The Effects of Implementing Web Accessibility Standards on the Success of Secondary Adolescents

Web accessibility has become a paramount concern in providing equal access to audiences of all abilities. Unless web accessibility is supported and employed, the internet does not deliver worldwide access as it was intended. This study engaged 60 students in a secondary school setting in order to identify the navigational effectiveness and response accuracy of web sites constructed to adhere to federal guidelines relating to web accessibility. The goal of the study was to determine the effects of following or not following these guidelines in the creation of instructional, web-based learning modules for adolescents. Two separate informative web sites were created for adolescents with and without disabilities; one accessible and one non-accessible. The purpose was to evaluate the accuracy of response and time for each participant. Results of the study showed that all students who used the accessible web site scored higher on accuracy of response than those who used the non-accessible site. The results of this study indicate that web sites created using universal design guidelines that adhere to federal recommendations for web accessibility may assist all types of students in improving the accuracy of response when using information from a web site. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)