Cost 219ter

Reachability - new perspectives on accessibility of public authorities' web services

Jan Gulliksen, Uppsala university, Sweden

The problem with guidelines

• It is possible to design systems that fully comply with all guidelines and that are totally useless.
  
• Guidelines are only useful if you have extensive knowledge.
  
• If you have extensive knowledge you do not need guidelines.
  
• Guidelines pushes the responsibility to the developers

Problem

• Several organization requires a distinct tools to be able to estimate to what extent they actually reach their digitally available services. There is a need for a tool to quantitatively determine the reachability of the systems.

Usability

My experience with usability

• Everybody wants to have measurable usability but nobody measures it.
  
• Even if it is in the definition people ignore the users ability

Accessibility according to HFES

• The set of properties that allows a product, service, or facility to be used by people with a wide range of capabilities, either directly or in conjunction with assistive technologies. Although the term "accessibility" typically addresses users who have a disability, the concept is not limited to disability issues.

HFES 200.2

Accessibility according to W3C

• The goal of accessible web design is to maximize the percentage of the potential audience that is able to use the service.

Kynn Bartlett, W3C

• Content is accessible when it may be used by someone with a disability.

W3C, WAI guidelines

Accessibility according to ISO

• Usability of a product, service, environment or facility by people with the widest range of capabilities
  NOTE 1 Although "accessibility" typically addresses users who have a disability, the concept is not limited to disability issues.
  NOTE 2 The usability-orientated concept of accessibility can be helpful to minimize usability differences of interactive systems used in different circumstances (user, task, context, products) at an as high as possible level of usability

ISO 16071 - Guidance on software accessibility

Consequences of the ISO definition

• Measurability
  Accessibility = f(user, task/goal, product, context)
  
• Not limited to disability issues
  Access to computers and internet
  Language barriers,
  Etc.
  
• Not being satisfied with a system that a user with activity limitations can barely access

Concerns

• How do you measure accessibility?
  
  • Based on medical diagnosis
    
  • Based on demographic statistics
    
• How reliable would such a measure be?
  
• Can it work in practice?

Statistics on disabilities

• How do you measure accessibility?
  
  • Based on medical diagnosis
    
  • Based on demographic statistics
    
• How reliable would such a measure be?
  
• Can it work in practice?

From accessibility to reachability

• Based on media research theories and methods
  
• Making accessibility a competitive advantage
  
• Putting the responsibility on the supplier to establish the degree of reach

The Reachability project

• Purpose is to define and evaluate an analysis instrument based on statistical data and automatic user calibration
  
• Possibly applying Venkatesh & Shih's use-diffusion model
  
• The goal is to have a hearing with three ministers in Sweden that has the governmental power over these issues within a couple of months.

ARF-ladder, Acknowledgements & further reading

• Funded by the 24/7 Agency
  
• Based on initial ideas by Hans Siljebäck
  
• "Accomplishing universal access through system reachability-a management perspective"
  (Universal access in the information society, Springer 2004).

 

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