Accessibility vs. Usability – Where is the Dividing Line?

Web accessibility for people with disabilities may be looked upon as the overcoming of barriers that make it difficult for them to use Web resources. Web accessibility for people with disabilities may be looked upon as the overcoming of barriers that prevent them from using these resources. Web accessibility can be improved through the use of assistive technologies in some cases by enabling access through alternative or enhanced modes. Web usability has been popular for longer than Web accessibility and theory, techniques, and guidelines relating to Web accessibility are more recent than those of Web usability. Accessibility could thus be considered as having a narrower scope than usability. Accessibility of Web resources by people with disabilities, which involves both access and use, is best supported by a combination of a set of accessibility guidelines and a set of usability guidelines

Accessibility and Usability of Search Engine Interfaces: Preliminary Testing

Due to the enormous amount of information on the Internet today, search engines have become an indispensable tool for finding specific, appropriate information. Therefore, it is essential for search engines to offer user interfaces that are easy to use and accessible to all. In this study we describe the initial steps of a project aimed at evaluating the accessibility and usability of several popular search tools. The analysis is centered on two user categories: sighted and blind users. With this goal in mind, we collected individual feedback in order to determine whether it is possible to improve interface design

Conceptual analysis of e-recruitment: The role of web-site usability and organizational attraction of personnel in Nigeria

E-recruitment is interchangeably used as the practice of recruitment by means of cyber space. E-recruitment has been described as online recruitment, internet recruiting or cyber space recruiting using electronic web-based practice to advertise job vacancies online. As a result of rapid increased of technology advancement, the level of utilizing internet and electronic mails in conducting business activities in organizations had evident globally.The aims of this study are to examine the importance of e-recruitment in facilitating organizational process of selecting quality and competence employees.The impact of globalization on today’s tight and competitive labour market, available vacancies most be fill with qualified candidates as a major roles played by human resource managers.In the same vein, organizations realised that proper management of men, money, method, machinery etc, resulted to higher degree of productivity when suitable qualified people are recruited. In view of the above discussion therefore, this study is carried out to investigate the problems and provide the possible solution to organization on how to attract large pools number of applicants in recruitment process

Accessibility and Usability of Search Engine User interfaces

Due to the enormous amount of information on the Internet today, search engines have become indispensable for finding specific and appropriate information. If we consider the user\u27s task, two main search engine components are equally important to carry out a successful search: (I) the search process, which seeks the requested information and orders the results by relevance; and (II) the user interface, where the user types the query keywords and the search results are shown. Since individuals interact with the search tool to set up a search task and explore the results, it is essential that user interfaces be easy to use and accessible to all; this is particularly important for sightless users who, interacting via screen reader, perceive the page contents very differently and experience a much longer search time. In this study we describe a research project aimed at evaluating the accessibility and usability of several popular search tools available on the Web, in order to understand their limitations/drawbacks and propose improvements. By means of automatic checking, gathering user feedback, and a screen reader, we were able to identify the main accessibility and usability problems. We then defined and proposed specific guidelines for improving search engine user interface design. Finally, by applying these directives to the UIs of Google, a search engine which is commonly considered accessible and easy to use, we were able to demonstrate that accessibility can be greatly improved while the interface maintains the same visual appeal. Specifically, we modified the Google interfaces by adding specific "hidden features" that greatly improve navigation and the search activity via screen reader, but do not affect the navigation of sighted users

Actual Accessibility: A Study of Cultural Institution Web Content

In 1998, the United States Congress amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to require federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible. The first accessibility guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, were published in 1999. This study tests the usable accessibility of cultural institution web sites. Four cultural institution web sites were selected, two that were WCAG 1.0 compliant and that were not, were selected for evaluation. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis was conducted. Significant differences were found in the perceived usability of the guideline-compliant web sites; significance was found for one of three tasks. Overall, the guideline-compliant sites received higher usability ratings, but the task completion rates did not support a claim of greater usability

Video conferencing tools: comparative study of the experiences of screen reader users and the development of more inclusive design guidelines

Since the first lockdown in 2020, video conferencing tools have become increasingly important for employment, education, and social interaction, making them essential tools in everyday life. This study investigates the accessibility and usability of the desktop and mobile versions of three popular video conferencing tools, Zoom, Google Meet and MS Teams, for visually impaired people interacting via screen readers and keyboard or gestures. This involved two inspection evaluations to test the most important features of the desktop and mobile device versions and two surveys of visually impaired users to obtain information about the accessibility of the selected video conferencing tools. 65 and 94 people answered the surveys for desktop and mobile platforms respectively. The results showed that Zoom was preferred to Google Meet and MS Teams, but that none of the tools was fully accessible via screen reader and keyboard or gestures. Finally, the results of this empirical study were used to develop a set of guidelines for designers of video conferencing tools and assistive technology

Optimisation d’une plateforme de réservation d’un tour-opérateur: Comment optimiser la nouvelle plateforme B2C de VT Vacances d’un point de vue utilisateur?

Ce travail de recherche s’adresse à l’entreprise VT Vacances, tour-opérateur suisse romand, et a pour but de répondre à la question de recherche suivante : comment optimiser la nouvelle plateforme B2C de VT Vacances d’un point de vue utilisateur? Pour ce faire, il a été question d’évaluer la plateforme afin d’identifier les principaux obstacles empêchant une bonne utilisation par les internautes. Dans ce sens, une méthode scientifique en termes d’optimisation de site web, communément utilisée dans la littérature a été appliquée: les usability tests. Considéré comme un facteur de survie sur le web aujourd’hui, l’usability est un outil qui permet d’évaluer le degré selon lequel les utilisateurs peuvent facilement utiliser un système et accomplir leurs tâches. À travers des tests d’utilisateurs, il est possible de confronter la plateforme à des clients directs, l’évaluer en fonction de critères bien précis et ainsi identifier les problèmes et obstacles rencontrés par ceux-ci. Lors de l’évaluation, chaque candidat avait une mission bien précise à effectuer

Evaluasi web asability pada website wiki-budaya berdasarkan nielsen model dengan metode user testing dan teknik heuristic evaluation

Website Wiki-Budaya merupakan ensiklopedia berbasis web yang khusus mengelola informasi pengetahuan budaya di Indonesia dalam bentuk artikel dan dikelola oleh Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata. Selama proses pengembangannya, software quality control belum dilakukan. Oleh karena itu, website Wiki-Budaya belum dirilis secara resmi dan saat ini berada pada tahap pengujian dalam Software Development Life Cycle. Maka, pada tahap pengujian ini akan dilakukan evaluasi untuk menerapkan software quality control pada website Wiki-Budaya. Software quality control merupakan cara untuk mengontrol penjaminan kualitas website yang dilaksanakan sebelum website dirilis. Software quality control yang akan dilakukan berfokus pada aspek web usability berdasarkan Nielsen Model, yaitu aspek kebutuhan non-fungsional yang memiliki tolak ukur paling penting untuk menentukan keberhasilan atau kegagalan website. Evaluasi web usability akan dilakukan dengan metode user testing dan akan menghasilkan penilaian statistik deskriptif yang menginterpretasikan masing-masing pengukuran faktor usability dan statistik inferensial yang akan menghasilkan uji hipotesis kerangka kerja usability. Hasil tersebut akan divalidasi dengan teknik Heuristic Evaluation yang melibatkan expert User Interface untuk memberikan judgement terhadap hasil evaluasi. Dengan melaksanakan evaluasi web usability, hasil yang diharapkan adalah 1) mengetahui sisi kekurangan website dalam aspek usability, 2) membuat rekomendasi untuk kekurangan tersebut berdasarkan hasil pengujian website sebagai feedback bagi pengembangan website untuk mengurangi bug, meningkatkan kepuasan pengguna dan produk website yang mudah digunakan. ===================================================================================================== Wiki-Budaya is a web-based encyclopedia which manages information and knowledge about the culture of Indonesia as articles and supported by Official Cultural Ministery. During the development process, software quality control has not been done. Therefore, Wiki-Budaya has not been officially released and it is currently at the stage of testing in the Software Development Life Cycle. Thus, the evaluation will be held to conduct software quality control on Wiki-Budaya. Software quality control is a kind of way to implement control quality assurance before the website was released. At this stage, software quality control will be conducted focusing on the aspects of web usability by Nielsen model, as the aspect of nonfunctional requirements that have the most important measurement for determining the success or failure of a website . Web usability evaluation will be carried out by the method of user testing that produces descriptive statistics which interprets each usability factor measurement and hypothesis of testing framework for usability. These results will be validated by using Heuristic Evaluation techniques which involving User Interface expert’s judgment to provide evaluation results. By implementing web usability evaluation, the expected resulst are 1) knowing the deficiencies in website usability aspect, 2) providing recommendation for the deficiencies based on testing results as feedback to the website developer as improvements to reduce bugs, improve user satisfaction, and websites are easy to use

Proceedings of Universiti Sains Malaysia International Conference on Social Sciences 2015 - Touching Lives, Bridging Society

A society and people in general have always been the major focus of any study in the field of social sciences. Given the conflicts, competition, pressures, tensions and differences that are prevalent and persisting around us in today‘s society, social scientists can have a great potential to touch the lives of all human beings in many different societies. By doing so, they too can bridge the gaps that are seen to be widening between and within societies today. The field of social sciences critically examines and analyses elements of human existence, their infinite combinations of interactions, their value systems, traditions, culture, options and choices and practices. This is reflected in a broad range of disciplines which include anthropology and sociology, development studies, economics, political science, psychology and social work. The proceedings of this conference includes papers presented at the USM-International Conference on Social Sciences (USM-ICOSS) 2015 which was hosted with the aptly noble theme ―Touching Lives and Bridging Society‖ and held from 27 - 28 August 2015 at the Rainbow Paradise Beach Resort, Penang, Malaysia. This conference is solely organized by the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia