An evaluation of web-based voting usability and accessibility

Submitted by mlb78 on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 17:24
TitleAn evaluation of web-based voting usability and accessibility
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsFuglerud, Kristin Skeide, and Røssvoll, Till
JournalUniversal Access in the Information Society
Volume11
Issue4
Pagination359-373
ISSN Number16155289
Accession Number82763688
KeywordsAccessibility, Democracy, universal design
AbstractSeveral countries are considering web-based voting as an alternative to, or a replacement of, traditional voting methods. It is argued that electronic voting could increase voter participation and help strengthen democracy, as e-voting would increase accessibility for large sections of the population, particularly with regard to groups that previously have experienced difficulties with the traditional voting setup. With a focus on usability and accessibility, this paper reports on a study evaluating several electronic voting prototypes in Norway, involving technical aspects as well as expert evaluation and user testing in the field, with users from a wide range of disabled user groups participating in the study. Technical testing regarding accessibility standard compliance, testing with the personas method and user testing revealed that many rather basic universal design principles were either not fully understood or not prioritized for implementation by the solution providers. However, despite various accessibility difficulties, the participants generally showed a positive attitude towards web-based elections. Through the findings of this study, the authors highlight factors that are important to consider in the development and testing of web-based voting systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
NotesE-voting has been adopted by many countries to increase people's participation in voting. This article is interested in e-voting prototypes in Norway with a focus of their usability and accessibility. Two test scenarios were used and each participant was asked to use every scenario. The study employed a technical testing, an expert testing and a user testing. Participants were all disabled people recruited from different Norwegian non-governmental user organizations. Usability and accessibility requirements were specified by the project owner and described in the article. Technical evaluation showed that all prototypes had been designed with static page layout incompatible with other sizes of screens, thus leaving potential problems that users might meet when they opened these web pages through small devices. All prototypes also showed space for improvement when evaluated against the WCAG standards. Apart from several problems identified, users in general had a positive attitude toward the two prototypes.
DOI10.1007/s10209-011-0253-9