A Comparative Study of Accessibility and Usability of Norwegian University Websites for Screen Reader Users Based on User Experience and Automated Assessment

Abstract

Websites are essential for learners' access to information. However, due to the lack of accessibility and usability of websites, students with disabilities who solely rely on screen readers face challenges accessing webpage contents. This study explores accessibility and usability issues frequently encountered by screen reader students while interacting with Norwegian university webpages. An evaluation using automated tools showed that none of the university websites met the minimum WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Sixteen visually impaired participants were recruited and assigned five usability tasks on four different university websites. The results show that participants encountered usability and accessibility issues on all four websites. Recommendations for increased accessibility are proposed based on the findings.

Web Accessibility of the Top Research-Intensive Universities in the UK

“…A variety of methodologies have been utilized, including popular automated tools such as WAVE and TAW. Several studies such as those by Kane et al (2007), Kesswani and Kumar (2016), Parajuli and Eika (2020) and Thompson et al (2010) have utilized manual extraction methods in their methodologies to explore the web accessibility of university homepages. The results of most of these studies have highlighted the issue of a lack of basic compliance by these webpages.…”

“…A large majority of the studies utilized automated tools, but some (Kesswani & Kumar, 2016;Kurt, 2011;Parajuli & Eika, 2020) used a combination of automated and manual techniques. In the study by Parajuli and Eika (2020), visually impaired participants took part in accessibility tasks relating to university homepages. The Firefox Accessibility Evaluation Toolbar was used for manual evaluation by Kesswani andKumar (2016), andKurt (2011) manually assessed the (X)HTML and CSS codes for the university homepages.…”

“…Studies such as those by Alahmadi and Drew (2017), Laufer Nir and Rimmerman (2018), and Parajuli and Eika (2020) have assessed the accessibility of additional university webpages, for example those of individual courses or libraries, which were more rounded in terms of accessibility. Although university homepages are public-facing webpages, accessibility standards should also be followed by private-facing pages, such as those that can only be accessed by staff and students at the university.…”

“…The studies in Appendix Table 1 highlight the current debate over whether automated tools or manual evaluation are more effective in assessing web accessibility. A large majority of the studies utilized automated tools, but some (Kesswani & Kumar, 2016; Kurt, 2011; Parajuli & Eika, 2020) used a combination of automated and manual techniques. In the study by Parajuli and Eika (2020), visually impaired participants took part in accessibility tasks relating to university homepages.…”

Towards More Efficient Screen Reader Web Access with Automatic Summary Generation and Text Tagging

“…According to Borodin et al [ 4 ], browsing the Web with screen readers can be challenging because of accessibility and usability problems. Accessibility issues associated with screen reader users have also been identified in websites of higher education [ 5 ]. The basic readability of the text affects all readers [ 6 – 9 ], and it has been demonstrated that readability features such as sentence length affect screen reading performance [ 10 ].…”