E-Government Accessibility Research Trends in Developing Countries

E-government has increasingly been adopted globally by governments in order to enhance the provision of services to citizens and promote inclusive governance. It is perceived that E-government has the potential to significantly improve government-citizen interaction by providing equal access to government services for all citizens. Lack of equal access to E-government services has emerged as one major setback of E-government in achieving its objectives. Studies in E-government have documented how E-government can act as a tool for exclusion particularly for persons with disabilities (PWDs) an already marginalized group if accessibility barriers are not addressed. Developing countries however, have received little attention in this regard which calls for a greater concern; since 80% of the world’s disabled population reside here. Few studies that have been conducted in the developing countries fail to integrate PWDs into the digital society. This calls for the need to examine how researchers conduct studies on E-government accessibility towards PWDs, the research approach they adopt and the understanding they gain of the phenomenon. This paper present findings based on systematic literature review with the purpose of identifying key research foci, methodologies and theoretical perspectives used when studying E- government accessibility for PWDs particularly in developing countries

RANCANG BANGUN PERANGKAT LUNAK UNTUK MONITORING DAN PENILAIAN KINERJA PADA WEBSITE DENGAN DOMAIN ITS.AC.ID

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya,saat ini memiliki website dengan jumlah sekitar 749 yang terdaftar pada Sistem Informasi Manajemen Domain yang dimiliki oleh ITS. Website yang tedaftar tersebut memiliki fungsionalitas yang berbeda-beda mulai dari website jurusan, unit kegiatan mahasiswa, seminar, organisasi mahasiswa dan lain-lain. Dari banyaknya website tersebut, perlu dilakukannya Monitoring dan Penilaian Kinerja Website untuk mengetahui performa website ITS dan mengetahui keaktifan website. Monitoring dan Penilaian Kinerja Website dilakukan dengan mengakuisi data semua website ITS yang terdaftar pada SIMDOMAIN lalu mengukur kinerja website tersebut menurut kriteria penilaian yang telah dilakukan pembobotan menggunakan AHP . Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah aplikasi yang dapat melakukan pemeringkatan website berdomain ITS dalam bentuk grafik dan tabel data. Dalam proses penilaian website, tingkat akurasi yang dihasilkan adalah sebesar 99.75%. ===================================================================================================== ITS, currently has 749 websites that have been registered in the ITS Domain Management Information System. The registered Websites have different categories, namely Faculty Web Sites, Students Activity Unit Websites, conference Websites, Students Organization Websites and other Web Sites. Monitoring and Evaluation is required for assessing the performance of those websites. Monitoring and Performance Evaluation process is conducted by acquiring all website data that have been registered on SIMDOMAIN and then evaluate the performance of the websites based on a set of metrics. The weight of each metrics are measured using AHP (Analytical Hierarchical Processing). The results of this research is a web application that is able to rank those websites in the form of graphs and data table. The evaluation shows that the accuracy rate is 99.75

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

Understanding accessibility problems of blind users on the web

The web is an eminently visual medium. However, not everyone accesses web content visually. Research shows that using the web is challenging for blind users. To create a good user experience for blind users on the web, we need a comprehensive understanding of the users’ problems. Currently, there is little knowledge about the problem differences between blind and sighted users, which makes it difficult to suggest and test design solutions that address these problems. This research aims to provide a further understanding of the problems blind users have on the web by comparing and contrasting problems between blind and sighted users and testing how design solutions to prevalent problems benefit blind users’ experience. The first study draws together the research literature into a common unified definition of web accessibility that was used to operationalise studies. The second study compared which verbal protocol (concurrent or retrospective) is better in user-based studies. The results showed that retrospective verbal protocol is a better option for eliciting problems on the web for blind and sighted users. Then, an empirical study compared the problems between blind and sighted users on the web. The results showed that the problems the two user groups encounter largely differ. There are specific problem types distinct to blind users, but also the characteristics of the problem types that had instances by both user groups were very different. Moreover, many problems blind users encounter were in relation to the search and browse features of the websites. A further investigation by two studies with blind users of how specific design solutions to prevalent problems users had (poor page structure, lack of feedback and excessive effort) in this specific design aspect showed that simple design solutions improve specific aspects of users’ experience. Although, for major improvements in the overall user experience a combination of design solutions is needed

E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens

The Impact of e-Democracy in Political Stability of Nigeria

The history of the Nigerian electoral process has been hitherto characterized by violence stemming from disputes in election outcomes. For instance, violence erupted across some states in Northern Nigeria when results indicated that a candidate who was popular in that part of the country was losing the election leading to avoidable loss of lives. Beside, this dispute in election outcome lingers for a long time in litigation at the electoral tribunals which distracts effective governance. However, the increasing penetrating use of ICTs in Nigeria is evident in the electoral processes with consequent shift in the behavior of actors in the democratic processes, thus changing the ways Nigerians react to election outcomes. This paper examines the trend in the use ICT in the Nigerian political system and its impact on the stability of the polity. It assesses the role of ICT in recent electoral processes and compares its impact on the outcome of the process in lieu of previous experiences in the Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also examines the challenges and risks of implementing e-Democracy in Nigeria and its relationship to the economy in the light of the socio-economic situation of the country. The paper adopted qualitative approach in data gathering and analysis. From the findings, the paper observed that e-democracy is largely dependent on the level of ICT adoption, which is still at its lowest ebb in the country. It recognizes the challenges in the provision of ICT infrastructure and argues that appropriate low-cost infrastructure applicable to the Nigerian condition can be made available to implement e-democracy and thus arouse the interest of the populace in governance, increase the number of voters, and enhance transparency, probity and accountability, and participation in governance as well as help stabilize the nascent democrac

Modelo de atendimento às necessidades educativas especiais baseado na tecnologia : estudo de caso centrado em alunos com baixa visão

Doutoramento em Motricidade Humana na especialidade de Educação Especial e ReabilitaçãoA problemática desta dissertação situa-se no acesso à educação universitária das pessoas com deficiência visual, como uma das formas de assegurar a sua participação na Sociedade. Sendo o objectivo deste trabalho, conceber um Modelo de Apoio para responder às necessidades dos estudantes com deficiência visual no Ensino Superior Português, foram desenhados quatro estudos: (1) “Dificuldades de acesso à informação visual do Multibanco”; (2) “Acessibilidade dos sites das Universidades Públicas Portuguesas”; (3) “Acessibilidade dos sites das Universidades Europeias” e (4) “Barreiras e facilitadores na perspectiva dos alunos universitários com deficiência visual”. Os estudos tiveram metodologias distintas mas todos os dados foram analisados utilizando estatística descritiva e inferencial, no sentido de identificar as características individuais e dos factores externos, influenciadores do percurso e do sucesso académico dos alunos universitários com deficiência visual. A idade, o grau de visão, o género e os apoios recebidos foram os factores mais marcantes. Como conclusão é apresentado um modelo, relevando três áreas fundamentais - acessibilidade, inclusão e investigação – e considerando, também, as três orientações a seguir: apoio aos candidatos, acompanhamento aos estudantes e a preparação para o mercado de trabalho.This work focuses on higher education access for visual impaired people as a way to ensure their contribution to the Society. The main purpose is to establish a supporting model to meet the visual impaired students’ needs in the Portuguese higher education context. To accomplish this, four studies were conducted: (1) “ATM visual information access difficulties”; (2) “Portuguese Public Universities sites Accessibility”; (3) “European Universities sites Accessibility” and (4) “Barriers and facilitators in the visual impaired students’ perspective”. The studies had distinct methodologies yet all data was submitted to descriptive and inferential statistics techniques, in order to identify the students’ characteristics that have influenced their responses and their level of success. Age, degree of impairment, gender and support received were the major factors. We conclude the work with the description of the supporting model: three key areas - access, inclusion and research - in three principles: support for applicants, counseling and preparing students for the labor market