Is your web page accessible?

2005

Abstract Web access for users with disabilities is an important goal and challenging problem for web content developers and designers. This paper presents a comparison of different methods for finding accessibility problems affecting users who are blind. Our comparison focuses on techniques that might be of use to Web developers without accessibility experience, a large and important group that represents a major source of inaccessible pages.

2012

Abstract This paper describes an empirical study of the problems encountered by 32 blind users on the Web. Task-based user evaluations were undertaken on 16 websites, yielding 1383 instances of user problems. The results showed that only 50.4% of the problems encountered by users were covered by Success Criteria in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).

Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Web Site Evolution

Tim Berners-Lee, the W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web: "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." ! Vanderheiden in 1990 states the importance of the design of Web Sites accessible to disable and elder peoples ! Carter and Markel state that the development of an accessible Web Site opens vast potential markets and has spillover effects for all users.

Accessibility in Web Design - Evaluating Current Practices and Technologies, 2024

This dissertation examines the current state of web accessibility, focusing on the evaluation of existing practices and technologies in meeting the needs of all users, including those with disabilities. Despite significant advancements in web technologies, many websites still fall short of providing truly inclusive experiences. This study aims to bridge the gap between current accessibility implementations and the actual requirements of users with diverse abilities. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining automated accessibility testing tools, manual expert evaluations, and user testing with individuals with disabilities. A comprehensive analysis of various websites across different industries is conducted, using evaluation criteria based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Key findings reveal discrepancies between automated and manual testing results, highlighting the limitations of purely technological solutions. The study also identifies industry-specific trends in accessibility implementation and explores the effectiveness of various assistive technologies, including screen readers, alternative input devices, and emerging AI-powered tools. Based on these findings, the dissertation provides recommendations for best practices in accessible web design, strategies for improving existing websites, and suggestions for enhancing accessibility standards and guidelines. Additionally, it proposes new approaches and technologies to address identified gaps in current practices. This research contributes to the field of web accessibility by offering a comprehensive evaluation of current practices and technologies, while also providing practical insights for web designers, developers, and policymakers to create more inclusive digital experiences.

International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 2011

Searching for relevant information on the web is an important aspect of distance learning. This activity is a challenge for visually impaired distance learners. While sighted people have the ability to filter information in a fast and non sequential way, blind persons rely on tools that process the information in a sequential way. Learning is slowed by screen readers which do not interact well with web pages. This paper introduces WAVES, a tool for the fast retrieval of information in a web page for blind and visually impaired people. The paper describes the WAVES prototype, a system that performs a page restructuring of webpages. The system analyzes webpages, identifies elements of interests from a webpage, evaluates their importance by using semantic information and visual cues, sorts them by importance and uses them to restructure the webpage so that data from the original webpage are presented to the reader in a concise format. A preliminary evaluation test of the prototype syst...

2006

The Web is becoming more important for communication and for data access. Unfortunately, not all Web sites are accessible for all users. Web accessibility is concerned with overcoming the barriers that users with disabilities face when they try to access information on Web sites. Currently, for disabled users, the Web presents many barriers that make it diffiult to use. These

International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2016

Despite the importance of web accessibility in recent years, websites remain partially or completely inaccessible to certain sectors of the population. This is due to several reasons, including web developers' little or no experience in accessibility and the lack of accurate information about the best ways to quickly and easily identify accessibility problems using different Accessibility Evaluation Methods (AEMs). This paper surveys accessibility literature and presents a general overview of the primary challenges of accessibility barriers on websites. In this sense, we critically investigate main challenges forms related to accessibility including standards and guidelines (WCAG 2.0), during website's design and development and during evaluation. Finally, a set of recommendations such as enforcing accessibility legislations are presented to overcome some challenges.

Electronic notes in …, 2006

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from W3C consist of a set of 65 checkpoints or specifications that Web pages should accomplish in order to be accessible to people with disabilities or using alternative browsers. Many of these 65 checkpoints can only be checked by a human operator, thus implying a very high cost for full evaluation. However, some checkpoints can be automatically evaluated, thus spotting accessibility barriers in a very effective manner. Well known tools like Bobby, Tawdis or WebXACT evaluate Web ...

Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Research …, 2009

This paper introduces a methodology to improve the accessibility of websites with the use of free so-called automatic tools. The methodology has three iterative phases, namely assessing a website against accessibility guidelines, user testing and creating in-house 'guidelines' to prevent similar mistakes in future versions of the system. Aspects of accessibility addressed include the use of colour, accessibility guidelines and priorities, readability or comprehensibility, and screen reader simulators. We recommend free tools for each of these accessibility aspects and discuss the process that should be followed when evaluating a website.

Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Web Engineering, 2003

The Internet offers new possibilities to the access of information, but sometimes the design of web pages obstructs the contents making them inaccessible to everybody, especially for those people with visual disabilities. Accessibility of web pages is an area that is gaining more and more interest. Not only do we have technique recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium but also legal policies following these recommendations in several countries. In order to measure the fulfilment of these guidelines, different tools have been designed. These tools are useful mainly from the point of view of designers. However, they do not offer a global indicator of accessibility to endusers at the moment of surfing the net. For visually handicapped people, especially blind people, not only is a way necessary to know the degree of accessibility of web pages when being visited (not only the page as a whole, but also the different parts of the page). In the context of the project KAI (Kit for the Accessibility to the Internet), an accessibility measurement module has been developed, able to give a global indicator of accessibility at the moment of surfing the net. Moreover, the degree to which accessibility can be obtained in an independent way for each element belonging to the web page. This paper presents the main ideas behind this module.