Accessibility of websites of the European national tourism boards

Purpose: The aim is to find out the current state of accessibility of the websites of European national tourism boards. Furthermore, the identification of the most common errors in terms of accessibility as well as recommendations leading to their correction is aimed for. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on methods of testing the availability of web systems. The testing included automated tools, namely AChecker and Accessibility Evaluation Tool, as well as the WCAG 2.1 checklist developed by WebAIM initiative. Findings: The research has shown a relatively high accessibility of those websites. Nevertheless, some accessibility violations have been identified that can significantly complicate the accessibility of those websites for users using various assistive devices or other alternative hardware or software means. The most commonly identified errors include: failure to use alternative text for content-relevant images, the absence of text or audio transcripts for videos shared via Youtube, missing descriptions for text form elements and missing label for search form. Practical implications: The results of the research can be used in the evaluation of web presentations at the level of tourism boards and destination management. Originality/Value: The main output of this article is the application of web testing methodology on a comprehensive set of national tourist boards.peer-reviewe

Combating e-discrimination in the North West - final report

The Combating eDiscimination in the North West project examined over 100 websites advertising job opportunities both regionally and nationally, and found the vast majority to be largely inaccessible. Professional standards, such as using valid W3C code and adhering to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, were largely not followed. The project also conducted interviews with both public and private sector web professionals, and focus groups of disabled computer users, to draw a broader picture of the accessibility of jobs websites. Interviews with leading web development companies in the Greater Manchester region, showed that there is a view there should not be any additional cost in making websites accessible, as the expertise to create a site professionally should be in place from the start, and that accessibility will follow from applying professional standards. However, through the process of trying to create a website for the project, with such a company, it was found that following professional standards is not sufficient to catch all the potential problems, and that user testing is an essential adjunct to professional practice. The main findings of the project are, thus, that: • Most websites in the job opportunities sector are not following professional standards of web development, and are largely inaccessible • Professional standards of web development need to be augmented with user testing to ensure proper accessibility

E-Government Web Accessibility: WCAG 1.0 versus WCAG 2.0 Compliance

Most e-governments have traditionally used version 1.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a basis to ensure that their websites are accessible by people with disabilities. This was reflected in their design guidelines, accessibility evaluations, policy-making and legislations. Recently, WCAG 2.0 emerged as an ISO/IEC International accessibility standard that has been recommended for adoption by the W3C WAI. This paper seeks to examine if there is a need for e-governments to reassess their web accessibility conformance, in light of the latest WCAG 2.0 standard. A case study related to the 21 Dubai e-government websites is presented whereby accessibility is evaluated based on the WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 guidelines and using automated accessibility testing tools. We found that WCAG 2.0 conformance testing identified some notable accessibility issues that were not revealed by WCAG 1.0 conformance testing. Hence we recommend that egovernments should develop and update their web content and accessibility policies to conform to the latest WCAG 2.0 guidelines and success criteria. Additional implications for practice and academic research are also provided

Accessibility Analysis and Evaluation of Government-Websites' in Developing Countries: Case Study Bangladesh

The Web has been blessed for all people regardless of their economic, social, political, cultural, mental or physical condition and behavior. But the proper utilization and distribution of the benefits of web is crucial. It is essential that the web be accessible to people with equal access and equal opportunity to all also with disabilities. An accessible web can also help elderly population and also people with disabilities more actively contribute in society. In this paper, researchers analyze and evaluate accessibility of government websites' in perspective of developing countries. They take Bangladesh as a case study. This paper concentrates on mainly two things; firstly, it briefly examines accessibility guidelines, evaluation methods and analysis tools. Secondly, it analyzes and evaluates the web accessibility of e-Government websites of Bangladesh according to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. We also present a recommendation for improvement of e-Government websites' accessibility in developing countries. Keywords: Web accessibility, Accessibility guidelines, Assistive tools, e-Government, Accessibility testing and evaluatio

The Prevailing Obstacles in Web Accessibility on Three Well-Known Websites for Older People with sight difficulties

Prior research has argued that there is no one best approach to evaluating web accessibility and proposes the adoption of multiple approaches. Following these proposals this research used three different approaches for evaluating accessibility on websites for accessibility to older persons with sight difficulties as there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Approached used included: (1) Using automated tools to determine accessibility, which looks at the code of websites to get a general overview of accessibility issues. (2) Manually looking at the design, code and also how it might impact the user. This involved a manual assessment of each of the websites and comparison to the WCAG 2.0 guidelines (3) the third aspect of Web 4 accessibility is looking at the visual, thinking skills or cognition required by the user to access the website. The user testing evaluation method involved participants completing tasks on each of the three websites while participants were being videoed, and asked them to speak aloud at the same time to reflect on accessibility issues. The participants were then asked to complete an exit-interview based on the Principles of Universal Design. The three approaches provided a complete holistic approach to accessing Web accessibility on the three key websites

AccessBot – Assisted Assessment of Web Accessibility

Tese de mestrado, Informática, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2020Nowadays, the World Wide Web is a necessity, and its content should be available to everyone. People with different types of disabilities have different needs in using the web and access the content. Developers should fulfill these needs by making websites accessible. Alongside this premise, worldwide government directives oblige public and private sector websites and apps to meet accessibility requirements. To achieve a determined level of accessibility conformance, developers should follow the WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and use automatic testing tools to evaluate their websites. However, while creating an accessible website, they may find difficulties that make this a laborious process. After studying and comparing eight of the most well-known accessibility evaluation extensions for the Chrome web browser, I found that these difficulties arise from various factors. These are subjective guidelines interpretations and implementations, automatic testing tools that provide limited coverage of the success criteria, different results displayed for the same website, and some guidelines are not tested automatically, meaning developers should perform manual testing. After analyzing these results, this project, with the name AccessBot, tries to cover the automatic accessibility evaluation gaps. It is an assisted validation tool using the open-source QualWeb accessibility evaluation. AccessBot is a browser extension for Chrome. Being a chrome extension makes it easy to access, install, and use by developers and more accessible to the general public. Its implementation aims to help users by visually identifying the problem, and performing a step-by-step guided evaluation, complementing the automatic evaluation done by QualWeb. The accessibility testing considers the test rules developed by the ACT-Rules Community, which makes an effort to create detailed descriptions of WCAG

Web Accessibility of the Higher Education Institute Websites Based on the World Wide Web Consortium and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

The problem observed in this study is the low level of compliance of higher education website accessibility with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The literature supports the non-compliance of websites with the federal policy in general. Studies were performed to analyze the accessibility of fifty-four sample web pages using automated testing via auto-validation tools and using manual testing via assistive technology, followed by a comparative analysis of the findings of the auto validation tools. The auto-validation tools utilized on the sample web pages were comprised of three W3C validation tools. The results showed that two-thirds of the websites failed Priority 1 validation, while one hundred percent of the websites failed to meet the Priority 2 and Priority 3 validation. In addition, three web pages were tested against Section 508 guidelines. The result of the manual testing by assistive technology confirmed that all three websites failed to meet the minimum requirement of federal policy. Moreover, a comparative analysis between the validations of the W3C tools showed that significant differences existed between the findings of each auto-validation tool. The findings of this study implied that passing the evaluations of auto validation tools is not enough to ensure accessible websites to individuals with disabilities. It is important to utilize assistive tools to determine web accessibility as it appears to individuals with disabilities. Recommendations were made for improvements such as encouraging universities to provide training for website managers and implementing the mandatory use of screen-readers as a validation tool

Non-invasive prenatal testing for aneuploidy: a systematic review of Internet advertising to potential users by commercial companies and private health providers.

BACKGROUND: The development of non-invasive prenatal testing has increased accessibility of fetal testing. Companies are now advertising prenatal testing for aneuploidy via the Internet. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this systematic review of websites advertising non-invasive prenatal testing for aneuploidy was to explore the nature of the information being provided to potential users. METHODS: We systematically searched two Internet search engines for relevant websites using the following terms: 'prenatal test', 'antenatal test', 'non-invasive test', 'noninvasive test', 'cell-free fetal DNA', 'cffDNA', 'Down syndrome test' or 'trisomy test'. We examined the first 200 websites identified through each search. Relevant web-based text was examined, and key topics were identified, tabulated and counted. To analyse the text further, we used thematic analysis. MAIN RESULTS: Forty websites were identified. Whilst a number of sites provided balanced, accurate information, in the majority supporting evidence was not provided to underpin the information and there was inadequate information on the need for an invasive test to definitely diagnose aneuploidy. CONCLUSIONS: The information provided on many websites does not comply with professional recommendations. Guidelines are needed to ensure that companies offering prenatal testing via the Internet provide accurate and comprehensible information

Accessibility Issues in HTML5 A Comparison of HTML5 Websites and Those Coded in Earlier Versions

It is estimated that by 2020 there could be as many as 4 million visually impaired or blind people living in the UK. These visually impaired or blind people will use assistive technologies such as screen readers to access website content on the internet. Currently the governing body of the internet, the World Wide Web Consortium has released and continues to develop a new standard of the HTML markup language which is used to code website content. This new HTML standard, HTML 5 has been heralded as a new semantically correct markup language. HTML 5 should be more accessible to users of assisted technologies and should also facilitate the incorporation into websites of rich internet applications and other media in a more accessible way. However the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) have suggested that the opposite may be proving to be true and that HTML 5 websites may be more inaccessible than websites coded in earlier versions of HTML. This study employs a mixed methods methodology, including screen reader accessibility testing and web developer interviews. This methodology will establish the accessibility of HTML 5 coded websites and prove or disprove the hypothesis of the RNIB while adding granularity and perspective to the results of the testing

Версії WCAG та доступність бібліотечного веб-контенту

The aim of this paper is to analyze of the current state of accessibility of library web content in accordance with the principles of the standards Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 from 2008 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. from 2018. Research methodology. The methods of webometric analysis have been applied during the research. Results. The analysis of 177 websites of national libraries around the world for compliance with WCAG 2.0 guidelines was conducted. Based on the use of the web accessibility evaluation tool Achecker, 151 websites of national libraries have been successfully tested. It was determined that 29 of them (19%) are fully consistent, 3 are partially consistent, 119 are not compliant with the accessibility recommendations according to WCAG 2.0 at levels A, AA and AAA. There was no possibility to evaluate the 26 websites national libraries by AChecker. It appears that current state of accessibility of websites of national libraries, portals of electronic libraries and other digital project are insufficient to offer an equitable experience to individuals with disabilities. Additional seventeen success criteria in WCAG 2.1 are analyzed. The WCAG 2.1 offers an opportunity for libraries to improve accessibility practices, involve users with special needs to testing processes library recourses. Novelty of this paper consists in the focuses on the need to introduce a permanent audit of library web content accessibility by automatically testing and including an audience of users with special needs. The practical significance. The practical significance consists in considering the accessibility as part of the digital collections development, method testing accessibility internal databases, digital libraries, websites, other electronic resources and digital project