Towards a more accessible e-government in Jordan: an evaluation study of visually impaired users and Web developers

Submitted by mlb78 on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 17:23
TitleTowards a more accessible e-government in Jordan: an evaluation study of visually impaired users and Web developers
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsAbu-Doush, Iyad, Bany-Mohammed, Ashraf, Ali, Emad, and Al-Betar, Mohammed Azmi
JournalBehaviour & Information Technology
Volume32
Issue3
Pagination273-293
ISSN Number0144929X
Accession Number85760067
Keywordsblind, evaluation, Web accessibility
AbstractAccessibility of e-government services is a key issue for people with disabilities. E-government services can significantly save lot of their effort and provide them with lot of easy to reach services. Yet, accessibility of e-government websites is still an underexplored topic in Jordan. In order to understand the accessibility of e-government websites and its problems, this study evaluates a set of e-government websites using 20 blind and visually impaired volunteers and at the same time conducts a survey on e-government websites developers. The results from e-government websites accessibility evaluation are compared with expert's review. For both the evaluation and the survey we used a set of accessibility guidelines developed by W3C [i.e. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)], Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, and other literature review. In order to evaluate a reasonable number of e-government Web sites, a set of common e-government websites visited by the blind community were identified and a set of specific common tasks to test were defined. The analysis of the research results revealed a serious weakness in understanding, adopting and implementing Web accessibility guidelines throughout nearly all Jordanian e-government websites. Improving awareness, training developers and users, and developing formal guidelines of Web accessibility are needed to enable visually impaired and blind users in accessing e-government Web sites and their services. Further research analysis discusses and identifies key areas in which e-government accessibility can be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
NotesThis study examined the e-government website accessibility for people with visual disabilities in Jordan. The research was comprised of three parts: (1) a questionnaire distributed to developers and Web administrators; (2) an evaluation by blind and visually impaired people of some e-government websites in Jordan; and (3) an expert's review evaluation. Results showed that none of the developers or Web administrators had good or excellent amount of web accessibility standards experience.
DOI10.1080/0144929X.2011.630416