Title: Testing the accessibility of websites

Authors: Cecilia Sik Lanyi, Nora Czank, Andras Sik

Addresses: Virtual Environment and Imaging Technologies Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Pannonia, H-8200 Veszprem, Egyetem Str. 10., Hungary. ' Faculty of Public Administration, Corvinus University of Budapest, H-1118 Budapest, Menesi Str. 5., Hungary. ' Prolan Zrt., H-2011 Budakalasz, Szentendrei Str. 1-3., Hungary

Abstract: The current development of the internet and its growing use makes it necessary to satisfy the needs of all users including those with disabilities having accessibility problems. We developed a new validator software (XValid) based on the WCAG 2.0. We tested 18 countries| sites in 15 categories approximately 500 sites, with XValid. We made a statistical analysis based on our test. We determined the most frequently occurring errors based on these statistics. We took into account these typical errors, when we determined our minimal guidelines in ten points. People with disabilities could reach the internet barrier free if the web designer would test his/her design using our recommendations. The problem will be more and more important because the population of Europe will become older and older. This population needs accessible internet. Therefore it is very important to be prepared to cope with this problem now!

Keywords: software engineering; standards; validation; testing tools; usability testing; website accessibility; internet; disabilities; web design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKWI.2011.038630

International Journal of Knowledge and Web Intelligence, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.87 - 98

Published online: 07 Mar 2015 *

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