@article {3061, title = {Information structure and practice as facilitators of deaf users{\textquoteright} navigation in textual websites}, journal = {Behaviour \& Information Technology}, volume = {28}, year = {2009}, note = {

This study tested the influence of type of web structures and practices on the deaf users\&$\#$39; web information search performance with the aim of improving their navigation in non-native language websites. The study put forward two hypothesis: 1) wide structure is perceived better than the deap one by deaf users in terms of percentage of targets found, search time and disorientation; 2) increasing practice will lead to increasing search accuracy and efficiency, especially in the case of wide structures. The results indicated that deaf users\&$\#$39; reading skills were significantly positively correlated with number of targets found and knowledge acquisition. There was no significant effect of Web structure, whereas the effect of practice was significant.

}, pages = {87-97}, abstract = {

Deaf users might find it difficult to navigate through websites with textual content which, for many of them, constitutes the written representation of a non-native oral language. With the aim of testing how the information structure could compensate for this difficulty, 27 prelingual deaf users of sign language were asked to search a set of headlines in a web newspaper where information structure and practice were manipulated. While practice did not affect deep structures (web content distributed through four layers of nodes), wide structures (web content concentrated in two layers) did facilitate users\&$\#$39; performance in the last trial block and compromised it in the first trial block. It is argued that wide structures generate a textual information overload for deaf users, which decreases with practice. Thus, wide structures seem preferable for websites requiring frequent use, rather than for those intended for occasional interaction. (Contains 3 figures and 5 tables.)

}, keywords = {cognitive disability, deaf, hearing disability, library, navigation, Web accessibility}, issn = {0144-929X}, doi = {10.1080/01449290801988290}, author = {I. Fajardo and J. J. Ca{\~n}as and Salmer{\'o}n, L. and Julio Abascal} } @article {3060, title = {Improving deaf users{\textquoteright} accessibility in hypertext information retrieval: are graphical interfaces useful for them?}, journal = {Behaviour \& Information Technology}, volume = {25}, year = {2006}, note = {

This study compared the textual link with the graphical link on the performance of deaf signers in hypertext information retrival. It showed that textual link, instead of graphical ones, performed better.

}, pages = {455-467}, abstract = {

This paper explores the effect of substituting textual links for graphical ones on the performance of deaf signers in hypertext information retrieval (HIR). Both deaf and hearing users found more targets, were faster and became less disoriented in the verbal hypertext interface than in the graphical one. Deaf users were outperformed by hearing users in all conditions except in short paths with the graphical interface. The results and its applied consequences, which would be also relevant to other users with similar problems than those of deaf signers (elderly people, people with dyslexia, people navigating in a website using a foreign language or people with low literacy) are discussed in relation to the CoLiDeS model of web interaction (Kitajima et al. 2000) and to the overgeneralisation of \&$\#$39;Picture superiority effect\&$\#$39; (Nelson et al. 1976).

}, keywords = {deaf, hearing disability, Interface design, User interface, Web accessibility}, isbn = {0144929050033}, doi = {10.1080/01449290500331180}, author = {I. Fajardo and J. J. Ca{\~n}as and Salmer{\'o}n, L. and Julio Abascal} } @article {2979, title = {The Use of Guidelines to Automatically Verify Web Accessibility}, journal = {Universal Access in the Information Society}, volume = {3}, year = {2004}, note = {

This paper presents a web accessibility check tool \— EvalIris \— developed to automatically check the accessibility of Websites. This tool could change according to the guidelines of web accessibility updated.

}, pages = {71-79}, abstract = {

Accessibility is one of the key challenges that the Internet must currently face to guarantee universal inclusion. Accessible Web design requires knowledge and experience from the designer, who can be assisted by the use of broadly accepted guidelines. Nevertheless, guideline application may not be obvious, and many designers may lack experience to use them. The difficulty increases because, as the research on accessibility is progressing, existing sets of guidelines are updated and new sets are proposed by diverse institutions. Therefore, the availability of tools to evaluate accessibility, and eventually repair the detected bugs, is crucial. This paper presents a tool \— EvalIris \— developed to automatically check the accessibility of Websites using sets of guidelines that, by means of a well-defined XML structure, can be easily replaced or updated

}, keywords = {Automated evaluation, universal design, Web accessibility, Web services}, isbn = {3494321930}, doi = {10.1007/s10209-003-0069-3}, author = {Julio Abascal and Myriam Arrue and Inmaculada Fajardo and Nestor Garay and Tom{\'a}s, Jorge} }