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Accessibility of dynamic web applications with emphasis on visually impaired users

2014; Institution of Engineering and Technology; Volume: 2014; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1049/joe.2014.0136

2051-3305

Kingsley Okoye, Hossein Jahankhani, Abdel‐Rahman H. Tawil,

Gaze Tracking and Assistive Technology

The Journal of EngineeringVolume 2014, Issue 9 p. 531-537 ArticleOpen Access Accessibility of dynamic web applications with emphasis on visually impaired users Kingsley Okoye, Corresponding Author Kingsley Okoye u0926644@uel.ac.uk School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this authorHossein Jahankhani, Hossein Jahankhani School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this authorAbdel-Rahman H. Tawil, Abdel-Rahman H. Tawil School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this author Kingsley Okoye, Corresponding Author Kingsley Okoye u0926644@uel.ac.uk School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this authorHossein Jahankhani, Hossein Jahankhani School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this authorAbdel-Rahman H. Tawil, Abdel-Rahman H. Tawil School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East London, London, E16 2RD UKSearch for more papers by this author First published: 17 September 2014 https://doi.org/10.1049/joe.2014.0136Citations: 2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract As the internet is fast migrating from static web pages to dynamic web pages, the users with visual impairment find it confusing and challenging when accessing the contents on the web. There is evidence that dynamic web applications pose accessibility challenges for the visually impaired users. This study shows that a difference can be made through the basic understanding of the technical requirement of users with visual impairment and addresses a number of issues pertinent to the accessibility needs for such users. We propose that only by designing a framework that is structurally flexible, by removing unnecessary extras and thereby making every bit useful (fit-for-purpose), will visually impaired users be given an increased capacity to intuitively access e-contents. This theory is implemented in a dynamic website for the visually impaired designed in this study. Designers should be aware of how the screen reading software works to enable them make reasonable adjustments or provide alternative content that still corresponds to the objective content to increase the possibility of offering faultless service to such users. The result of our research reveals that materials can be added to a content repository or re-used from existing ones by identifying the content types and then transforming them into a flexible and accessible one that fits the requirements of the visually impaired through our method (no-frill + agile methodology) rather than computing in advance or designing according to a given specification. 1 Introduction A greater number of, if not all, individuals now use the internet as a means to communicate, and to a large extent work and collaborate with each other. However, these innovations in information and communication technology utilisation have paved the way for improvement as well as challenges for both the users and the developers. These challenges do not exclude the disabled users. Recently there have been a couple of questions arising as to how best can the use of this fast changing technology be used to intuitively address the needs of the users with disability as well as what is needed in future to better support these users, especially the visually impaired users, since the internet is fast migrating from static web pages to dynamic web pages; because of the increasing rate at which demand for rich internet application and multimedia content is growing. The software developers have failed to consider what kind of support could be built for such users that do not really want to deal with all the technical details that come along with the dynamic web applications, focusing only on the increasing demand for rich internet applications. Garrigós et al. [1] mention that because of the growing demand for web applications offering a rich user experience, user-centric web applications are being replaced by the so-called rich internet applications (RIAs), which provide an interface, interaction and functionality capabilities similar to desktop applications. RIA development has new requirements and concerns that come into play [2], complicating the task of the software developers, such as impose limited screen size, more difficult interaction and poorer multimedia support. The dynamic web developer's community is well-aware of these challenging difficulties [3, 4], because these approaches do not yet cover all design concerns usually encountered in state-of-the-art applications such as the dynamic web. One of the major unsupported aspects is the personalisation of content and requirement to the specific user and his/her context, specifically for users with disabilities, such as the visually impaired. 1.1 Scope of study This paper has focused on investigating some of the challenging features found in recent web applications, and techniques to measure and improve the ability and performance of visually impaired users in using and accessing the contents embodied in them; as a step towards bridging the digital gap between dynamic web applications and the visually impaired users. In this paper, we presented the hypothesis guiding this research followed by a review of existing literatures. Next, the data collection, analysis and results were presented. Subsequently, the implementation and practical element and the last section concludes this research work with discussion of findings, contribution of this research work, limitations and recommendation for future research. 1.2 Objective This research presents a novel framework for practice capable of enabling a deeper understanding of accessibility requirements for dynamic web applications centred around users with visual impairment, through evaluation of collected facts and analysis of results from face-to-face and online survey of the user group mentioned in this paper. We then propose and implement solutions to the dynamic web accessibility issues by designing and deploying a software application and its implementation for best practice, which then informs software developers on how best to significantly and effectively approach the design of dynamic web application contents with the visually impaired users in mind. 2 Statement of problem Various studies claim that the visually impaired users are the category of disabled users of web applications that need the most assistance because of the level of challenge they face in using and accessing the e-contents [5-8]. Some of these challenges have been identified as decreasing ability to focus on near tasks, changing colour perception and sensitivity, pupil shrinkage and decreasing contrast sensitivity [3]. This research paper aims at capturing the experiences of past researchers in the context of web application development as well as visually impaired persons themselves; as an indication and means to revealing the areas where support is lacking and thereby discuss a road map for further improvement and reviews. 2.1 Accessibility issues for the visually impaired ICT users Visual impairment refers to someone who is blind or partially sighted [9]. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) [10] describes persons with visual impairment as ‘people with irretrievable loss of sight’. According to [9], about 314 million people are visually impaired globally, of which ∼15% (45 million) are blind. These figures were justified by [11] who also points out that ‘globally there are over 314 million visually impaired people: 45 million of them are totally blind’. Visual impairment is a worldwide disability problem, which has been seen as a ‘global public health problem’. However, Mulloy et al. [12] argue that the use of assistive technology (AT) for users with visual impairments and blindness has the potential to improve interactivity and accessibility outcome via enhancement of existing sight abilities and/or engagement of other senses. Visual impairment exists in various groups of individuals including children, unskilled, disabled and also the elderly as they face serious problems in using information and communications technology (ICT) tools. In [13], Adetoro et al. confirm that individuals with visual impairment, like every other person or group, need information to minimise ambiguity, identify and resolve problems and eventually enhance their performance and interactivity especially in using ICT. In [14], Thylefors stated that the number of visually impaired persons is expected to rise by 2020 as the total number of elderly persons is estimated to double in number, reaching two billion worldwide. According to [15], the incidence of visual impairment will continue to increase at the rate of (p = 0.01) with greater age. This increase, according to them, is not associated with gender, environment or level of experience of such person. Our paper focuses on providing a solution for an accessible platform for the visually impaired users of ICT regardless of age and sex. Despite the fact there have been other available means through which the visually impaired persons interact with the web applications, a large number of them still need assistance to intuitively interact with the contents embodied in these applications [6, 12]. According to Petrie et al. [5], the new flash content of RIAs and colour contrast levels are causing new accessibility problems for the visually impaired users. The screen reader reads static hypertext markup language (HTML) pages by analysing the HTML tag structures and allow users to navigate through pages using a keyboard with shortcuts and key combinations, as a result of this most dynamic content is not accessible through the use of screen reader since such contents are designed and built with DHTML tag structures [16]. The subjective observation by these researchers also stresses that because the visually impaired person uses the screen reader in combination with keyboard, they find it difficult to interact with the graphics and moving objects since most often the view of such contents changes dynamically in response to mouse operation. The findings of [17] further suggest that there are various measures that it would be possible to take towards alleviating the situation, in the form of further improvements to retrieval systems, to search interfaces and to text-to-speech screen readers. However, Freire et al. [18] state that it is a very challenging accessibility issue since even texts are treated as images, which explains why the challenge increasingly lies not in the visual impairment but in the design of the technology that mediates their access to and use of the dynamic web application. That is why new evidence is needed to help us plan; both because of the increase in demand and because of the changing lifestyles. 2.2 Dynamic web application for the visually impaired Web-based applications are those applications which are directly accessible using any available browser and which do not need to be installed on the user's computer, while standalone applications include the ‘downloadable’ applications from the web, which cannot be accessed directly from the browser but need to be installed locally on the user's computer [19]. Following these, Avila et al. [20] refer to dynamic web application as ‘a multimedia platform that incorporates animation, sound, flash, video and interactivity into a standalone product or onto a web page’. According to them, the application uses various multimedia channels ranging from simple web page decorations and banner advertisements to fully interactive training and electronic forms. A fully accessible website is one that is designed to make use of the latest web technologies, such as multimedia, while at the same time accommodating the needs of those who have difficulty with or are unable to use these technologies, such as the visually impaired [21]. According to Adetoro et al. [13], dynamic web applications for visually impaired users should be provided with the intention of meeting their accessibility and information needs by transcribing the application into an alternative format in order to increase the performance of the visually impaired users in using such technologies. This is a multi-faceted problem that requires research into technical challenges; from user modelling to context analysis [22]. In [23], font sizes should be made larger for the visually impaired because of the decline in visual acuity. This shows that colour and text combination is critical when designing web application for the visually impaired users. Reference [24] requires content developers to make electronic and information technology accessible to users with disabilities, including blindness, colour blindness and visual impairment. The law includes standards for software applications, operating systems, web-based applications and multimedia. The technical criteria of section 508 [24] pointed out two design approaches for making web applications accessible to users with disabilities which include: Provision of multiple ways to operate the technology and retrieve information so that users can choose alternatives based on their physical capabilities. Provide support for the AT being used by the users with disabilities to ensure improved accessibility. 3 Research methodology We focused on the target user group ‘the visually impaired ICT users’ as it is very important to know the users and what their previous and present experience is. Understanding the users' technical skill is as important as knowing their expectation [25]. 3.1 Participants Research participants comprised various categories of blind and partially sighted people who use the services and are registered with the RNIB, as well as professionals at the organisation, in London, UK. The categories of the participants involved both older and adult persons, trying as much as possible to cross the range of sex, ethnicity, age, skills and experience. The internet-mediated research was also implemented as a simple online-based methodology, whereby participants were contacted and sent an experimental text-based questionnaire via e-mail and focus groups. 3.2 Research design To gather the necessary information with which to attempt to provide answers to the research questions. A holistic design method was used to gather the information for this research, which draws on both quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting data [26]. With the visually impaired persons as the unit of analysis, the research utilised the combination of cluster and random sampling for its primary data collection, trying as much as possible to represent every unit. The case study sampling was used to examine the problem of accessibility and what is missing in the design of dynamic web contents for the visually impaired, based on the information we obtained from the survey, interviews and questionnaire, and to test the implications of the result against the current literature and present a representation of the results using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. 3.2.1 Design procedure Evidence was collected via face-to-face interaction as well as online interviews and reviews with a number of key informants. These were the visually impaired persons themselves, professionals, careers, advisors as well as service providers who work with the visually impaired persons. Documentary evidence was also obtained in the form of journals, written articles and policies on visual disabilities from the various participants. Where possible, more information was gathered from online forums, e-mail discussions and comments by visually impaired users as well as other professionals who work with such persons. The internet-assisted means of data collection was chosen with the aim of improving the reliability and validity of the research, as it was perceived to help eliminate the natural human error and lack of control over the research. Consequently, structured questionnaires were distributed via the internet to some of these key informants and were set to collect responses via the internet, enhancing the anonymity of the researcher and the respondent. The outcome was positive as it helped the researcher overcome the barriers of sex, ethnicity and age and also encouraged honesty and an increase in response rate without violating the ethical issues in relation to the participants. 3.3 Data presentation The face-to-face and interview information was collected through a visit to the RNIB, an organisation that has been providing solutions for people who are visually impaired for over 30 years. One of the UK's leading providers of access technology working with and for people with sight problems, providing over 60 services; many of which are designed to support professionals in their work and the almost two million people with sight loss [27]. Initially, there were over 12 000 people registered to the 60 services being provided by RNIB. The visit to the organisation presented participants with two simple tasks to complete, trying as much as possible not to cross boundaries considering the ethical issues involved in the research. The procedure was to ask the visually impaired persons, who use the screen reader, to access the web (particularly the dynamic websites) followed by a questionnaire which was handed to them to complete. This resulted in a sample of 25 respondents out of the 30 screen reader users that were interviewed. However, since this method did not generate many responses and proved time-consuming, it was decided that an internet-mediated approach might prove beneficial in collecting more effective and less time-consuming data. To this end, a number of participants were sent a questionnaire via the internet and within 3 weeks of sending the requests 61 responses were obtained. A copy of the link to the questionnaire was attached into the body of the e-mail message being sent to the participants to complete [28] and the HTML code to the questionnaire was also copied and pasted to add the web link to any webpage ( Click here to take survey). These methods allowed the researcher to reach a vast and diverse number of potential participants, as well as providing the respondents with easy access to the questionnaire thereby increasing the time and cost efficiency of the research. 3.3.1 Data analysis A review of the responses we obtained from the participants was conducted and two results lists were generated based on the responses: one of persons who use the screen reader programmes to access the computer, and another sample of visually impaired individuals, designers, professionals and advisers who responded through the online survey. This resulted in a sample of 86 respondents and 14 no-responses from the participants on the overall web accessibility issues which were raised. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed, both by face-to-face interview and through e-mail request and online forums. 3.4 Face-to-face interview with screen reader users About 30 questionnaires were distributed to the participants who use the screen reading programmes to access the web at the RNIB research centre. Out of the 30 questionnaires that were distributed face-to-face 25 responded to the survey, representing about 83.3% of the distributed questionnaires. From Table 1, our sample shows that 72% of the group finds it difficult to access dynamic web pages, 20% says it is not very confusing, and only 8% agree they can easily access the dynamic websites. Fig. 1 shows a pie chart representation of our face-to-face interview with the visually impaired users at RNIB. Table 1. Table showing the percentage face-to-face response by the screen reader users Responses Number of completers Percentage, % confusing – finds it difficult to access dynamic websites 18 72 not very confusing 5 20 not confusing 2 8 3.5 Online survey The online survey was highly successful in generating a large sample of participants in less time and cost. Messages requesting the participants to complete the questionnaire were sent to a handful of professionals, groups and individuals; yet in just 3 weeks 61 responses were received. Fig. 2 shows a screenshot of the response we gathered through our online survey using survey monkey [28]. The collection of data was a random one and no duplication was found in the data collected, as respondents provided their submissions online via the web-based survey system. A total of 70 questionnaires were sent out to the participants via e-mail attachment and web links. Out of the 70 questionnaires that were distributed to the participants 61 responded, representing about 87% of the distributed questionnaires. 68.9% of the respondents admitted that dynamic websites are confusing and inaccessible to the visually impaired, 21.3% say it is not very confusing while 9.8% believe they are not confusing. Fig. 3 shows a pie chart representation of the online survey in percentage. Fig. 1Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Result of the face-to-face respondents in percentage Following the result in Fig. 2, the various data that we collected were organised in both tables and charts pertinent to the research findings and outcomes, as we have seen above. This was to ensure consistency and to enable comparison, to see if the method works and to identify factors that might lead to a bottleneck in the entire research process. In the next section, we analyse the results of the face-to-face interview in relation to the online survey. Fig. 2Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Screenshot of the online survey respondents and result Fig. 3Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Result of the online survey respondents in percentage 3.6 Resulting analysis The results of the face-to-face and online survey were represented in a table as well as bar chart to enable us compare the result of the data we collected (see Fig. 4). Fig. 4Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Bar chart representing the face-to-face plotted against the online survey results The results were calculated to help determine the overall mean (%) of responses which we represented in Table 2. Table 2. Mean (%) of the face-to-face against online survey result analysis Not confusing, % Not very confusing, % Confusing, % Others, % face-to-face 8 20 72 0 online survey 9.8 21.3 68.9 0 mean, % 8.9 20.65 70.45 0 The result at the end of the research which provided a sample of 86 respondents in all, clearly shows that: 60 respondents = who says that dynamic web application are ‘confusing’ to the visually impaired. 18 respondents = says they are ‘Not Very Confusing’. 8 respondents = says ‘Not Confusing’. In summary, Fig. 5 presented the results of the data analysis which shows 60 out of 86 participants say that dynamic web applications are confusing for the visually impaired users; which is more than 100% greater than the Not Very Confusing & Not Confusing respondents. This is evidence that dynamic web applications are to some extent inaccessible and confusing to the visually impaired users. Fig. 5Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Line graph showing the mean (%) of the responses 3.7 Research findings Even though the visually impaired users were already used to navigating through web pages and other e-contents using a screen reader, being able to navigate through the content on the dynamic web pages was a completely novel experience for them; ranging from lack of further contextual information to limited control over the interaction and the amount of information that was being displayed, which on several occasions was confusing to them. These results indicate that the dynamic web pages are causing impediments to the visually impaired users when accessing the contents. 3.8 Implementation of solution From the previous sections, it was seen that dynamic web applications are confusing and to some extent inaccessible to the visually impaired users. However, in this section, the research paper, as part of its contribution towards enhancing the use and access to the dynamic web applications by the visually impaired users, draws prototypes as well as implementation of a technical design approach intended towards the creation of an accessible dynamic website for the visually impaired, ensuring keyboard accessibility and providing accessible user interface control over the font size and page colours as well as voice over programmes. 3.8.1 Proposed website design Developing accessible dynamic applications is not only feasible but increasingly practical. Creating dynamic websites and allowing the visually impaired users to access its pages requires two different approaches, which will be tackled in this section. The developers need an authoring tool to create the DHTML (dynamic) content and to package it into the product the visually impaired user will see. Secondly, the users generally need an assistive device such as screen reader to run or access the end product on their computers. 3.8.2 Technical high-level specification of our proposed website To focus on applying the principles of accessibility to the dynamic website and to make sure the proposed new system is efficient, this paper chooses to use the following application software which is found to be more consistent and reliable than other authoring tools and works more readily with ‘ActionScript’ which supports testing for accessibility. Table 3 shows the software requirements for our proposed website and their functions in the design phase. Table 3. Software requirement for the new proposed website Software requirements Functions Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Professional for designing the website graphical user interface, buttons and tables Adobe Flash CS4 Professional for designing the dynamic contents, moving images and pages Adobe Fireworks CS5 Professional firework is used for complete solution for creating, optimising and integrating web graphics, videos, sounds and rich texts Adobe-Photo-shop CS4 Adobe Photo-shop was used for the design of navigation buttons and the top bar and also many other graphics that have been used in the design ActionScript, version 3.0 coding and programming Adobe Flash Player, version 10 for running and testing the App which is expected to run on any browser JAWS 4.0 a screen reading programme for testing and implementing the whole application Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 8.0 since the browsers feed information about the web contents to the screen reading programme using MSAA. It is expected that any browser that supports MSAA; such as the Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer will be able to run the programme 3.8.3 Structure of the web application in diagrammatic form and the homepage screenshot Figs. 6 and 7 show the different pages as well as the enhanced legibility criteria embodied in our new website and the screenshot of the homepage, respectively. Fig. 6Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Control navigation of pages in our website named (KIB) Fig. 7Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Screenshot of the new website homepage 3.9 Implementation test By default text +9 objects in dynamic websites are already read and can also identify objects with a text label using the screen reader. It is up to the developer to add text equivalent to images and movies, which is a good design consideration when designing for the visually impaired user to provide further context. Setting the Tab index also allows the designer to control the reading order of the elements in the flash movie, which allows users to navigate using only the Tab and Enter keys on the keyboard. Information about the list of the available shortcuts as text equivalent was also provided or made available for the screen reader users through the help area button. In Adobe Flash CS4, combo and list boxes are already accessible, we only have to enable the accessibility object by using the command enable.Accessibility(). In Fig. 8 Text equivalent and Tab index number can be added using the Accessibility Panel or Action Script. To detect whether the screen reader is on, use the function Accessibility.isActive(). Fig. 8Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Accessibility panel Flash CS4 Professional also offers a new component to display captions that are either contained in a World Wide Web consortium timed text, XML file (distribution format exchange profile (DFXP)) or integrated with Flash video (FLV) file as cue points. Custom screen magnifiers and an option to change the text size through font formatting also support the visually impaired user in accessing the dynamic contents. 3.9.1 Research contribution This research paper, as part of its contributions towards the current debate on how best to design web applications for the visually impaired users, affirms that if designers would apply the combination of the no-frills and agile methodology in correspondence to th