Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness

The use of online tools is a common practice for evaluating the accessibility of a website, identifying problems, and providing useful feedback on how to fix detected issues. For ease of accessibility validation, many tools have been developed and implemented successfully over the years. Yet, the re...

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Main Authors: Rita Ismailova, Yavuz Inal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9785837/
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author Rita Ismailova
Yavuz Inal
author_facet Rita Ismailova
Yavuz Inal
author_sort Rita Ismailova
collection DOAJ
description The use of online tools is a common practice for evaluating the accessibility of a website, identifying problems, and providing useful feedback on how to fix detected issues. For ease of accessibility validation, many tools have been developed and implemented successfully over the years. Yet, the results of these tools show differences in terms of coverage, correctness, and reporting-related issues. In this study, we compared online accessibility evaluation tools to understand to what extent they differ in detecting accessibility problems in websites. A total of 41 government websites of different countries were tested for violations of accessibility guidelines using six evaluation tools. We observed that each tool generated different evaluation data for the same websites. As some of the tools are complementary to each other, meaning the highest coverage and completeness can be possible with the right combination of evaluation tools. Therefore, we suggest different tools should be utilized to provide consistency and obtain reliable data from online evaluation tools, thereby improving tool effectiveness.
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spelling doaj.art-910546d11d614064b0757933161fd6d32022-12-22T02:33:57ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110582335823910.1109/ACCESS.2022.31793759785837Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool EffectivenessRita Ismailova0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0308-2315Yavuz Inal1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9919-6637Computer Engineering Department, Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, Bishkek, KyrgyzstanDepartment of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, NorwayThe use of online tools is a common practice for evaluating the accessibility of a website, identifying problems, and providing useful feedback on how to fix detected issues. For ease of accessibility validation, many tools have been developed and implemented successfully over the years. Yet, the results of these tools show differences in terms of coverage, correctness, and reporting-related issues. In this study, we compared online accessibility evaluation tools to understand to what extent they differ in detecting accessibility problems in websites. A total of 41 government websites of different countries were tested for violations of accessibility guidelines using six evaluation tools. We observed that each tool generated different evaluation data for the same websites. As some of the tools are complementary to each other, meaning the highest coverage and completeness can be possible with the right combination of evaluation tools. Therefore, we suggest different tools should be utilized to provide consistency and obtain reliable data from online evaluation tools, thereby improving tool effectiveness.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9785837/Automated evaluationgovernment websitesonline evaluation toolsWCAGweb accessibilityweb performance
spellingShingle Rita Ismailova
Yavuz Inal
Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
IEEE Access
Automated evaluation
government websites
online evaluation tools
WCAG
web accessibility
web performance
title Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
title_full Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
title_fullStr Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
title_short Comparison of Online Accessibility Evaluation Tools: An Analysis of Tool Effectiveness
title_sort comparison of online accessibility evaluation tools an analysis of tool effectiveness
topic Automated evaluation
government websites
online evaluation tools
WCAG
web accessibility
web performance
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9785837/
work_keys_str_mv AT ritaismailova comparisonofonlineaccessibilityevaluationtoolsananalysisoftooleffectiveness
AT yavuzinal comparisonofonlineaccessibilityevaluationtoolsananalysisoftooleffectiveness