Development of a web-based insulin decision aid for the elderly: usability barriers and guidelines

In recent years, researchers have attempted to shift patient decision aids (PDAs) from paper-based to web-based to increase its accessibility. Insulin decision aids help diabetes patients, most of whom are elderly to make an informed decision to start insulin. However, the lack of usability guidelines applicable for such target group causes developers to struggle to answer the challenging question ‘How can such web service be made usable, and, ultimately, acceptable and accessible for elderly patients?’. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the common usability requirements that may facilitate good practices to empower elderly diabetes patients in utilizing a web-based insulin decision aid for their benefit. We set out an approach to use prototyping and retrospective think-aloud techniques to explore web usability barriers that elderly patients may encounter when using an insulin decision aid web site and use the feedback for improving the prototype. Usability requirements were captured iteratively through scoping, brainstorming, prototype, testing and evaluating. The study suggests that the insights from experts and users are equally important to assure the validity of the identified usability guidelines; they reflect the accessibility needs of the aging community while complementing the key requirements of an insulin decision aid. The study contributes to recommend web usability guidelines backed by a series of expert and user evaluations which could be a proactive resource to improve usability, acceptability and accessibility of online insulin decision aids for elderly with diabetes

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

Empirical Studies on Web Accessibility of Educational Websites: A Systematic Literature Review

Web accessibility means that people with some type of disability can make use of the Web in the same conditions as the rest of the people. When we talk about web accessibility, we refer to a web design and development that allows these people to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web. Web accessibility also benefits other people, including elderly people whose abilities have declined as a result of age. The Web is an essential resource in human activity: education, employment, government, commerce, health, entertainment and many others benefit of the power of the Web. The aim of this systematic literature review is to analyze the empirical methods of evaluating accessibility to educational websites, disabilities and their errors described in a total of 25 selected studies. The results show that in 20 of the 25 papers, web accessibility was evaluated with automatic tools, in 2 papers it was evaluated with real users and in the other 3 papers with automatic tools, real users and experts. There is also evidence that all the educational websites analyzed in the papers need to correct errors. In conclusion, educational websites do not meet any version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and their conformance levels. According to the results, the empirical evaluation methods used for web accessibility could be improved by adopting automatic evaluation tools for website construction and manual mechanisms with web accessibility experts. The challenge for educational institutions is to carry out web accessibility projects to comply with WCAG and other web accessibility standards and current laws of educational inclusion.This work was supported in part by the Catholic University of Cuenca and in part by the EduTech Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union under Grant 609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

A framework for accessible m-government implementation

The great popularity and rapid diffusion of mobile technologies at worldwide level has also been recognised by the public sector, leading to the creation of m-government. A major challenge for m-government is accessibility – the provision of an equal service to all citizens irrespective of their psychical, mental or technical capabilities. This paper sketches the profiles of six citizen groups: Visually Impaired, Hearing Impaired, Motor Impaired, Speech Impaired, Cognitive Impaired and Elderly. M-government examples that target the aforementioned groups are discussed and a framework for accessible m-government implementation with reference to the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices is proposed

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.

Agriculture for Life: A Guide for Health Promotion and Participation for Farmers with Health Challenges

Background/Purpose: With a growing number of people using the Internet to access health information, the need for reliable and accessible content is increasingly important. Challenges in health literacy and web accessibility can significantly decrease ones ability to prevent, treat, or adapt to illness or injury. Increasingly, agricultural producers are utilizing computers and technology, as Internet access becomes more widespread through rural areas. Farmers and ranchers are at a high risk for injury and disability due to the physical nature and long hours of the occupation. Agriculture for Life aims to provide reliable and accessible web-based health information for New Mexico agriculture producers, so they may remain productive in agriculture throughout the lifespan. A literature review was conducted in order to establish principles of health literacy and web accessibility for Agriculture for Life content. Methods: The literature review utilized the databases of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), PubMed, CINAHL, WorldCat, and ScienceDirect. Search terms regarding health and internet literacy were found using combinations of the following search terms: health, literacy, agriculture, elderly, rural population, ehealth, older adults, aging farmers, internet use, older adult disability, and health services in rural areas. Research articles related to web accessibility were found using combinations of the following search terms: web accessibility, disability, website design, accessibility, rural, agriculture, and health information. Seventeen resources were identified to contribute to the literature review. Because few recent articles exist, research was expanded to include reputable government and nonprofit websites containing reliable information regarding health literacy and web accessibility. Results: Research has shown that health literacy and web accessibility are important to consider when developing eHealth content. To reach an audience effectively, web-based health content must use concise and simple language, avoid medical jargon, and be designed to allow access for those with disabilities. Health literacy and web accessibility principles gathered from the literature review will help guide the creation of content and website design for Agriculture for Life. Examples of content are provided. Conclusion: Agriculture for Life is a conceptualized product of online health promotion for New Mexico farmers and ranchers. This paper serves as an example of the process involved in designing evidence-supported, web-based health promotion.\u2

Development and testing of a thai website accessibility evaluation tool

This paper deals with the important problem that there is no help with the accessibility evaluations of Thailand’s web by developing and evaluating a new method and tool online, WebThai2Access, with experts, developers, and users with disabilities. This tool was evaluated by 30 developers, 30 hearing impaired people, 30 visually impaired people, and 30 elderly people. The developers evaluated the websites whereas experimental tasks were given to each disabled group based on the problems they had accessing web information. The developers found WebThai2Access very usable and the 15 test criteria were reliable for evaluating websites. The lower and upper 95% limits for confidence ratings of developers were minus or plus 10% for YouTube and Pantip websites and minus or plus 3% with the blind association website. The 95% lower and upper limits of confidence were minus or plus 5% for hearing impaired users, minus or plus 2% for elderly users and minus or plus 0% for visually impaired users. The results therefore showed WebThai2Access was reliable and accessible for developers whose evaluations reasonably well predicted website accessibility for users with disabilities

Techniques for the Publication of Accessible Multimedia Content on the Web

Multimedia has become one of the most important sources of information and communication on the web. However, despite recent technological progress, people with disabilities and the elderly face difficulties accessing multimedia on the web. In some cases, these difficulties are impossible to overcome and are a fundamental cause of digital exclusion. Given the importance of this topic, several investigations on the problems of accessing multimedia resources have been carried out. Some organizations have also proposed certain standards to guide the creation and publication of accessible web content. Nevertheless, the authoring tools used in the process of publishing multimedia on the web do not offer all the accessibility features required. Authoring tools can also be used by people who do not have knowledge about web accessibility or programming, resulting in web publications lacking accessibility. This research proposes 278 novel techniques to guide authors, designers, programmers, and testers in the publication of accessible and inclusive multimedia on the web. These techniques are designed to guarantee the compliance with the recommended success criteria of Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 of the World Wide Web Consortium. Moreover, these techniques can be used to evaluate the accessibility of the existing authoring tools used to create multimedia for the web. Additionally, we present 80 possible failures that can cause the non-fulfillment of ATAG 2.0. These failures can help authors discern what to avoid and help evaluators check whether particular multimedia is accessible.This work was supported in part by the Study of Accessibility Requirements of Multimedia Content on the Web: Case Study MOOC under Research Project PII-DETRI-2019-03, in part by the EduTech under Project 609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP, and in part by the Erasmus C Programme of the European Union

Evaluation of Web Accessibility of Higher Education Institutions in Chile

The aim of this study is to assess the web accessibility concerning the websites of Chilean universities which are listed in The World University Rankings. Web accessibility is a fundamental factor in achieving a true educational inclusion. It is especially important in the light of the current trend of expanding not only the online content, but also online learning. What makes this even more essential is the Chilean legislation which under Law 20422 establishes the regulations regarding equality of opportunity and social inclusion of people with disabilities. The analysis has been conducted on the basis of the international standard set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), version WCAG 2.0. Evaluation methodology called WCAG-EM created by the same entity, has been applied in the analysis. Various automatic web accessibility evaluation tools have also been used, apart from manual verifications. The study reveals that the websites of Chilean universities have hardly complied with the regulation and that there are barriers and difficulties of access for the elderly and/or people with disabilities.Educació

Accessibility to mobile interfaces for older people

Proceedings of: 5th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion, DSAI 2013. Took place in November 13-15, 2013, in Vigo, Spain. The event web site is http://dsai2013.utad.pt/Accessibility is a major concern in our society nowadays. However, technology is always one step ahead and new devices appear before we can address the accessibility problems for the older ones. People with disabilities are not the only ones that are being excluded by technologies. Indeed, there is an exponential growth of the elderly population that suffers from age-related disabilities. Accessibility issues should be in mind for developers. Unfortunately, addressing these issues is even harder in new devices like mobile phones and tablets where there is not a proper set of guidelines focusing on this domain. This work provides: (1) a set of guidelines to keep in mind in order to achieve accessibility in mobile interfaces for older people. This checklist is the result of a review study of the literature, standards and best practices that are being performed in this area of knowledge, (2) use of this accessibility checklist aimed at elderly people, a survey of three mobile native Apps on android platform has been carried out, these Apps have as aim to modify the default interface for another more accessible one.Publicad