The accessibility of on-line encyclopaedias for people with print disabilities Dominique Burger Sylvie Duchateau Roger Molas Conogan INSERM U592 (France) BrailleNet Association

SUMMARY  The e-Accessibility problem - Context  The EMULA Project  The study of 4 encyclopaedias  Methodology  Analysis of Functionalities  Accessibility evaluation  Conclusion

Access to documents Users with print disabilities, cannot read traditional printed documents because of Users with print disabilities, cannot read traditional printed documents because of  A vision problem  A difficulty to manipulate them; In particular, bulky documents composed of several volumes, like encyclopaedia, are inaccessible In particular, bulky documents composed of several volumes, like encyclopaedia, are inaccessible

e-Accessibility: An universal concept  The definition of Tim Berners-Lee, director of the W.3.C (World Wide Web Consortium) "To put the internet and its services at the disposal of all individuals, whatever their hardware or software requirements, their netork infrastructure, their native language, their cultural background, there geographic location, or their physical or mental aptitudes." "To put the internet and its services at the disposal of all individuals, whatever their hardware or software requirements, their netork infrastructure, their native language, their cultural background, there geographic location, or their physical or mental aptitudes."

WAI Initiative The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)  Created in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)  Guidelines –Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) –Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) –User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) –Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) –Tools development  Education and Outreach

Research projects WebWAI-TIESWebWAI-TIES Books, text booksVICKIEBooks, text booksVICKIE Dictionaries, EncycopaediaEMULADictionaries, EncycopaediaEMULAEUAIN European Accessible Information Network

Legal obligation  Law "pour l'égalité des droits et des chances, la participation et la citoyenneté des personnes handicapées"  Voted on 11 February 2005  Article 47 → Publics websites have to be accessible for people with disabilities – International standards - Training

The EMULA Project  Initiated by Hachette Multimedia to improve the accessibility of their on-line encyclopaedia Hachette Multimedia Encyclopaedia : Multimedia Encyclopaedia : IDM : : BrailleNet Association : Association :  Granted by the « Direction de la Technologie du Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Eseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche » ( USAGES n° 04271)  July 2004 – June 2005

The EMULA Objectives  To assess the conformance of a sample of popular encyclopaedias to the W3C/WAI WCAG  To establish which functionalities are more specific to encyclopaedias and essential to make them usable  To provide general recommendations to developpers of digital encyclopaedias

The study  4 Web encyclopaedias were selected and studied according to their : Popularity in FrancePopularity in France Web referencing rate in GoogleWeb referencing rate in Google  Hachette Multimedia Encyclopaedia  Encarta MSN :  Quid 2004 :  Wikipedia :  2 aspects studied FunctionalitiesFunctionalities AccessibilityAccessibility

Fonctionalities  4 common functionalities « Simple search »« Simple search » « Advanced search »« Advanced search » « Thematic tree »« Thematic tree » « Help/guidance »« Help/guidance »  Others interesting functionalities Spelling checkerSpelling checker « interactive quizz »« interactive quizz »......

Accessibility Evaluation method  AccessiWeb = method for assessing the conformity to the WCAG1.0 2 experts 2 experts 55 criteria (Bronze) –correspondance with WCAG criteria (Bronze) –correspondance with WCAG criteria 55 criteria Cover A conformancce level and some of AA Cover A conformancce level and some of AA

Accessibility Evaluation method  Software Tools : WebXM tm Version 3.0WebXM tm Version 3.0 Web Accessibility toolbarWeb Accessibility toolbar Internet Explorer & Mozilla FirefoxInternet Explorer & Mozilla Firefox Jaws for Windows 4.51Jaws for Windows 4.51 IBM Home Page readerIBM Home Page reader Lynx Version 2.8.4Lynx Version  Hardware : Braille displayBraille display

Accessibility evaluation results  General results according to AccessiWeb Bronze Criteria

Accessibility expert evaluation  Graphical Elements Lack of text equivalentLack of text equivalent  Title Markup Page title remains identical all over the WebsitePage title remains identical all over the Website  Colors Generally, color contrasts were good (except for MSN Encarta)Generally, color contrasts were good (except for MSN Encarta) The content structure not independant from page layoutThe content structure not independant from page layout  Linearisation of information Quite acceptable on the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, but poor on MSN EncartaQuite acceptable on the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, but poor on MSN Encarta

Accessibility expert evaluation  Links links not clear when read out of their contextlinks not clear when read out of their context Except for Wikipedia, links are often opening in new window without warning to the userExcept for Wikipedia, links are often opening in new window without warning to the user  Scripts Only The Quid & Wikipedia are usable when scripts are disabledOnly The Quid & Wikipedia are usable when scripts are disabled  Forms No HTML structure was providedNo HTML structure was provided Not labelled properlyNot labelled properly

Summary  No one of the 4 on-line encyclopaedias was conforms to the WCAG1.0  No one was reasonably usable  Had they respected the WCAG1.0 recommendations their usability would have improved dramatically  In addition, their general design would have been better

11 th commandment DO RESPECT THE WAI !

THE END  Thank you for your attention !  more information

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