- Email: [email protected]
Accessibility analysis of websites of educational institutions
Accepted Manuscript Title: Accessibility analysis of Websites of Educational Institutions Author: Nishtha Kesswani Sanjay Kumar PII: DOI: Reference:
S2213-0209(16)30050-7 http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.pisc.2016.04.031 PISC 198
To appear in: Received date: Accepted date:
15-1-2016 8-4-2016
Please cite this article as: Kesswani, N., Kumar, S.,Accessibility analysis of Websites of Educational Institutions, Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.04.031 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ip t
Central University of Rajasthan, BandarSindri, Kishangarh,Ajmer, India [email protected], [email protected]
an
a,b
us
Nishtha Kesswania, Sanjay Kumarb
cr
Accessibility analysis of Websites of Educational Institutions
Abstract
M
Earlier preparing accessible websites was not as important as it is today. Due to the increase in the accessibility issues and compliance of accessibility norms, there is an increasing research on the accessibility. In this paper we have tried to analyze the accessibility of the top educational
ed
institutions of different countries. Our main contributions of this paper are 1) Studying the present scenario of web accessibility compliance in the countries across the globe, with special focus on India 2) Analyzing selected websites of top universities and educational institutions of different
pt
countries, 3) Based on the analysis, results have been generated to indicate the web accessibility of the websites, 4) Suggestions on improvement of the web page design of the educational institutions
ce
have been given thereafter.
Ac
Keywords: Accessibility Analysis ; Websites
1. Introduction
Due to the increase in the requirement of highly accessible websites, governments have been trying to impose building up of more and more accessible websites. Many researchers have worked on accessibility. An assessment of the content quality of the websites of Portuguese schools has been done by Paula et al., 2014. The researchers have conducted a survey on basic attributes such as documentation, interactivity, customer support etc. Apart from this, some researchers like Iglesias et al, 2014 have focused their research
Page 1 of 6
2
on Learning Content Management System. They have performed a comparative study of three open source Learning Content Management Systems i.e. Moodle, Atutor, and Sakai. An analysis of the accessibility of the tools and the authoring system as per the guidelines has been done. The comparison was done on 4 parameters
ip t
namely Accessible templates and themes, accessible content editor, invasive Javascript and tables for layout.
Providing good quality education has always been a thrust for nations across the globe. And if the websites
cr
of educational institutions are not accessible to all, it might be difficult to reach the resources for some. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous papers has focused on the accessibility of the websites of the Top educational institutions across the globe. In this paper we have tried to analyze the accessibility of the
us
websites of Top educational institutions of different countries. A comparative analysis of the websites has been done on the basis of accessibility guidelines.
an
2. Web accessibility standards and guidelines
There are several standards that define the desired accessibility of the websites. These include the
M
standards specified by the World Wide Web Consortium that include W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which has further specified Guidelines like WAI’s Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG is an ISO/ IEC 40500:2012 standard for web
ed
content accessibility. According to this standard, the web content should meet some minimum requirements called “success criteria” Desirable requirements as per WCAG guidelines include providing text alternative for non-text content, provide alternative for media, Content should be presentable in different ways, Users
pt
should be able to see and hear content easily, All the functionality should be accessible through keyboard, Provide enough time to the users to use the content, Content should be navigable, Text content should be
future agents.
ce
readable and understandable, Web content should be predictable, Maximize compatibility with current and
Ac
3. Experiments and Results
During the Study, websites of Top Universities and educational institutions were analyzed for accessibility using WCAG 2.0. The evaluation was done using HERA, Test de accessibilidad Web (TAW) and Firefox Accessibility Evaluation Toolbar was used for manual evaluation. The list of Top Universities of different countries were collected from QS Top Universities and 4International Colleges and Universities. The countries that were selected for the analysis were an intermix of developing and developed nations. Figure 1 shows the number of Universities in the United Kingdom that Pass or Fail the desired criteria as specified under WCAG.
Page 2 of 6
an
us
cr
ip t
3
M
Fig. 1. Accessibility of Educational websites of United Kingdom
Figure 2 indicates the accessibility of the top 10 educational institutions of Russia and Figure 3
Ac
ce
pt
ed
indicates the accessibility of educational institutions’ websites in China.
Fig.2. Accessibility of websites of Russia
Page 3 of 6
4
M
an
us
cr
ip t
Fig. 2. Accessibility of Educational websites of Russia
Fig.3. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions of China
Ac
ce
pt
ed
Figure 4 and 5 indicate the accessibility of educational institutions in Germany and India.
Fig. 4. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions in Germany
Page 4 of 6
an
us
cr
ip t
5
Fig.5. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions in India
M
5. Conclusion and Future Work
The results indicate that in most of the countries, even though the governments are trying to impose the educational institutions to comply with the accessibility guidelines, still there needs to be much more effort in
ed
order to comply with the guidelines. Most of the educational institutions follow less than 50% of the guidelines. Major areas that need to be focussed upon include, ensuring that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully and providing device independence. This research work shall be extended in future to
pt
encompass a more in-depth study of accessibility.
Authoring Tool accessibility Guidelines, http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag.php. Firefox Web Accesibility Toolbahttps://www.mozilla.org/en US/firefox/new/?scene=2&utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign =non-fx-button#download-fx. HERA web accesibility tool, http://www.sidar.org/hera/ Iglesias, Ana, et al.,2014. Evaluating the accessibility of three open‐ source learning content management systems: A comparative study. Computer Applications in Engineering Education 22.2 ,p. 320-328. Salvador, Paula, and Álvaro Rocha,2014. An assessment of content quality in websites of basic and secondary Portuguese schools." New Perspectives in Information Systems and Technologies, Volume 1. Springer International Publishing, p. 71-82. TAW WCAG 2.0 analyzer, http://www.tawdis.net/. Web Accessibility Initiative from W3C, http://www.w3.org/WAI/. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php.
Ac
ce
References
Page 5 of 6
6
Ac
ce
pt
ed
M
an
us
cr
ip t
4International Colleges amd Universities, http://www.4icu.org/ QS TopUniversities, http://www.topuniversities.com/
Page 6 of 6
S2213-0209(16)30050-7 http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.pisc.2016.04.031 PISC 198
To appear in: Received date: Accepted date:
15-1-2016 8-4-2016
Please cite this article as: Kesswani, N., Kumar, S.,Accessibility analysis of Websites of Educational Institutions, Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.04.031 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ip t
Central University of Rajasthan, BandarSindri, Kishangarh,Ajmer, India [email protected], [email protected]
an
a,b
us
Nishtha Kesswania, Sanjay Kumarb
cr
Accessibility analysis of Websites of Educational Institutions
Abstract
M
Earlier preparing accessible websites was not as important as it is today. Due to the increase in the accessibility issues and compliance of accessibility norms, there is an increasing research on the accessibility. In this paper we have tried to analyze the accessibility of the top educational
ed
institutions of different countries. Our main contributions of this paper are 1) Studying the present scenario of web accessibility compliance in the countries across the globe, with special focus on India 2) Analyzing selected websites of top universities and educational institutions of different
pt
countries, 3) Based on the analysis, results have been generated to indicate the web accessibility of the websites, 4) Suggestions on improvement of the web page design of the educational institutions
ce
have been given thereafter.
Ac
Keywords: Accessibility Analysis ; Websites
1. Introduction
Due to the increase in the requirement of highly accessible websites, governments have been trying to impose building up of more and more accessible websites. Many researchers have worked on accessibility. An assessment of the content quality of the websites of Portuguese schools has been done by Paula et al., 2014. The researchers have conducted a survey on basic attributes such as documentation, interactivity, customer support etc. Apart from this, some researchers like Iglesias et al, 2014 have focused their research
Page 1 of 6
2
on Learning Content Management System. They have performed a comparative study of three open source Learning Content Management Systems i.e. Moodle, Atutor, and Sakai. An analysis of the accessibility of the tools and the authoring system as per the guidelines has been done. The comparison was done on 4 parameters
ip t
namely Accessible templates and themes, accessible content editor, invasive Javascript and tables for layout.
Providing good quality education has always been a thrust for nations across the globe. And if the websites
cr
of educational institutions are not accessible to all, it might be difficult to reach the resources for some. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous papers has focused on the accessibility of the websites of the Top educational institutions across the globe. In this paper we have tried to analyze the accessibility of the
us
websites of Top educational institutions of different countries. A comparative analysis of the websites has been done on the basis of accessibility guidelines.
an
2. Web accessibility standards and guidelines
There are several standards that define the desired accessibility of the websites. These include the
M
standards specified by the World Wide Web Consortium that include W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which has further specified Guidelines like WAI’s Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG is an ISO/ IEC 40500:2012 standard for web
ed
content accessibility. According to this standard, the web content should meet some minimum requirements called “success criteria” Desirable requirements as per WCAG guidelines include providing text alternative for non-text content, provide alternative for media, Content should be presentable in different ways, Users
pt
should be able to see and hear content easily, All the functionality should be accessible through keyboard, Provide enough time to the users to use the content, Content should be navigable, Text content should be
future agents.
ce
readable and understandable, Web content should be predictable, Maximize compatibility with current and
Ac
3. Experiments and Results
During the Study, websites of Top Universities and educational institutions were analyzed for accessibility using WCAG 2.0. The evaluation was done using HERA, Test de accessibilidad Web (TAW) and Firefox Accessibility Evaluation Toolbar was used for manual evaluation. The list of Top Universities of different countries were collected from QS Top Universities and 4International Colleges and Universities. The countries that were selected for the analysis were an intermix of developing and developed nations. Figure 1 shows the number of Universities in the United Kingdom that Pass or Fail the desired criteria as specified under WCAG.
Page 2 of 6
an
us
cr
ip t
3
M
Fig. 1. Accessibility of Educational websites of United Kingdom
Figure 2 indicates the accessibility of the top 10 educational institutions of Russia and Figure 3
Ac
ce
pt
ed
indicates the accessibility of educational institutions’ websites in China.
Fig.2. Accessibility of websites of Russia
Page 3 of 6
4
M
an
us
cr
ip t
Fig. 2. Accessibility of Educational websites of Russia
Fig.3. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions of China
Ac
ce
pt
ed
Figure 4 and 5 indicate the accessibility of educational institutions in Germany and India.
Fig. 4. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions in Germany
Page 4 of 6
an
us
cr
ip t
5
Fig.5. Accessibility of websites of educational institutions in India
M
5. Conclusion and Future Work
The results indicate that in most of the countries, even though the governments are trying to impose the educational institutions to comply with the accessibility guidelines, still there needs to be much more effort in
ed
order to comply with the guidelines. Most of the educational institutions follow less than 50% of the guidelines. Major areas that need to be focussed upon include, ensuring that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully and providing device independence. This research work shall be extended in future to
pt
encompass a more in-depth study of accessibility.
Authoring Tool accessibility Guidelines, http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag.php. Firefox Web Accesibility Toolbahttps://www.mozilla.org/en US/firefox/new/?scene=2&utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign =non-fx-button#download-fx. HERA web accesibility tool, http://www.sidar.org/hera/ Iglesias, Ana, et al.,2014. Evaluating the accessibility of three open‐ source learning content management systems: A comparative study. Computer Applications in Engineering Education 22.2 ,p. 320-328. Salvador, Paula, and Álvaro Rocha,2014. An assessment of content quality in websites of basic and secondary Portuguese schools." New Perspectives in Information Systems and Technologies, Volume 1. Springer International Publishing, p. 71-82. TAW WCAG 2.0 analyzer, http://www.tawdis.net/. Web Accessibility Initiative from W3C, http://www.w3.org/WAI/. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php.
Ac
ce
References
Page 5 of 6
6
Ac
ce
pt
ed
M
an
us
cr
ip t
4International Colleges amd Universities, http://www.4icu.org/ QS TopUniversities, http://www.topuniversities.com/
Page 6 of 6