Challenges and strategies for accessibility research in the Global South: A panel discussion

Over 80% of the 1 billion people with disabilities in the world live in the Global South, yet, most of the research at the intersection of disability and technology published across HCI venues is based in the Global North. With limited published research, and a large range of socio-cultural, practical and environmental differences across the Global South, HCI researchers and practitioners can encounter unexpected challenges when planning and conducting accessibility studies. The aim of this panel is to bring together three experienced academics who have conducted, managed and published impactful HCI research working with people with disabilities in various regions of the Global South from Latin America to East Africa and South Asia. Panelists will give an initial overview of their experiences conducting research with participants who had different disabilities and other relevant stakeholders, dedicating particular attention to the practical aspects commonly involved in research projects

Web Accessibility in Corporate Australia: Perceptions versus Reality

In this paper we describe the results of website audits and survey responses for organizations involved in the Australia Web Awards for 2011. 160 organizations entered their sites or sites they had developed as part of the awards, and in doing so were required to select the level of WCAG compliance for their site. Audits conducted on these sites after the awards completion showed that very few of the entrants actually met their selected level of accessibility compliance, regardless of the organization type. Survey responses from participating entrants in the AWA indicated that they were aware of the WCAG guidelines and various levels of compliance, and had experience in accessible design. Entrants also indicated knowledge of accessibility tools and methodologies, yet failed to produce sites with even rudimentary levels of accessibility. The paper concludes that whilst the Australian government is moving towards a framework of mandatory accessibility, the developers and designers involved in this study still see accessibility as largely optional

Towards a Conceptual Framework for E-Government Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in Developing Countries

Most governments around the world are fast advancing in the provision of services to their citizens through the web. However, developing countries still lag behind in the adoption and use of ICTs in government for inclusive purposes, specifically for persons with disabilities (PWDs) who tend to be side-lined from the population mainstream. Studies focusing on E-government accessibility for PWDs have been minimal from the developing countries context; and this is despite the fact that over eighty percent of the over one billion populations living with disabilities worldwide reside in the developing countries. For E-government to achieve its purpose of providing fast and efficient services to citizens, there is the need to adopt a context-oriented approach. Against this background, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for improving E-government accessibility for PWDs in the developing countries context. Through a systematic synthesis of the literature on E-government accessibility especially in developing countries, a conceptual framework, termed the E-government Accessibility Development Model (EADM) is proposed. EADM describes accessibility challenges of PWDs by identifying contextual barriers of E-government accessibility from multiple stakeholder perspective in developing countries

Quantitative metric for ranking web accessibility barriers based on their severity

Web accessibility aims at providing disabled users with a barrier free user experience so they can use and contribute to the Web more effectively. However, not all websites comply with WCAG 2.0 which results in Web accessibility barriers in websites. Thus, assistive technologies such as screen readers would not be able to interpret the presented contents on the monitor due to these barriers and this will contribute to making websites inaccessible to disabled users.This paper proposed an innovative metric that assigns measurable weight to each identified barrier based on its severity and impacts on the accessibility level, and then ranks the barriers accordingly. Following, Web developers can fix the highly ranked severe barriers instead of wasting time in studying and fixing less severe types of barriers that may rarely occur.An experiment was conducted to check the metric validity.We found the metric was valid and thereby we suggested the usage of the metric as a valid scientific measurement

A support for developers implement the accessibility guidelines regarding to web menus

Web pages are composed of elements, such as menus that are responsible for assisting navigation on the website. However, many of the menus are not developed properly, which creates accessibility barriers and hinders access to the contents. This paper aims to present a method for creating accessible menus. Initially, we studied the different types of menus and the accessibility guidelines involving the creation of accessible menus. From the studies, we developed a meta-model that gave rise to AMenu language, where we included all the technical details regarding to accessibility. Then, we developed the AMeG tool to facilitate the use of language. Finally, we conducted a case study with developers, in order to verify the feasibility of the approach, arguing its efficiency and limitations. The results indicate a reduction in efforts to develop accessible web menus, since developers do not have to deal with technical details of accessibility.FAPESP (2013/23966-8

How Do Computer Engineering Students Construe Usability and Accessibility? A Comparative Study between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan

This survey study evaluated the level of education, awareness and knowledge of prospective software developers in the areas of usability and accessibility by comparing the results obtained from computer engineering students from Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. There were a total of 311 student participants who were attending a computer engineering program in eight universities, four in Kyrgyzstan and four in Turkey. According to the results, these two countries with different education systems had significant differences in terms of the level of the education of the computer engineering students, their knowledge, awareness and attitude concerning usability and accessibility. Although the overall level of knowledge and awareness of the Turkish students was found to be higher than those of the Kyrgyz students, the computer engineering students in the selected Kyrgyz universities either had taken or were planning to take more courses on accessibility and had a higher level of awareness in terms of undertaking thesis and project work in this area. However, the results obtained from the participants from both countries demonstrated the need for the revision of course content to assist future software developers gain not only technical but also acquire soft skills in the topics of usability and accessibility

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Accessibility Awareness Among Faculty in Online Learning Environments

Although all organizations and institutions should consider accessibility when developing online content, inaccessibility is a recurring issue in recent literature pertaining to online learning environments (OLEs) and faculty accessibility awareness. The goal was to describe how online faculty gain knowledge regarding accessibility, to explore the lived experiences of online faculty who have worked with students who have disabilities, and to gain a better understanding of how faculty experience the process of accessibility implementation. The following research questions guided this study: How do faculty in OLEs experience encounters regarding accessibility for students who have print related disabilities? How do faculty in OLEs experience the journey of developing the skills needed to provide accessibility for students with print related disabilities? What aspects of accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) do faculty members practice in OLEs and what meaning do they ascribe to the lived experience of providing these accommodations? An interview guide was used to address the research questions. Participants were recruited from the Online Learning Consortium and Assistive Technology Industry Association for participation in phenomenological interviews, which were recorded and then transcribed verbatim. The transcripts of these interviews were analyzed to determine eight super-ordinate themes: Accessibility and usability awareness of online faculty; interactions and relationships between faculty, students, various departments, and outside organizations relating to SWDs and accessibility; different perspectives and experiences of faculty who teach courses within programs that have an emphasis on accessibility, AT, or working with people with disabilities; faculty experiences and perspectives of working with SWDs and providing accessible materials in OLEs; faculty training and experience with accessibility and people with disabilities; faculty autonomy within OLEs as it relates to creating accessible content; accommodations and accessibility features used in OLEs; as well as LMS accessibility and usability. The results of this study led to several implications regarding training and support services for faculty, students, other staff, and administration within online programs, best practices for implementing accessibility, as well as recommendations for future studies

Exploration of Texas Public University Education Web Pages Accessibility

Background: In the past twenty years, the Internet has revolutionized daily lives by making varied types of information freely available. Because of this technological revolution, colleges and universities have been forced to rethink the information they provide on their websites for prospective and current students as well as alumni. However, many of these websites have accessibility and usability issues, especially for site visitors with disabilities. Universities that receive federal financial aid are required to make reasonable accommodations to provide accessible content on the web, and non-compliance can result in barriers for people with disabilities and investigations by the Office of Civil Rights. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore accessibility of web pages of colleges of education and teacher education programs of public universities in the state of Texas as determined by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Methods: The sample consisted of 26 public universities in Texas who had a college of education and a teacher education program and whose enrollment ranked in the top 70%, based on the number of candidates who completed teacher education program requirements in 2017. During the fall of 2019, the researcher evaluated representative pages from the college of education and teacher education programs at each selected university for a total of 52 web pages. Data was collected using the automated web accessibility and readability evaluation tools SortSite and Readable. The data included WCAG 2.0 recommended accessibility guideline success criteria and reading levels for each page. Data were analyzed using SPSS to describe the web accessibility using multiple guideline variables. Results: The web pages of colleges of education and teacher education programs of public universities contained accessibility errors. Guideline 2.3, designing pages in a manner that does not induce seizures, passed on all of the pages scanned. Guideline 4.1, maximizing compatibility with user agents such as assistive technology, failed the most scans (88% of the pages). Low passing scores were also present on two WCAG 2.0 guidelines, resulting in web page content that may present perception and operability barriers to learners. Paired samples t tests suggested that the college of education and teacher education web pages did not differ significantly in pass rates for each of the 12 WCAG 2.0 success criteria. Readability indicators, both Flesch Kincaid Grade Level and rating, showed no significant difference between teacher education pages and college of education pages. Conclusion: Overall, the college of education and teacher education web pages have similar accessibility levels. One guideline consistently failed, resulting in pages that are not robust, or accessible by user agents and assistive technologies. Learners using assistive technology, different browsers and mobile devices may not be able to understand, view or use the web pages. Findings from this study provide information that university personnel can use to improve the web experience for individuals that visit their sites and address web page non-compliance issues causing learning information access barriers for students.Curriculum and Instruction, Department o

Web Content Management System and accessibility awareness: A comparative study of novice users and accessibility outcomes

Since its creation, the Web has progressively developed and become a vital source of information in every domain and for almost all people. It is crucial to guarantee that the information contained on the Web is available for everyone, especially for people with special needs. Removing accessibility barriers is fundamentally based on tools, skills and support of all contributors, particularly the content creators, to ensure information is navigable and usable in the context of the end users experience. Web Content Management Systems play a significant role in structuring, storing and provision content to the Web and have evolved to address the difficulties of manually coding web pages versus the convenience of manipulating their content without any programing skills. Web Content Management Systems have gradually evolved to contain features and functions that allow content authors to shape their content in ways that address web content accessibility expectations, though only if the content author knows how to use these features to maximum effect. This thesis explores such usage by participants deemed to be novices, in that they have limited technical skills in the context of web coding and have limited expose to Web Content Management Systems or the application/awareness of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This research places an emphasis on the outcome of these novice users when provided with some basic training and awareness raising of WCAG principles and the use of a modern Web Content Management System. This is explored in the literature as an area of some importance as organisations with significant web presence cannot simply tell their content authors to ‘oh, and make sure it is accessible’ and hope that the end product will somehow achieve that goal without an investment in some form of accessibility education. For web managers and developers in all public sector organisations. “Make sure that all content commissioners and authors are fully trained in the importance of accessible content, and in the means that are made available for them to achieve this . (p. 58) The purpose of this research was to explore to what level the use of accessible Web Content Management System and novice users’ training impacted accessibility outcomes. This study emerged from the widespread role that Web Content Management Systems play in terms of storing and managing web content and the growing usage of these systems by experts or novices at an organisational or personal level. Through a selection process, this study identified a Web Content Management System that had a number of accessibility features, developed some training and ‘awareness raising’ materials and then asked novice users across two groups to apply what they had learned in order to develop an accessible website. The goal of the study was to ascertain if the two groups performed differently according to the training and awareness raising materials they received, and if even basic accessibility outcomes were achievable with just a few hours of training and from what was essentially an accessibility ‘cold start’. The study used a mixed methods approach encompassing three research methods; experimental method, survey method and observational method, to compare qualitative and quantitative data obtained from ‘accessibility awareness’ and ‘accessibility unaware’ participant groups. Thirty university students participated in this research and received accessibility awareness raising sessions, with additional accessibility-related examples for the accessibility awareness group. All participants undertook pre and post-tests that were designed to collect data allowing the researcher to compare the learning performance before and after the participants’ awareness session. At the end of the awareness session, the participants of both groups completed a survey which was designed to provide further data on the participant’s perception of web use and experience, the concept of web accessibility, web content accessibility guidelines, the system used, and their opinion of the accessibility awareness session. Data collected from the survey, pre and post-tests and the recording provided a holistic set of data from which the primary and supporting research questions were addressed. The results of the research indicated that the accessibility awareness group demonstrated measurably better accessibility outcomes than the unawareness group; these results being attributed to the awareness training session, participants’ searching behaviour, time spent on tasks, and effort made to implement accessible features and complete the required tasks. The participants in both groups had some prior knowledge in the use of the Web but limited or no skills in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or the use of a Web Content Management System. While performing tasks, the participants in the awareness group attempted to apply the accessibility concepts learnt during the training session and spent more time in searching those concepts on the Web in order to provide accessible web page content. Conversely, most of the participants in the unawareness group were concerned by the “look” of the web page, rather than focusing on actual accessible content; they only mimicked the exemplar website they have been provided as an ‘end product’, but did not explore the how and why of accessible content. All the participants at the end of this study were aware of the significance of web accessibility and were favourable to consider it in any future website development they may be involved in. The outcome of the study shows that the use of accessible Web Content Management System with example-based accessibility awareness sessions can lead to improved accessibility outcomes for novice web content authors. This research strongly suggests that even small, focussed and example-based training/awareness raising session can drive an accessibility mindset in web content authors, even those with limited or no technical, accessibility or web authoring experience

Industry attitudes and behaviour towards web accessibility in general and age-related change in particular and the validation of a virtual third-age simulator for web accessibility training for students and professionals

While the need for web accessibility for people with disabilities is widely accepted, the same visibility does not apply to the accessibility needs of older adults. This research initially explored developer behaviour in terms of how they presented accessibility on their websites as well as their own accessibility practices in terms of presentation of accessibility statements, the mention of accessibility as a selling point to potential clients and homepage accessibility of company websites. Following from this starting point the research focused in on web accessibility for ageing in particular. A questionnaire was developed to explore the differences between developer views of general accessibility and accessibility for older people. The questionnaire findings indicated that ageing is not seen as an accessibility issue by a majority of developers. Awareness of ageing accessibility documentation was also very low, highlighting the need for raising awareness of accessibility practices for ageing. Current age-related documentation developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative was then examined and critiqued. The findings show a tension between the machine-centric Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) and the needs of older people. Examination of guidelines when compared to research-derived findings reveal that the Assistive Technology (AT) centric structure of the documentation does not appropriately highlight accessibility practices in a context that matches the observed behaviour of older people. The documentation also fails to appropriately address the psycho-social ramifications of how older people choose to interact with technology as well as how they identify themselves in relation to any conditions they have which may be considered disabling. The need for a novel, engaging and awareness-raising tool resulted in the development of what is essentially a "Virtual third-age simulator". This ageing simulator is the first to combine multiple impairments in an active simulation and uses eye-tracking technology to increase the fidelity of conditions resulting in partial sightedness. It also allows for developers to view their own web content in addition to the lessons provided using the simulations presented in the software. The simulator was then validated in terms of its ability to raise awareness as well as its ability to affect web industry professionals' intentions towards accessible practices that benefit older people