Synergy effect in GUI usability and accessibility education improvement. M. Borys, M. Plechawska-Wójcik, Marek Milosz, Sergio Luján-Mora, Sybille Caffiau. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Education Engineering Conference (EDUCON 2013), p. 311-317, Berlin (Germany), March 13-15 2013. ISBN: 978-1-4673-6109-5.
View paper online: Synergy effect in GUI usability and accessibility education improvement
Abstract:
The paper presents a synergy effect achieved through knowledge and experience exchange in the field of Graphical User Interface (GUI) usability and accessibility among Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships project partners. The main aim of the project is curricula and teaching materials development in the usability and accessibility of computer applications area. Partner universities join their potential in order to achieve the planned results.
Saturday 27 July 2013
Thursday 25 July 2013
A Comparison of Common Web Accessibility Problems
A Comparison of Common Web Accessibility Problems. Sergio Luján-Mora. Varia Informatica 2013, p. 21-36.
View paper online: A Comparison of Common Web Accessibility Problems
Abstract:
An accessible web site is one which can be used by all its intended visitors, taking into account their differing capabilities. Inaccessible web sites can pose significant barriers to people with disabilities. The challenge of developing web content accessible by everyone has motivated the evolvement of a number of techniques to address web accessibility issues. Unfortunately, web developers often lack sufficient knowledge about these guidelines and techniques to develop accessible web sites.
This paper presents a survey of common web accessibility problems. Different studies and reports have been analyzed in order to summarize the most common web accessibility problems.
View paper online: A Comparison of Common Web Accessibility Problems
Abstract:
An accessible web site is one which can be used by all its intended visitors, taking into account their differing capabilities. Inaccessible web sites can pose significant barriers to people with disabilities. The challenge of developing web content accessible by everyone has motivated the evolvement of a number of techniques to address web accessibility issues. Unfortunately, web developers often lack sufficient knowledge about these guidelines and techniques to develop accessible web sites.
This paper presents a survey of common web accessibility problems. Different studies and reports have been analyzed in order to summarize the most common web accessibility problems.
Monday 22 July 2013
Web Accessibility Among the Countries of the European Union: a Comparative Study
Web Accessibility Among the Countries of the European Union: a Comparative Study. Sergio Luján-Mora. Actual Problems of Computer Science, 1(3), 2013, p. 18-27, ECCC Foundation. ISSN: 2299-8667.
View paper online: Web Accessibility Among the Countries of the European Union: a Comparative Study
Abstract:
In a short period of time, the World Wide Web (the Web) has had a huge impact on our society and lives. The Web provides access to news, email, online purchasing, fun activities, etc. However, the Web is often a barrier to access to information and services for some groups of disabled users. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Unfortunately, web developers often lack sufficient knowledge to meet these guidelines. To assure and certify the fulfilment of web accessibility guidelines, various automatic accessibility evaluation tools have been developed. In this paper, a comparative study of the web accessibility of official websites from countries of the European Union is presented. Two automatic evaluation tools have been used to perform the comparison: the W3C Markup Validation Service to check the source code of the web pages, and eXaminator to test the accessibility.
View paper online: Web Accessibility Among the Countries of the European Union: a Comparative Study
Abstract:
In a short period of time, the World Wide Web (the Web) has had a huge impact on our society and lives. The Web provides access to news, email, online purchasing, fun activities, etc. However, the Web is often a barrier to access to information and services for some groups of disabled users. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Unfortunately, web developers often lack sufficient knowledge to meet these guidelines. To assure and certify the fulfilment of web accessibility guidelines, various automatic accessibility evaluation tools have been developed. In this paper, a comparative study of the web accessibility of official websites from countries of the European Union is presented. Two automatic evaluation tools have been used to perform the comparison: the W3C Markup Validation Service to check the source code of the web pages, and eXaminator to test the accessibility.
Friday 19 July 2013
Integration of Web Accessibility into Agile Methods
Integration of Web Accessibility into Agile Methods. Sergio Luján-Mora, Firas Masri. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2012), Volume 3, p. 123-127, Wroclaw (Poland), June 28 - July 1 2012. ISBN: 978-989-8565-12-9.
View paper online: Integration of Web Accessibility into Agile Methods
Abstract:
In a short period of time, the World Wide Web has had a huge impact on our society and lives. In web sites and web applications, accessibility and usability are essential key requirements. Unfortunately, most web sites are inaccessible to many disabled people and fail to satisfy the most basic standards for accessibility. Many of the barriers people with disabilities face on the Web are completely avoidable and the disadvantage associated with disability can be entirely overcome. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Nevertheless, a web site can meet accessibility standards, but it can still difficult for people with disabilities to use it. Moreover, web accessibility has been often an afterthought in the development process of web sites. In many cases, web developers provide an adaptation or a fix to the interface of a web site after it has been released to the public. In this paper, we argue that the adoption of agile software development methods can help to improve the accessibility of web projects. Besides, the integration of accessibility into agile methods is proposed.
View paper online: Integration of Web Accessibility into Agile Methods
Abstract:
In a short period of time, the World Wide Web has had a huge impact on our society and lives. In web sites and web applications, accessibility and usability are essential key requirements. Unfortunately, most web sites are inaccessible to many disabled people and fail to satisfy the most basic standards for accessibility. Many of the barriers people with disabilities face on the Web are completely avoidable and the disadvantage associated with disability can be entirely overcome. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Nevertheless, a web site can meet accessibility standards, but it can still difficult for people with disabilities to use it. Moreover, web accessibility has been often an afterthought in the development process of web sites. In many cases, web developers provide an adaptation or a fix to the interface of a web site after it has been released to the public. In this paper, we argue that the adoption of agile software development methods can help to improve the accessibility of web projects. Besides, the integration of accessibility into agile methods is proposed.
Wednesday 17 July 2013
Evaluation of Web Accessibility: A Combined Method
Evaluation of Web Accessibility: A Combined Method. Sergio Luján-Mora, Firas Masri. In Pedro Isaias, Miguel Baptista Nunes (Eds.), Information Systems Research and Exploring Social Artifacts: Approaches and Methodologies, Hersey, PA: Information Science Reference, p. 314-331. ISBN-13: 9781466624917.
View paper online: Evaluation of Web Accessibility: A Combined Method
Abstract:
The Web is present in all fields of our life, from information and service Web pages to electronic public administration (e-government). Users of the Web are a heterogeneous and multicultural public, with different abilities and disabilities (visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments). Web accessibility is about making websites accessible to all Internet users (both disabled and non-disabled). To assure and certify the fulfillment of Web accessibility guidelines, various accessibility evaluation methods have been proposed, and are classified in two types: qualitative methods (analytical and empirical) and quantitative methods (metric-based methods). As no method by itself is enough to guarantee full accessibility, many studies combine these qualitative and quantitative methods in order to guarantee better results. Some recent studies have presented combined evaluation methods between qualitative methods only, thus leaving behind the great power of metrics that guarantee objective results. In this chapter, a combined accessibility evaluation method based both on qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods is proposed. This proposal presents an evaluation method combining essential analytical evaluation methods and empirical test methods.
View paper online: Evaluation of Web Accessibility: A Combined Method
Abstract:
The Web is present in all fields of our life, from information and service Web pages to electronic public administration (e-government). Users of the Web are a heterogeneous and multicultural public, with different abilities and disabilities (visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments). Web accessibility is about making websites accessible to all Internet users (both disabled and non-disabled). To assure and certify the fulfillment of Web accessibility guidelines, various accessibility evaluation methods have been proposed, and are classified in two types: qualitative methods (analytical and empirical) and quantitative methods (metric-based methods). As no method by itself is enough to guarantee full accessibility, many studies combine these qualitative and quantitative methods in order to guarantee better results. Some recent studies have presented combined evaluation methods between qualitative methods only, thus leaving behind the great power of metrics that guarantee objective results. In this chapter, a combined accessibility evaluation method based both on qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods is proposed. This proposal presents an evaluation method combining essential analytical evaluation methods and empirical test methods.
Tuesday 16 July 2013
A Combined Agile Methodology for the Evaluation of Web Accessibility
A Combined Agile Methodology for the Evaluation of Web Accessibility. Firas Masri, Sergio Luján-Mora. IADIS International Conference Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction 2011 (IHCI 2011), p. 423-428, Rome (Italy), July 24-26 2011. ISBN: 978-972-8939-52-6.
View paper online: A Combined Agile Methodology for the Evaluation of Web Accessibility
Abstract
To assure and certify the fulfillment of web accessibility guidelines (WCAG 1.0 & 2.0) and to guarantee accessibility to all disabled users, various accessibility evaluation methods have been proposed, basically classified in two types: qualitative methods (analytical and empirical) and quantitative methods (metric-based methods). As no method by itself is enough to guarantee full accessibility, many studies advice to combine these methods between each other in order to guarantee better results. Some recent studies present combined evaluation methods between qualitative methods only, thus leaving behind the great power of metrics that guarantee objective results and task diversity. To achieve this goal, the current paper proposes a systematic combined agile accessibility evaluation method based both on qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods. This proposal presents an evaluation methodology that combines between the essential analytical evaluation methods and the empirical user test methods. Finally, WAB metric (Web Accessibility Barrier) is included to summarize objectively the final results and amplify the use of this method to cover all types of evaluations tasks, like validating, certifying and comparing processes.
View paper online: A Combined Agile Methodology for the Evaluation of Web Accessibility
Abstract
To assure and certify the fulfillment of web accessibility guidelines (WCAG 1.0 & 2.0) and to guarantee accessibility to all disabled users, various accessibility evaluation methods have been proposed, basically classified in two types: qualitative methods (analytical and empirical) and quantitative methods (metric-based methods). As no method by itself is enough to guarantee full accessibility, many studies advice to combine these methods between each other in order to guarantee better results. Some recent studies present combined evaluation methods between qualitative methods only, thus leaving behind the great power of metrics that guarantee objective results and task diversity. To achieve this goal, the current paper proposes a systematic combined agile accessibility evaluation method based both on qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods. This proposal presents an evaluation methodology that combines between the essential analytical evaluation methods and the empirical user test methods. Finally, WAB metric (Web Accessibility Barrier) is included to summarize objectively the final results and amplify the use of this method to cover all types of evaluations tasks, like validating, certifying and comparing processes.
Sunday 14 July 2013
Web Accessibility Implementation in Spanish Public Administration
Web Accessibility Implementation in Spanish Public Administration. Firas Masri, Sergio Luján-Mora. In Marek Milosz (Ed.), Varia Informatica 2011, p. 22-32, PIPS PIPS Polish Information Processing Society, Lublin (Poland). ISBN: 978-83-931710-6-4.
View paper online: Web Accessibility Implementation in Spanish Public Administration
Abstract:
Nowadays the web is presented in all fields of our life, from information and service web pages to electronic public administrations (e-government). This makes that users are a heterogeneous and multicultural public, with different abilities and disabilities (Visual, hearing, cognitive & motor impairments).
These characteristics represent a huge challenge if we hope to provide access to all possible users, specially if the intention is to fulfill web accessibility guidelines WCAG 1.0 y WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) [ACG08] of the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative).
Web accessibility aims at enabling all users to have equal access to information and functionalities on the web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with all disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web.
To assure web accessibility, several studies have suggested numerous evaluation methods [BRA06], [VIG07] as a mean to verify, measure and certify the fulfillment of accessibility guidelines and therefore to supply full accessibility to disabled people ensuring that laws are being upheld. Many of these evaluation methods were implemented, thus creating a number of automatic tools to simplify the evaluation process and by that way providing a technical infrastructure for all software developers to guarantee minimal access.
Despite these technical facilities and the fulfillment of laws and moral obligations towards disabled persons, unfortunately many public administrations and people representations still doesn.t apply the minimal accessibility condition for their websites.
In many cases they are the ones whom established these laws as we will see next in this paper analyzing the Spanish Senate website.
The Senate of Spain is the upper chamber of the Parliament and a constitutional body. Since 2002, several decrees and laws provide that the website of the Public Administrations must be accessible, thus ensuring universal access and applying the no discrimination statements of European Union. For example, the Royal Decrees 1494/2007 [BOE07a] & 56/2007 [BOE07b] states that the Internet sites of public administrations must meet at least AA level of WCAG 1.0. However, as we will see next in the analysis of the Senate.s website, the page is full of errors that prevent the information to be accessible. Therefore, the Senate breaks the same laws they create. Or as the Spanish proverb say, "Do as I say, not as I do..."
View paper online: Web Accessibility Implementation in Spanish Public Administration
Abstract:
Nowadays the web is presented in all fields of our life, from information and service web pages to electronic public administrations (e-government). This makes that users are a heterogeneous and multicultural public, with different abilities and disabilities (Visual, hearing, cognitive & motor impairments).
These characteristics represent a huge challenge if we hope to provide access to all possible users, specially if the intention is to fulfill web accessibility guidelines WCAG 1.0 y WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) [ACG08] of the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative).
Web accessibility aims at enabling all users to have equal access to information and functionalities on the web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with all disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web.
To assure web accessibility, several studies have suggested numerous evaluation methods [BRA06], [VIG07] as a mean to verify, measure and certify the fulfillment of accessibility guidelines and therefore to supply full accessibility to disabled people ensuring that laws are being upheld. Many of these evaluation methods were implemented, thus creating a number of automatic tools to simplify the evaluation process and by that way providing a technical infrastructure for all software developers to guarantee minimal access.
Despite these technical facilities and the fulfillment of laws and moral obligations towards disabled persons, unfortunately many public administrations and people representations still doesn.t apply the minimal accessibility condition for their websites.
In many cases they are the ones whom established these laws as we will see next in this paper analyzing the Spanish Senate website.
The Senate of Spain is the upper chamber of the Parliament and a constitutional body. Since 2002, several decrees and laws provide that the website of the Public Administrations must be accessible, thus ensuring universal access and applying the no discrimination statements of European Union. For example, the Royal Decrees 1494/2007 [BOE07a] & 56/2007 [BOE07b] states that the Internet sites of public administrations must meet at least AA level of WCAG 1.0. However, as we will see next in the analysis of the Senate.s website, the page is full of errors that prevent the information to be accessible. Therefore, the Senate breaks the same laws they create. Or as the Spanish proverb say, "Do as I say, not as I do..."
Monday 8 July 2013
Accessible web page search engine with freely available tools in Internet
Accessible web page search engine with freely available tools in Internet. Sergio Luján-Mora, Alejandro Agulló Fernández. Proceedings of the II International Conference on Science and Technology (ISTC 2007), Malaga (Spain) - Tangiers (Morocco), March 21-23 2007.
View paper online: Accessible web page search engine with freely available tools in Internet
Abstract:
In this paper, a prototype of an accessible web page search engine is presented. This search engine is aimed to disabled people. This prototype includes the level of accessibility of each one of the located pages in the result page, which allows disabled people to decide if it is worth to visit the page. The current version of the search engine has been developed with a set of tools (search engine, accessibility evaluation tool) freely available in Internet, but we plan to improve our solution prototype by developing new tools with configuration parameters and better execution speed.
View paper online: Accessible web page search engine with freely available tools in Internet
Abstract:
In this paper, a prototype of an accessible web page search engine is presented. This search engine is aimed to disabled people. This prototype includes the level of accessibility of each one of the located pages in the result page, which allows disabled people to decide if it is worth to visit the page. The current version of the search engine has been developed with a set of tools (search engine, accessibility evaluation tool) freely available in Internet, but we plan to improve our solution prototype by developing new tools with configuration parameters and better execution speed.
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