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This paper aims to describe a variety of accessibility initiatives implemented at the Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries to better support persons with disabilities who want to use and access library services and resources.

By using two campus accessibility policies to help expand and improve its accessibility efforts, the MSU Libraries implemented accessibility purchasing procedures for e-resources; drafted a five-year accessibility plan, which launched an extensive multi-year staff accessibility training plan and detailed plans for content accessibility and accessibility investment; dedicated additional library staff positions and time to accessibility; drafted an accessibility statement and website documentation; established an in-house remediation service; increased library web page and collection remediation; and began leading efforts related to vendor e-resource accessibility in the Big Ten Academic Alliance library consortium.

As a result of these many accessibility initiatives, the MSU Libraries has thought strategically about and taken action on constantly improving its accessibility in a variety of areas; provided or hosted 29 staff accessibility training sessions; implemented new accessibility positions, roles and services; and helped influence and improve library e-resource accessibility, especially through its leadership in the Big Ten library consortium.

Most libraries strive to provide welcoming access to information and library services for all users, including persons with disabilities, but resources and literature on comprehensive accessibility initiatives in academic libraries are somewhat limited. The library accessibility initiatives implemented by a large, academic research library shared in this paper will hopefully contribute to the much-needed library and information science literature on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the aspects to be considered when evaluating web search engines' accessibility for people with disabilities. The authors provide an overview of related work and outline a theoretical framework for a comprehensive accessibility study of web search engines, regarding the principles of disability studies and the idea of inclusion.

The paper is based on a literature review, and an aggregation of recommended actions in practice, mainly the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) evaluation model.

A good way to conduct an accessibility study in a comprehensive manner is the WAI methodology consisting of three‐steps: preliminary review to quickly identify potential accessibility problems; conformance evaluation to determine whether a website meets established accessibility standards; and user testing to include real people with disabilities in a practical use. For the use case “web search engines” some special issues have to be taken into consideration.

The paper can be seen as a brainstorming and describes a theoretical concept of how to do. Conclusions about actual barriers of web search engines and criteria of satisfaction for people with disabilities do not exist as of yet; the model is not tested so far.

This paper provides practical implications for researchers who want to conduct an accessibility study, especially of web search engines. Findings of such studies can have practical implications for web search engine developers to improve accessibility of their product. The accessibility of web search engines does not only have implications for people with special needs, but also for the elderly or temporarily handicapped people.

This paper combines findings from web search engine research with aspects of disability studies. Therefore, it provides insights for researches, search engine developers and educators in practice on how important accessibility of web search engines for people with disabilities is, how it can be measured and what aspects need to be considered.

This paper aims to identify the factors influencing the implementation of web accessibility.

Following the theoretical framework three hypotheses were developed. The database consisted of 108 non‐financial firms listed in the Dow Jones Industrial, CAC‐40, DAX and IBEX35 indexes. A multivariate regression equation was used to test the hypotheses.

Reasons for the implementation of web accessibility are technical rather than social or financial. The implementation of web accessibility is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the operations of the firm. Furthermore, web accessibility policies are more important in countries where the incorporation of the firms into the net has taken place at a date some time after the beginning of the scheme.

An implication of the results is the advisability of orienting governmental policies to raise awareness that web accessibility should be part of corporate social responsibility activities.

This is a pioneering empirical study of the factors influencing web accessibility. The results of the present research are of interest to other countries.

Identifying the different user needs and capabilities of individuals online, the aim of this research is to highlight the importance of “web content accessibility” in effective online communication. In particular, identifying the statistical size of disabled and “challenged” individuals in the marketplace, the paper identifies a competitive mandate for considering online accessibility. In addition, a developing legal mandate, based on the idea that access to information also involves access to opportunity and participation, is set out. Having identified the importance of the accessibility issue, the second aim of the research is to provide an assessment of current levels of online accessibility, as well as to compare these with the limited published research in this area.

Following previous accessibility research, the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines”, produced by the “Web Accessibility Initiative”, are adopted as the de facto standards for accessibility. Against these standards, a sample of UK hotel web pages was then assessed utilising the software assessment tool, “Bobby”. Given the limitations of the Bobby software to assess web sites against all the de facto standards, additional manual checks were also made.

The hotel web sites revealed very poor levels of accessibility in both absolute and relative terms. Examining the data collected manually revealed that the poor level of accessibility is likely to result from a lack of awareness of the critical issues and techniques required for providing access. If organisations want to maximise their online reach, then an outside‐in, user‐centred approach is therefore necessary.

Provides a framework as to how organisations might usefully implement a web content accessibility strategy.

Enables web authors to evaluate their content from an accessibility perspective.

The purpose of this research is to examine web accessibility initiative (WAI) guidelines for web accessibility so as to incorporate web accessibility in information systems (IS) curriculum.

The authors used the WebXact software accessibility evaluation tool to test the top pages of web sites of the 23 California State University (CSU) campuses in order to identify the level of compliance to federal standards. The authors also designed and conducted a questionnaire to survey the students who were enrolled in the first web development course at CSU, Dominguez Hills to access their knowledge and skills in various web accessibility topics.

The research findings show that the majority of the CSU campuses' top web pages failed to meet WAI guidelines at some point. Moreover, two‐thirds of the students who responded to the survey have no knowledge of web accessibility topics included in the questionnaires. The results indicate that IS programs failed to incorporate accessibility in their curricula and produce web developers with the skills and knowledge in web accessibility.

The limitation of this research is that the sample size is small. The authors intend to increase the number of universities' web site in the test and survey all students in the IS program in a future study.

This research is background work that will help the authors to incorporate accessibility topics in their web development courses that include web accessibility basic concepts, universal design, Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, web content accessibility guidelines, WAI guidelines for web accessibility, and web accessibility testing tools.

This research improves the current state of web accessibility in curriculum higher education.

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.

Information exchange is important in any transaction but is perhaps particularly important for transactions in the travel and tourism industry where information gratification plays such a crucial role. Internet‐based technologies allow organisations to exchange information with an often geographically dispersed and wider marketplace without a loss of quality. However, merely being online, publishing a Web site is not enough. Organisations need to ensure their Web sites obtain “traffic” or “hits” and, importantly, that the content of their sites is accessible. Accessible Web sites mean access for all, accommodating different user capabilities and needs. This research examines the emerging competitive and legal imperatives to consider the issue of Web content accessibility as well as what makes for an accessible Web site. In spite of the strong competitive and legal imperatives for accessibility, a survey of 100 UK and German‐based travel and tourism Web sites conducted here revealed disappointingly low levels of accessibility. As the Internet and Web come to play a more important part in individual lives, this finding suggests that many organisations need to work harder to ensure that their often considerable investments achieve what they set out to do – communicate effectively with what they hope is a larger marketplace.

Millions of computer users in the USA have a disability making it difficult to use the Web. The University of Wisconsin System recently required that all System Web pages meet Priority 1 accessibility guidelines as set by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI). Class materials available in online learning management systems should also be accessible to students with disabilities. Four systems, Blackboard 4 and 5, Prometheus 3, and WebCT 3, were assessed against theW3C/WAI guidelines for a numerical statistic of accessibility. Practical accessibility was tested with Lynx, IBM Homepage Reader, and JAWS. Validation was performed with A‐Prompt and the W3C/WAI checklist.

Implementation of recommended design strategies can potentially allow any Web‐based learning program to be made accessible to learners who use adaptive technologies. However, one of the greatest barriers to achieving this goal is the lack of authoring tools that support course content developers in adhering to existing accessibility guidelines. In order to ensure universal access, attention must be given to Web pages generated automatically by courseware programs, as well as those uploaded from an external source. Courseware authoring environments could easily include utilities to support developers in making their online resources accessible. This paper will review products recently available on the market using the guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative as a framework for analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the web_access project, funded through the EC Lifelong Learning Programme. The paper aims to provide a context for the proposed study programme and describe current work in the development of the curriculum and content.

Analysis has been undertaken of the state of the art in education and training for accessible web design in the English language, starting with the national situation in the UK and then further‐a‐field by highlighting international resources. The main outcome of the two‐year multilateral, multi‐partner project is to develop a joint study programme in accessible web design.

While there is evidence of the inclusion of design for all in ICT teaching, as well as the provision of free and commercial tutorials and workshops, analysis has found provision to be fragmented and none to date has been identified as leading to a professional qualification or certificate in accessible web design that is recognised by industry or employers. The proposed curriculum for the study programme described in this paper aims to address this issue.

While there is evidence of the inclusion of design for all in ICT teaching, as well as the provision of free and commercial tutorials and workshops, analysis has found provision to be fragmented and none to date has been identified as leading to a professional qualification or certificate in accessible web design that is recognised by industry or employers.