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As existing studies show the accuracy of sampling methods depends heavily on the evaluation metric in web accessibility evaluation, the purpose of this paper is to propose a sampling method OPS-WAQM optimized for Web Accessibility Quantitative Metric (WAQM). Furthermore, to support quick accessibility evaluation or real-time website accessibility monitoring, the authors also provide online extension for the sampling method.

In the OPS-WAQM method, the authors propose a minimal sampling error model for WAQM and use a greedy algorithm to approximately solve the optimization problem to determine the sample numbers in different layers. To make OPS-WAQM online, the authors apply the sampling in crawling strategy.

The sampling method OPS-WAQM and its online extension can both achieve good sampling quality by choosing the optimal sample numbers in different layers. Moreover, the online extension can also support quick accessibility evaluation by sampling and evaluating the pages in crawling.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the sampling method OPS-WAQM in this paper is the first attempt to optimize for a specific evaluation metric. Meanwhile, the online extension not only greatly reduces the serious I/O issues in existing web accessibility evaluation, but also supports quick web accessibility evaluation by sampling in crawling.

With the development of mobile internet, instant messaging (IM) applications have gradually changed the way to receive information and communicate with friends. Considered as one of the important social media platforms, WeChat is the most popular IM application in China. This paper aims to examine the influence factors of haze information’s dissemination in WeChat.

Based on the theory of information dissemination and the theory of motivation, three information dissemination elements including information source, information and information receiver were proposed in the structural equation model. The model was tested using data collected from both online and offline questionnaire survey results. The data analysis from 170 valid responses confirmed the path effects that emotional motivation, social motivation of information receiver and the credibility of information source positively influenced WeChat users’ re-transmission intention and information emotional tendency negatively influenced their re-transmission intention.

The research model revealed these key factors that affected dissemination of haze information in WeChat. More importantly, it provided a decision-making framework to release the public emergency information in WeChat. Hence, the paper made an important contribution to practical guidance to relevant decision makers.

This study contributes to the literature on examining factors affecting the haze information transmission in WeChat. A framework was proposed to describe the information dissemination process which comprises information source, information and information receiver.