Accessibility on cultural websites in Sweden Susanna Laurin [email protected] Twitter @FunkaNu.
Quality of UK Cultural Websites: evaluation
-
Upload
lane-cherry -
Category
Documents
-
view
25 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Quality of UK Cultural Websites: evaluation
Quality of UK Cultural Websites: evaluation
Kate FernieKate FernieICT Adviser (EU projects)ICT Adviser (EU projects)
MLAMLA
MLAThe Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council is the national development agency working for
and on behalf of museums, libraries and archives
• provides strategic leadership• acts an advocate• develops capacity and • promotes innovation and change
Quality principles for cultural websites
Celebrating European cultural diversity by providing access to digital cultural content for all
Transparent – Effective – Maintained – Accessible - User-centred – Responsive -
Multi-linguality – interoperable – managed - preserved
User centered
People are not “disabled” - they are disabled from using websites
A usable website is one that can be used to a
desired level of ease of use
Disabled People and the Web:Web Accessibility in the
Cultural SectorWeb audit commissioned by MLA
from City University:– 100 Museum websites– 100 Library websites– 100 Archive websites– Additionally: 25 International museum
websites– Automated testing + user testing
Centre for HCI Design
Automated testing
325 homepages tested:
• Against W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http://www.w3.org/WAI
• Using WebXM http://www.watchfire.com
Automated testing: findings
• 42% of MLA websites tested passed priority 1 (level A) automated checks
• 3% passed priority 2 (level AA) …by 2005 all public sector
websites need to be accessible to disabled people to Level AA
Automated testing: findingsOne homepage passed Priority 1, 2
and 3 (Level AAA) automated checks
• BUT page flagged 32 manual warnings
Checks and warnings1.1 Provide a text
equivalent for every non-text element (alt)
Automated checks: HTML code (image)
Manual checks: ensure description is
appropriate and helpful
Accessible?• The average cultural
website homepage presents disabled users with over 40 automated and manual violations and
• 215.9 potential instances of violations
User testing
User testing of 25 UK and international websites by a user panel of:
• Disabled people including people who are blind, partially sited or dyslexic
• Accessibility experts from City University
User testing• Each user looked at 4 websites
• 2 representative tasks per website:
– What time does the museum/library/archive open on a Monday?
– What facilities does the museum/library/ archive provide for disabled visitors?
• Using assistive technologies
• Success rates, problems, ease of use…
User testing: findings• 189 accessibility incidents uncovered• 22% not identified by automated
testing
Key problems:1.Orientation and navigation problems2.Issues related to presentation of
content 3.Alternative descriptions of images
and other media
User testing: findings• 56% of user panel members felt
‘lost’ when exploring the websites– Poorly named links that lead to
unexpected content– Inconsistent means of navigating
around the site (links, navigation bars, images as active links, icons…)
User centered?
User testing: findings• Blind, partially sighted and dyslexic
users failed 24% of the tasks they were asked to do:– Blind users failed 33% of tasks– Archive web sites produced more task
failures– Archive web sites performed better in the
automated tests
Effective?
Website audit: conclusions• Cultural institutions need to improve their website
accessibility (in UK and overseas)• BUT the results of this audit are BETTER than a
survey of 1000 UK public websites by the Disability Rights Commission
• Those websites that followed NOF technical guidelines would have performed better
Recommendations• Accessibility should be integral • Cultural institutions should develop
policies, plans and targets to improve– Involve disabled people in design and
testing– Make online collections accessible to
specific groups of disabled people
• It is important to promote good practice and develop guidance
Find out more
Full web accessibility audit report available from April 12th 2004:
http://www.mla.gov.uk/action/learnacc/00access_03.asp