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This study seeks to provide insightful information about web accessibility based on human judgment in one Asian country (i.e. South Korea) in comparison to the USA.

This study applies both the automated software tool and the human review of web content to measure website accessibility.

Overall accessibility errors found from the Korean government websites are approximately two times higher than those from the US government websites. The accessibility errors are found in virtually every non‐text information content group. Finally, results of the manual evaluation conducted by human experts show fewer accessibility errors than those found in the evaluation conducted by the automated software tool.

Because of the limited number of the websites evaluated and the automated software tools used in this study, the generalization of its findings may be inappropriate. However, the redundant accessibility errors identified by the automated software tools discussed in this study shall encourage research activities to improve these tools. Finally, a longitudinal study to identify effective mechanisms improving website accessibility and further studies on effects of cultural differences among countries on their website design would be useful.

The high accessibility errors found from Korean Websites may suggest the need for legal enforcement or other additional mechanisms in Korea to improve web accessibility among Korean organizations.

The results of this study can help experts efforts to implement policies to priovide equal internet opportunities for the elderly and the disabled.

Busan (Pusan), Korea’s second largest city (population 3.6 million) and fifth busiest port in the world, is experiencing rapidly increasing trade, global connections, events, and resulting infrastructural projects. What should Busan do to better handle the social, political, and economic complexities brought by these changes?

To answer this question, this paper explores the relationship of globalization and culture, as treated by cultural anthropology. It also considers how the tools of applied social science and anthropology can be mobilized to help Busan and the southeast region of Korea deal with these challenges.

After introducing anthropological treatments of culture, globalization and global problems, I discuss how applied social science/anthropology is used in international business/trade, tourism, and transport/logistics, especially the third area. To show how applied social science can help transportation and logistics projects in Busan and Korea, I present lessons from case studies and examples in Denver, Colorado Springs, Chuuk (Truk, South Pacific), and Korea.

Applied social science and applied anthropology present a wealth of helpful methods and insights to help Busan and Korea improve planning, public participation, political, social and environmental issues in transport and logistics projects, and to help prevent ethical and budgetary lapses. Finally, I offer suggestions for initial training programs and future studies to help expedite these goals.