Relating Visual Disability and the Web
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Date
2007
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ITA
Abstract
Despite the fact that the proportion of people with disabilities in society has been increasing, many critical
online public activities are not readily available to them. Much as a large body of literature has examined
the overall impact of visual disability on functional status and quality of life including Web usage, few
published studies have explicitly investigated the relationship between visual disability and Web-based
tasks. Moreover, the available Web Accessibility guidelines to-date lack coherence and simplicity for easy
comprehension and application in Web application design for different disability groups. For example the
primary reference guidelines – that is the Web Content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) is organized
arbitrarily with no distinct sections according to types of disabilities covered. This makes such guidelines
hard to understand and apply by Web content developers. This paper examines how properties of Web
applications affect users with various visual disabilities. The goal of this study was to understand the
problems faced by Web users with visual disabilities and how the problems can be addressed in Web
development tasks. Understanding the relationship between visual disability and Web applications is an
important foundation for further research considerations on how to make the Web more accessible to
people with visual disabilities. Such considerations may include but not limited to: development of concise
visual accessibility indicators and associated design techniques. The paper is organized into six sections
namely: introduction; methodology; related work, properties of Visual disability and Web applications, the
relationship between visual disability and properties of Web applications; Conclusion and future Work.
Description
Keywords
Visual Disability, Web Application, Web Accessibility, Design Guidelines
Citation
Baguma, R., Van Bommel, P., Wanyama, T., & Patrick, O. (2007). Relating Visual Disability and the Web. proceedings of ITA 2007, Wrexham, North Wales, UK.