Investigating the appropriateness and relevance of mobile web accessibility guidelines

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develop and maintain guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 and the MWBP 1.0 are internationally regarded as the industry standard guidelines for web accessibility. Mobile testing sessions conducted by AbilityNet document issues raised by users in a report format, relating issues to guidelines wherever possible. This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation that examines how effectively and easily these issues can be related by experts to the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0 and MWBP 1.0. Copyright 2014 ACM

How Well Do Ontario Library Web Sites Meet New Accessibility Requirements?

New changes to Ontario law will require library web sites to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). This study evaluates 64 Ontario university, college, and public library web sites to see how well they comply with WCAG 2.0 guidelines at present. An average of 14.75 accessibility problems were found per web page. The most common problems included invalid html, poor color contrast, incorrect form controls and labels, missing alt text, bad link text, improper use of headings, using html to format pages, using absolute units of measure, and issues with tables and embedded objects

On the testability of WCAG 2.0 for beginners

Web accessibility for people with disabilities is a highly visible area of research in the field of ICT accessibility, including many policy activities across many countries. The commonly accepted guidelines for web accessibility (WCAG 1.0) were published in 1999 and have been extensively used by designers, evaluators and legislators. W3C-WAI published a new version of these guidelines (WCAG 2.0) in December 2008. One of the main goals of WCAG 2.0 was testability, that is, WCAG 2.0 should be either machine testable or reliably human testable. In this paper we present an educational experiment performed during an intensive web accessibility course. The goal of the experiment was to assess the testability of the 25 level-A success criteria of WCAG 2.0 by beginners. To do this, the students had to manually evaluate the accessibility of the same web page. The result was that only eight success criteria could be considered to be reliably human testable when evaluators were beginners. We also compare our experiment with a similar study published recently. Our work is not a conclusive experiment, but it does suggest some parts of WCAG 2.0 to which special attention should be paid when training accessibility evaluator

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

Holistic approaches to e‐learning accessibility

The importance of accessibility to digital e‐learning resources is widely acknowledged. The World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative has played a leading role in promoting the importance of accessibility and developing guidelines that can help when developing accessible web resources. The accessibility of e‐learning resources provides additional challenges. While it is important to consider the technical and resource related aspects of e‐learning when designing and developing resources for students with disabilities, there is a need to consider pedagogic and contextual issues as well. A holistic framework is therefore proposed and described, which in addition to accessibility issues takes into account learner needs, learning outcomes, local factors, infrastructure, usability and quality assurance. The practical application and implementation of this framework is discussed and illustrated through the use of examples and case studies

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

Achieving Accessible Rich Internet Applications

This work presents guidelines on making accessible Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). The guidelines have been developed based on a thorough literature review, summarizing the current accessibility issues related to RIA. Existing solutions and recommendations have been processed and converted into a set of guidelines, aimed at those responsible for developing RIA solutions. Participants working with web development and accessibility evaluated the guidelines. The most important contribution from this project to the field of web accessibility research is strong indications of a need for process oriented accessibility guidelines