Search results

The purpose of this research is to facilitate the full potential of the web for the people with disabilities. People with disabilities may fail to make full use of the potentials offered by the web even if they have the right hardware (computer and assistive technologies) as well as access to the internet because of the lack of accessibility.

This research outlines the guidelines that provide the foundation for building an accessibility-aware framework approach, where people with disabilities can access most of the electronic contents based on their disability levels.

The framework helps web engineers in developing accessible web pages for all types of users. Disability profile examples (blindness, low vision, deafness and hard of hearing) were taken to determine the performance of the framework approach.

The validation and testing was carried out on the Sultan Qaboos University website. The framework approach could be further validated by performing the tests on various other public and private websites.

The guidelines can be used as a road map to overcome accessibility challenges during any web application development life cycle. A proper testing and evaluation is carried out on the framework to test its usability.

Although people with disabilities are perhaps the segment of society which are expected to gain the most from these technologies, they are facing barriers to access the contents of the web because of the way it is presented. This proposed framework could assist all the people with the disability of blindness and hearing impairment to have a better experience with the internet, making the technology more beneficial and usable to them. In the future, this approach can be extended for the people with other disabilities.

This research provides a pioneering concept for accessibility-aware framework approach. This approach could be utilized for developing accessible web applications and electronic services for people with disabilities. The proposed framework can be used as a road map to overcome accessibility challenges during any web application development life cycle.

The purpose of this paper is to identify important principles which should be applied to electronic library websites to make them usable for all people.

The goal of this paper was to make the simplified user interface of Hungarian Electronic Library (VMEK) more accessible and usable by leveraging the latest technologies, standards and recommendations. Vision-impaired and motor-disabled people were also involved in brainstorming and collecting ideas during the design phase and in testing the implemented website.

This paper showed that the perspicuity of the Web page is greatly improved by semantically correct HTML codes, clearly defined links and alt attributes, hotkeys and typographic principles.

The paper presents the design principles of electronic library Web pages which can be applied by Web developers and content managers. The paper identifies design principles, which improve the perspicuity of user interfaces to a great extent (especially in the case of blind users); draws attention to the typographic principles, which promote reading and understanding documents; and recommends guidelines for developing electronic library home pages and managing the content of these home pages.

This paper bridges the gap between the information and library science field and the Web accessibility and usability field. Based on brainstorming results where people with various kinds of disabilities were involved, the paper gives 11 recommendations which should be taken into account while designing and developing electronic library websites to ensure equal access to their services and documents.

In an effort to ensure vendor compliance with Section 508, some libraries have begun requesting Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) or other documentation of accessibility compliance. The purpose of this paper is to assess the accuracy of vendor-supplied compliance documentation, and to identify common accessibility issues highlighted by the VPATs. A detailed discussion of vendor responses to each Section 508 checkpoint is provided in the Appendix.

Researchers compared 17 VPATs with the results of an automated accessibility scan to identify inconsistencies and common problems.

Vendors reported being fully compliant with 64 percent of the applicable VPAT items, and partially compliant with a further 24 percent. However, in 16 of 17 cases, there were discrepancies between the information on the VPAT and the results of the scan. Of the total 189 VPAT checkpoints the author scanned, 19.6 percent had errors (meaning the information on the VPAT was inaccurate 19.6 percent of the time).

Several VPAT checkpoints could not be automatically verified by the scan. Instead they require manual/visual verification, which the author did not do. Because the author only scanned three pages of each resource, the author was not able to check all content.

Vendor-supplied accessibility documentation should not be taken at face value, but requires verification and follow up to ensure its accuracy. This study also identified some of the most common accessibility issues, which will help both librarians and vendors improve their products and services.

Other studies have analyzed the accessibility of library resources and specifically vendor databases, but none have assessed the accuracy of vendor-supplied Section 508 compliance documentation.

Millions of visually impaired people (VIP) in the world still face difficulties browsing the Web and accessing information. This paper aims to present a proxy service that takes advantage of the concept of context-aware to help contextualizing web pages for visually impaired users.

The VIP-aware proxy combines five components to utilize the user preferences, adapts the requested web page and reorganizes its content to best match the preferences set by the user. This new scenario will assist VIP in browsing the Web more effectively.

A preliminary evaluation of the system resulted in general user satisfaction.

The VIP-aware proxy will provide users with a clean, accessible web page, save them time when screen readers examine content related to their preferences and save them money when unnecessary content is not downloaded.

The VIP-aware proxy presented in this paper is the first of its kind targeting VIP.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the pursuit of a high search engine relevance ranking for a webpage is not necessarily incompatible with the pursuit of web accessibility.

The research described arose from an investigation into the observed phenomenon that pages from accessible websites regularly appear near the top of search engine (such as Google) results, without any deliberate effort having been made through the application of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to achieve this. The reasons for this phenomenon appear to be found in the numerous similarities and overlapping characteristics between SEO factors and web accessibility guidelines. Context is provided through a review of sources including accessibility standards and relevant SEO studies and the relationship between SEO and web accessibility is described. The particular overlapping factors between the two are identified and the precise nature of the overlaps is explained in greater detail.

The available literature provides firm evidence that the overlapping factors not only serve to ensure the accessibility of a website for all users, but are also useful for the optimization of the website's search engine ranking. The research demonstrates that any SEO project undertaken should include, as a prerequisite, the proper design of accessible web content, inasmuch as search engines will interpret the web accessibility achieved as an indicator of quality and will be able to better access and index the resulting web content.

The present study indicates how developing websites with high visibility in search engine results also makes their content more accessible.

This paper presents an exploratory study on the accessibility of Spanish World Heritage website home pages in the Spanish language.

The study sample comprised 78 home pages from the institutional websites of the 47 cultural, natural and mixed assets considered as World Cultural Heritage by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). These home pages have been analysed using online accessibility validator tools, following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 recommendation for the different levels of priority. The compiled data were employed in a quantitative study on adherence to WCAG guidelines. Furthermore, the types of errors made using the perspective of accessibility and usability were identified, and the application rate was calculated for these accessibility guidelines according to the type of entity managed by the websites and pages.

The results show that more than 25 percent of the cases analysed had ten accessibility errors or fewer. Moreover, it was only necessary to correct one or two types of errors in close to 40 percent of them. The paper draws the conclusion that, despite technological and legislative advances that make public entity websites accessible, there is still much to do before complete web accessibility and usability at AA and AAA level can be achieved.

Identifying accessibility problems on institutional websites constitutes the first step towards creating web content that is easy to access and manage for users with disabilities. In this regard, this study contributes to improving web content according to objective guidelines such as those encouraged by the WCAG 2.0.

This article provides information on how accessibility and usability guidelines are implemented by institutional websites for Cultural Heritage deemed especially important. This is an issue with significant implications for users and for which, however, there is a lack of prior studies. As a result, the value and originality of this paper can be considered evident.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the changes in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 compared with WCAG 1.0 within the context of its historical development.

In order to compare WCAG 2.0 with WCAG 1.0 a diachronic analysis of the evolution of these standards is done. Known authors and publications in the field, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) web pages, WebAIM and the blogosphere were also monitored for comments and third‐party analyses. The analysis of the main changes from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0 was based on personal experience with WAI guidelines, experimentation with some of the new guidelines, and a selection of best practice online services in the application of the WCAG, including WAI documentation.

WCAG 2.0 is more educational and is applied to more technologies than WCAG 1.0. The limitations of WCAG 1.0 are mostly due to its origin. In changing from one to the other, new priorities and new elements must be taken into account. The paper concludes that though these guidelines are a useful tool for governments, they are only the first step towards accessibility, which can only be achieved through user‐centred design.

This paper explains the significance and limitations of the WCAG and gives a short guide to adapting web sites to the new regulations.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of AJAX for searching the Biblioteche Oggi database of bibliographic records.

The paper is a demonstration of how bibliographic database single page interfaces allow the implementation of more user‐friendly features for social and collaborative tasks.

AJAX is an important technique in Web 2.0. It allows the development of rich internet applications that use only one web page. Using AJAX it is possible to improve a bibliographic database's user interface. Thanks to this technology, bibliographic applications will be more flexible for updating and formatting information, simpler in managing session history, and easier for saving data modified by users. Usability tests demonstrated that users have appreciated the new interface, but accessibility remains a problem.

The paper highlights the use of a Web 2.0 tool for a relevant application in the library/information world.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study of the development, features and evaluation of a rich internet application for libraries. It aims to demonstrate best practice in the use of software standards, development processes and evaluation.

Web 2.0, open source design methods and usability testing were used within an agile framework.

The adoption of agile software development methods, coupled with usability testing, would enable the library community to take full advantage of the techniques and principles inherent in Web 2.0 open source software.

A major component of the evaluation of OJAX was a series of usability tests. As is the nature of most usability studies, the results are not generalisable.

Aspects of agile software development methods, such as usability testing and iterative design, are recognised in the literature as contributing to the usability of library software. However, exploration of the use of a full agile framework plus usability testing to facilitate Web 2.0 open source software is rare in library‐related literature.