Title: Exploring the relationships between web accessibility, web traffic, and university rankings: a case study of Jordanian universities

Authors: Mohammed N. Al-Kabi

Addresses: Computer Science Department, IT Faculty, Zarqa University, P.O. Box 132222, 13110 Zarqa, Jordan

Abstract: Most statistics state that disabled people constitute approximately 20% of the world population; therefore, webmasters should consider this part of the world population when they design and implement their websites by following the web content accessibility guidelines. This paper aims to explore the relationships between web accessibility, web traffic (web), and university rankings using the metrics of 27 Jordanian university websites as a case study. Objective evaluations on the web accessibility, web traffic (website popularity), and university rankings of 27 Jordanian university websites are conducted using a number of online tools. An extensive analysis of the tool outputs is presented, and the relationships of these tool outputs are explored. This study represents a longitudinal overview of the accessibility of Jordanian university websites and re-explores the different relationships between web accessibility, web traffic, and university rankings, as well as the differences between the accessibility of private and public Jordanian universities. This paper explores the relationships between three parameters: accessibility, web traffic, and university rankings. Therefore, its scope is larger than earlier publications.

Keywords: university websites; accessibility guidelines WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0; web accessibility; web traffic; website popularity; university rankings; automated evaluation; Jordan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHPCN.2018.094955

International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking, 2018 Vol.12 No.3, pp.235 - 250

Received: 27 Jun 2016
Accepted: 06 Oct 2016
Published online: 28 Sep 2018 *

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