Index (CPI), and percentage of the active population (15-64 years). Countries with high HDI levels and low CPI levels tend to have websites with fewer accessibility errors, while those for countries with high percentage of the active population have more accessibility errors.

Determining the Accessibility of e-Government Websites in Sub-Saharan Africa Against WCAG 2.0 Standard

2021 ◽  
pp. 1385-1404
Author(s):  
Silas Formunyuy Verkijika ◽  
Lizette De Wet
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Active Population ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Country Analysis ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the conformance levels of government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and examine which macro factors influenced the accessibility these websites. The findings indicated that the majority of government websites in SSA still had a long way to go to become accessible based on the WCAG 2.0 standards. None of the 217 government websites examined adhered to all the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Cross country analysis showed that there are three macro factors influencing e-government accessibility in SSA, namely Human Development Index (HDI), Corruption Perception Index (CPI), and percentage of the active population (15-64 years). Countries with high HDI levels and low CPI levels tend to have websites with fewer accessibility errors, while those for countries with high percentage of the active population have more accessibility errors.

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