Abstract

Certainly, in recent years there has been a breakthrough in regard to web accessibility: policies and laws have emerged, along with tools, technologies and guidelines for creating accessible content properly. However, despite these efforts, the Web is still largely inaccessible. In this paper we have analyzed the different technical options for implementation of systems of linear access to the websites, systems which greatly facilitate the accessibility and the usability of these pages and are often forgotten by developers.

Abstract

Readability refers to the ease of reading and understanding a text. The need to ensure the readability of Web pages is related to universal access to products and services in the information society, which aims to provide an Internet for all. This article describes a study conducted to assess the readability of textual contents of Web portals of 40 universities at the top positions in international university rankings to determine whether the best universities have readable web pages. Mathematical formulas that evaluate syntactic difficulty of text oriented to texts written in English or in Spanish were applied.

Abstract

A new set of heuristic indicators is presented for the evaluation of the accessibility of statistical charts for people with impaired vision and color vision deficiency (CVD), as well as a methodology for their application. To validate the proposal, a heuristic evaluation of the accessibility of 35 charts published in 5 Spanish and 2 international newspapers is carried out. The results show that the proposed indicators enable the detection of a greater number of unique problems, present a better distribution of problems among heuristics, and enable the detection of more severe and specific problems compared with the Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG). Regarding the problems detected, the lack of text alternatives to charts in bitmap format stands out, a problem that also occurs in the case of charts in SVG format, for which standards such as WAI-ARIA are not used for labeling the marks. The latter also underlines the poor use of indicators to highlight the elements that receive focus, or their inaccessibility through a keyboard interface. Other common problems with both types of charts are the non-text contrast ratio, which in many cases is below the minimum required, too small a font size, or the non-systematization of the use of color palettes appropriate for people with CVD. The comparison between national and international media reveals that, although higher scores are obtained by international media, they share a significant number of the problems identified for Spanish media. The list of principles obtained, beyond proving helpful for evaluative purposes, is also useful as a guide for creating accessible charts that could be easily incorporated into the style guides of the analyzed media.

Abstract

Since the publication of the Ecuadorian Technical Standard NTE INEN ISO / IEC 40500 in 2014 and the Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE INEN 288 "The web contents accessibility" in 2016, web accessibility in Ecuador has taken great importance. In the educational field, the websites of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have become a communication channel, where universities publish the information and services they offer. In addition, HEI must satisfy the rights of all citizens to have access to education, which includes persons with disabilities. In order to ensure access to the websites of HEI to all people it is important that HEI incorporate web accessibility as an essential requirement in their websites. The objective of this research is to perform the accessibility analysis of the websites of the Ecuadorian universities of excellence belonging to categories A, B and C; identify websites accessibility errors and to present some recommendations for a better fulfillment of the WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines by website designers and developers.