scholarly journals United by Hope, Divided by Access: Country Mapping of COVID-19 Information Accessibility and Its Consequences on Pandemic Eradication

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amiel A. Dror ◽  
Nicole G. Morozov ◽  
Eli Layous ◽  
Matti Mizrachi ◽  
Amani Daoud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Authority ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Motor Impairments ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Information Accessibility ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

Many government websites and mobile content are inaccessible for people with vision, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these disparities when health authority website information, critical in providing resources for curbing the spread of the virus, remained inaccessible for numerous disabled populations. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide comparatively universally accepted guidelines for website accessibility. We utilized these parameters to examine the number of countries with or without accessible health authority websites. The resulting data indicate a dearth of countries with websites accessible for persons with disabilities. Methods of information dissemination must take into consideration individuals with disabilities, particularly in times of global health crises.

scholarly journals A lesson from COVID-19 on inaccessibility of web-based information for disabled populations worldwide

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amiel A. Dror ◽  
Eli Layous ◽  
Matti Mizrachi ◽  
Amani Daoud ◽  
Netanel Eisenbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

AbstractMany government websites and mobile content are inaccessible for people with vision, hearing, and cognitive disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these disparities when health authority website information, critical in providing resources for curbing the spread of the virus, remained inaccessible for disabled populations. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide comparatively universally accepted guidelines for website accessibility. We utilized these parameters to examine the number of countries with or without accessible health authority websites. The resulting data indicate a dearth of countries with websites accessible for persons with disabilities. Methods of information dissemination must take into consideration individuals with disabilities, particularly in times of global health crises.

scholarly journals A case study of Web Content Accessibility of 15 top-ranked Universities of India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhilesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Home Page ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Content Accessibility

Abstract Accessibility of websites are very important for making it web-based information for persons with disabilities which further reinforced by COVID-19 pandemic. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) has been developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and accordingly Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) has also been developed. In this case study we studied the home page of websites of 15 top ranked Higher Education Institutions of India ranked by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), started in 2016 for availability of basic accessibility features. The ranking used is of latest one i.e. of 2020. Qualitative observation has been made of the home page of each 15 universities and the NIRF website. Eleven fundamental accessibility features were taken in to account. Results revealed that most of these top15 ranked universities lack even basic accessibility feature making their websites inaccessible for persons with disabilities. Options like font size, screen reader, high contrast text also were not found on may website of top-15 universities. The website of NIRF had no basic features out of 11 considered in the study indicating a very poor condition of digital accessibility features of website of top ranked universities which needs urgent attention to achieve equity and inclusion as promised in NEP 2020.

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

Supporting Accessible User Interfaces Using Web Services

2016 ◽  
pp. 866-884
Author(s):  
Georgios Bouloukakis ◽  
Ioannis Basdekis ◽  
Constantine Stephanidis
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Interface Elements ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

Web services are an emerging technology that has attracted much attention from both the research and the industry sectors in recent years. The exploitation of Web services as components in Web applications facilitates development and supports application interoperability, regardless of the programming language and platform used. However, existing Web services development standards do not take into account the fact that the provided content and the interactive functionality should be accessible to, and easily operable by, people with disabilities. This chapter presents a platform named myWebAccess, which provides a mechanism for the semi-automated “repair” of Web services' interaction characteristics in order to support the automatic generation of interface elements that conform to the de facto standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. myWebAccess enhances interaction quality for specific target user groups, including people with visual and motor disabilities, and supports the use of Web services on diverse platforms (e.g., mobile phones equipped with a browser). The Web developers can build their own design templates and the users of myWebAccess can create a personalized environment containing their favourite services. Thus, they can interact with them through interfaces appropriate to their specific individual characteristics.

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.

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.

Supporting Accessible User Interfaces Using Web Services

2016 ◽  
pp. 1477-1495
Author(s):  
Georgios Bouloukakis ◽  
Ioannis Basdekis ◽  
Constantine Stephanidis
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Interface Elements ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

Web services are an emerging technology that has attracted much attention from both the research and the industry sectors in recent years. The exploitation of Web services as components in Web applications facilitates development and supports application interoperability, regardless of the programming language and platform used. However, existing Web services development standards do not take into account the fact that the provided content and the interactive functionality should be accessible to, and easily operable by, people with disabilities. This chapter presents a platform named myWebAccess, which provides a mechanism for the semi-automated “repair” of Web services' interaction characteristics in order to support the automatic generation of interface elements that conform to the de facto standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. myWebAccess enhances interaction quality for specific target user groups, including people with visual and motor disabilities, and supports the use of Web services on diverse platforms (e.g., mobile phones equipped with a browser). The Web developers can build their own design templates and the users of myWebAccess can create a personalized environment containing their favourite services. Thus, they can interact with them through interfaces appropriate to their specific individual characteristics.

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.

scholarly journals Examination of the Protection Offered by Current Accessibility Acts and Guidelines to People with Disabilities in Using Information Technology Devices

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 742
Author(s):  
Hyun K. Kim ◽  
Jaehyun Park
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Section 508 ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Video Accessibility ◽  
Product Sales ◽  
Content Accessibility ◽  
The Web

Today, information technology (IT) products are extensively used in everyday life; however, disabled people still experience difficulties in using them. To ensure the equal use of IT products by people with disabilities, various laws/guidelines/standards have been established. In particular, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 21st-Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, the European Accessibility Act, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines strongly influence IT product sales and, hence, have been included in the scope of this research. This study analyzed the main accessibility provisions/guidelines from the user experience (UX) perspective and the IT device difficulties that are addressed by the provisions/guidelines. Accordingly, the study used the IT interaction disability concept, which analyzes the comprehensive difficulties associated with the use of an IT device from the perspective of interaction, to map each task–user interface–context factor. Finally, this study suggests the aspects to be considered while establishing accessibility provisions/guidelines. Moreover, it clarifies the provisions and guidelines for IT product designers and developers by analyzing them from the UX perspective.

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