Accessible Website Content Guidelines for Users with Intellectual Disabilities

Background: The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has issued guidelines for making websites better and easier to access for people with various disabilities (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines 1999). - \ud Method: The usability of two versions of a website (a non-adapted site and a site that was adapted on the basis of easy-to-read guidelines) was tested with two groups of 20 participants. One group had intellectual disabilities but could read, the other group had no identified intellectual disabilities. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, it was investigated whether the easy-to-read website was indeed better accessible and usable for the participants with intellectual disabilities. - \ud Results: The adaptation of the website worked well for participants with intellectual disabilities. Users without identified intellectual disabilities were as effective with the adapted site as they were with the non-adapted site. - \ud Conclusion: The results form an empirical basis for recommendations about applying guidelines for easy-to-read text on websites for people with intellectual disabilities

Bridging the Gap: An Exploration of Visual Design Criteria Found in the "Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005" (AODA)

Information and communication technology such as World Wide Web have gradually become implanted in every aspect of individuals life such as education and training, employment, government, health care, and more. Web provides valuable resources and information for web users including people with disabilities and help them tackle several tasks that would otherwise need much more effort to be done. Accordingly, web accessibility creates a guideline with the aim of making the content of each web page available for a wider range of people with disability, has reached a new level of importance. For this importance, the government of Ontario passed a law titled the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005, in which all internet and digital services must comply with accessibility guideline by 2025. Several researchers show a gap between professional design work and technically driven accessibility design guidelines. One of the reasons for this gap is an absence of concern for visual design during the process of implementing accessibility guidelines. The aim of this paper is to bridge the existing gap between accessibility and visual design to improve the overall usability and functionality of the system. In order to achieve this, I first identify and explain the visual design related criteria of AODA guidelines, their requirements and their impact on accessibility design. Then I demonstrate my experiment with utilizing visual design elements through the implementation of visual design principles on two selected websites to create an accessible web page that is not only usable but also has an aesthetically appealing interface

Web Usability Guidelines for Air Force Knowledge Now Web Site

The Department of Defense Net-Centric Data Strategies number one key attribute is to ensure data is visible, available, and usable when and where needed to accelerate decision-making. The Internet provides opportunities for quick and efficient disseminating of information to the public, distributing information throughout the Air Force, and accessing information from a variety of sources. In 2002, the Air Force CIO designated the Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN) as the center of excellence for Knowledge Management. The site is a one-stop resource, providing access to a great depth and breadth of information. This study seeks to determine how usable and accessible the web interface is to its customers. A literature review determined the usability inspection method called Heuristic Evaluation to be most favorable for this type of evaluation. The researcher conducted a case study using heuristic evaluation to determine the site usability compliance rate. A second case study using web content accessibility guidelines was then performed to determine the sites accessibility compliance rate. The study finally presented a comparative analysis of the usability and accessibility checklists to determine if any overlap occurred between the two or if one is a subset of the other. This exploratory research finds more emphasis on web usability and accessibility should be explored in the future for AFKN

Challenges in Developing Applications for Aging Populations

Elderly individuals can greatly benefit from the use of computer applications, which can assist in monitoring health conditions, staying in contact with friends and family, and even learning new things. However, developing accessible applications for an elderly user can be a daunting task for developers. Since the advent of the personal computer, the benefits and challenges of developing applications for older adults have been a hot topic of discussion. In this chapter, the authors discuss the various challenges developers who wish to create applications for the elderly computer user face, including age-related impairments, generational differences in computer use, and the hardware constraints mobile devices pose for application developers. Although these challenges are concerning, each can be overcome after being properly identified

Embedding accessibility and usability: considerations for e-learning research and development projects

This paper makes the case that if e‐learning research and development projects are to be successfully adopted in real‐world teaching and learning contexts, then they must effectively address accessibility and usability issues; and that these need to be integrated throughout the project. As such, accessibility and usability issues need to be made explicit in project documentation, along with allocation of appropriate resources and time. We argue that accessibility and usability are intrinsically inter‐linked. An integrated accessibility and usability evaluation methodology that we have developed is presented and discussed. The paper draws on a series of mini‐case studies from e‐learning projects undertaken over the past 10 years at the Open University

Accessibility of Vendor-Created Video Tutorials for People with Disabilities

Many video, screencast, webinar, or interactive tutorials are created and provided by vendors for use by libraries to instruct users in database searching. This study investigates whether these vendor-created database tutorials are accessible for people with disabilities to see whether librarians can use these tutorials instead of creating them in-house. Findings on accessibility were mixed. Positive accessibility features and common accessibility problems are described, with recommendations on how to maximize accessibility

Universal Design: Planning and Design for All

[Excerpt] This report attempts to develop and illustrate the concept of universal design. The aim of universal design is to develop theory, principles and solutions to enable everybody to use the same physical solutions to the greatest extent possible, whether it be buildings, outdoor-areas, means of communication or household goods. Universal design opposes, ideologically and politically, all unnecessary and stigmatizing specialized solutions, whether they are intended for people with disabilities or other groups of the population. Equal status, equal treatment and equal merit are key concepts. The discussion in this report covers extensive spheres such as planning, architecture and product design. One may object that we try to cover too large an area within a relatively brief report. It is therefore important to emphasise that our main intention is to include more professionals and politicians in the further discussion of universal design or design for all

Improving Screencast Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Guidelines and Techniques

Screencast video tutorials are increasingly popular in libraries, but may present access problems for people with disabilities unless specific accessibility features are added during screencast creation. This article reviews existing standards for accessible web-based multimedia and gives guidelines on how to create accessible screencasts based on these standards

Mobile recommender apps with privacy management for accessible and usable technologies

The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing survey of the use of computers and mobile devices, interest in recommender apps and knowledge and concerns about privacy issues amongst English and Italian speaking disabled people. Participants were found to be regular users of computers and mobile devices for a range of applications. They were interested in recommender apps for household items, computer software and apps that met their accessibility and other requirements. They showed greater concerns about controlling access to personal data of different types than this data being retained by the computer or mobile device. They were also willing to make tradeoffs to improve device performance