[Analysis Of The Members Of Parliament Websites For Disability Accessibility]

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

ABSTRACT

U.S. Federal and senate websites are required to be accessible for people with impairments. However, despite the existing regulations and guidelines, many federal websites continue to be inaccessible, and accessibility policy statements available on federal websites often do not provide any useful information. This paper provides three contributions to the research literature: (1) an accessibility evaluation of 100 federal home pages using both human and automated methods, (2) a content analysis of existing website accessibility policy statements, and (3) a discussion of the relationship between actual 508 compliance and the existing accessibility policy statements on a website. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving policy related to Section 508 compliance for websites.

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Previous studies2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

Ensuring compliance and website accessibility policy statements6

Web Accessibility8

Independent Living Services at CILs11

Web Accessibility Guidelines14

The Need for an Accessibility Metric15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY18

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS21

Accessibility Policy Statements24

Discussion26

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION32

REFERENCES35

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

People with impairments are frequent users of the Internet, but many U.S. Federal websites continue to be inaccessible (Jaeger, 2006) . In the context of U.S. laws, an “accessible” website is defined as one that follows the U.S. Section 508 regulations. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, that the IT is fully accessible for people with impairments. This applies to, but is not limited to, websites, operating systems, hardware, and telecommunications devices. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not provide specific technical standards for web sites of public accommodations, there are clear technical standards for the Section 508 regulations, which clearly apply to Federal websites and other federally-funded information technology.

A website is inaccessible when people with perceptual or motor impairments cannot technically use the website. People with perceptual or motor impairments often use assistive technologies, such as screen readers (computer-synthesized speech output, AKA text-to-speech), speech recognition (speech input), and alternative input and output devices. For a website to be considered accessible, it must be flexible enough to work with various input and output devices. It's not that the web pages must have code added for each additional impairment, but instead, when appropriate coding standards and labeling conventions are used, this will make the website accessible for people various impairments. It's important to note that the existing federal regulations address design for perceptual and motor impairments, but not cognitive impairments.

While there is a nearly 25 year track record in the research community of understanding how ...