Assessing web content accessibility of E-commerce websites for people with disabilities

In recent years online shopping has grown significantly. Due to the rapid growth of technology, companies also continuing to extend the functionality and design of their Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-business websites. However, it is also important to adopt web accessibility such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in B2C websites to increase the consumer's satisfaction of all ages and with disabilities. This study analyses 30 Australian B2C websites in accordance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) using an automated web service. The result shows that B2C websites in Australia are not paying attention to web accessibility for people with disabilities. However, e-commerce will succeed in meeting WCAG 2.0 by making B2C e-commerce websites accessible to consumer of all ages and with disabilities. Recommendations are proposed in order to improve web accessibility for people with sensory (hearing and vision), motor (limited use of hands) and cognition (language and learning) disabilities in B2C e-commerce websites

Public procurement and ICT accessibility

Government purchasing of ICT products and services is termed public procurement. Including accessibility criteria in the procurement process may improve employment opportunities in government for people with disabilities and could have flow-on effects for increased accessibility of products in the marketplace. This paper outlines a research project investigating the current status of legislation, regulation and policy of ICT accessibility criteria in public procurement in OECD countries. The research finds that voluntary government schemes were not successful. Mandatory processes based on uniform global standards coupled with compliance will have an impact

WEB ACCESSIBILITY COMPLIANCE TO WCAG 2.0 STANDARD: A CASE OF A MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Most universities now communicate, exchange pertinent information, and facilitate transactions among their stakeholders through their websites. Website accessibility is, therefore, essential to ensure equal access to information from the institution regardless of their physical limitations and other potential restrictions. Based on ACHECKER and WAVE, the objective was to present the features of non-compliance to WCAG 2.0 standard and ways to overcome for a Malaysian public university homepage. The study found a low degree of compliance with the WCAG 2.0, respectively.  Parsing, labels or instruction, headings and labels, link purpose, resize text and information and relationship are some of the aspects that require rapid attention. It is possible to further improve issues with navigation, adaptability, input assistance, compatibility, empty links, and empty headings. An expert’s insights indicated that without proper monitoring from the higher authority of the government body like MAMPU, the web accessibility would remain partially or completely inaccessible to certain sectors of the population. Overall, this study provides insightful information, especially to web designers who can better adhere to the standards when creating their websites. Keywords: ACHECKER, WAVE, a Malaysian public university, WCAG 2.0, web accessibility

Electronic Government in Republic of Kazakhstan as a Way to Improve State Government System

In the article ways and conditions for formation of electronic government and informative openness of state authorities in Kazakhstan are considered. The reason for that – necessity of transparency of the government administration and effective interaction of government bodies on all levels with institutions of forming civil society and increase in the quality of state services in order to improve activity of the state. The current legislature of Republic of Kazakhstan in the sphere of electronic services is analyzed. The stages of implementation of electronic government in Kazakhstan are given

Accessibility of Thai university websites: Awareness, barriers and drivers for accessible practice

Governments and organizations have to respond to a range of legislative and policy initiatives intended to promote equal opportunity for all. The Thai government has passed a number of laws which aim to protect its citizens from discrimination and from breaches of their human rights by government departments and agencies. The Persons with Disabilities Education Act B.E. 2551 (2008) and the Thailand Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy Framework (2011-2020) required government agencies to delivery equal education and access to online information for all Thais. Most Thai universities receive government subsidies, and therefore have an obligation to contribute to national prosperity so that all Thais can benefit from their activities, or as the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (2011, p. 23) states “The creation of content, database, online content which promotes lifelong learning, the development of school websites and other digital content should follow the web accessibility standard”. Given the Thai government’s commitment to lifelong learning and the creation of accessible materials, this thesis sought to investigate to what level Thai universities were implementing web accessibility in their websites and e-learning materials. A mixed method approach was employed in order to explore the level of accessibility awareness, barriers to web accessibility implementation and possible drivers for accessibility uptake which might exist within Thai universities. Quantitative data derived from automated and manual web evaluations was gathered based on WCAG 2.0 guideline in order to determine the actual levels of accessible design apparent in Thai university websites. Fifty representative universities were selected from the top ranked Thai universities and a number webpages were tested from within each of the university websites. In addition, online surveys were conducted with three stakeholder groups within the Thai university sector, namely lecturers, web staff and senior managers. These surveys were design to set the context for quantitative website assessment findings and provide evidence as to these stakeholders understanding of web accessibility as a concept. Finally, follow-up interviews were conducted after the web assessments and surveys were analysed so as to reduce ambiguity and increase understanding, creating a very clear picture of the standing of web accessibility in Thailand’s universities. The findings of the data analysis indicate that Thai universities have low levels of web accessibility implementation in their websites and e-learning materials, even though web accessibility requirements had been embedded in Thai laws and policies for over a decade. In terms of web evaluation, the university webpages had accessibility problems across all aspects of WCAG 2.0’s POUR principles, with not a single tested webpage passing even the lowest level of WCAG 2.0 compliance. The survey and interview data revealed very low levels of awareness of web accessibility amongst Thai university staff members as well as lack of knowledge regarding students with disabilities and their specialised technology needs. Whilst Thai university staff were generally supportive of the concept of web accessibility and supporting students with special needs, this was accompanied by some less supportive views, including students with disabilities being taught only in specialised educational facilities or only where there were sufficient numbers of such students to make the investment in accessibility worthwhile. A number of universities in this study featured university admission requirements which could be classed as a discriminatory and not aligned with the requirements of the Thai government. In fact, this thesis revealed an almost total lack of awareness within the Thai university sector of Thai government policy regarding web accessibility and equality in education. This thesis proposed a Smart Thailand : Accessible Learning model and an associated implementation framework which together might lead to an environment in which Thai universities would be more willing and able to implement the tenets of web accessibility and provide an equitable learning experience for all Thai citizens, especially those with disabilities

Policy Issues regarding Electronic Government and Web Accessibility in Japan

World Library and Information Congress: 72nd IFLA General Conference and Council. Seoul, Korea, Aug. 20-24, 2006."The Japanese government has been developing infrastructures and services for electronic government since 2001. One of the challenges identified in this regard is to ensure “accessibility” or to enable everyone, including the elderly and those with disabilities, to access the infrastructures and services of an electronic government. In 2004, the JIS (Japan Industrial Standard) X 8341-3 was issued as a Web accessibility standard in Japan. It is expected to function as a basis to ensure the Web accessibility of the electronic government in the central and local governments in Japan. Recently, however, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications found a widespread lack of understanding of and respect toward the JIS X 8341-3 among the local governments in Japan. In December 2005, a study group under this ministry proposed “Operational Models to Improve Accessibility of Public Web sites” in order to supplement the JIS X 8341-3. Thus, this paper reviews the standards and policy initiatives for improving the Web accessibility of the electronic government in Japan and discusses the challenges faced by libraries to ensure the provision of access to government information in terms of Web accessibility and electronic government.

Designing Universally Accessible Networking Services for a Mobile Personal Assistant

At present, a tendency towards smaller computer sizes and at the same time increasingly inaccessible web content can be noted. Despite the worldwide recognized importance of Web accessibility, the lack of accessibility of web services has an increasingly negative impact on all users. In order to address this issue, W3C has released a recommendation on Mobile Web Best Practices, supplementary to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This paper presents the design and prototype development of universally accessible networking services that fully comply with those standards. Validation and expert accessibility evaluation on the XHTML Basic prototypes present 100% compliance. The followed design process is presented in details, outlining general as well as specific issues and related solutions that may be of interest to other designers. The results will be further verified through user tests on implemented services