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Accessibility of American University Special Education Departments’ Web sites

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Abstract

In the last 20 years, the World Wide Web (Web) has gone from being the means of disseminating information for a few scientists to a universal means of disseminating information across the globe. While the Web provides an unprecedented level of access to information for many, if not properly designed, Web sites can actually create a number of barriers to information access to persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accessibility of home pages of University Departments of Special Education. A total of 51 Special Education departmental Web sites were located using a popular online search engine and evaluated for accessibility. Two Web site evaluation programs were used to determine whether the Web sites meet minimum accessibility guidelines, and one of them was used to quantify the number of accessibility errors on each site. The results indicated that most (97 %) of the pages evaluated had accessibility problems, many (39 %) of which were severe and should be given a high priority for correcting. The good news is the majority of errors can easily be corrected. The work reflects a need for Departments of Special Education to examine the accessibility of their home pages. Direction for improving accessibility is provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Professional Studies, College of Education, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 30118, USA

    Ravic Ringlaben

  2. Department of Educational Technology and Foundations, College of Education, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 30118, USA

    Marty Bray & Abbot Packard

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  1. Ravic Ringlaben
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  2. Marty Bray
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  3. Abbot Packard
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Correspondence to Ravic Ringlaben.

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Ringlaben, R., Bray, M. & Packard, A. Accessibility of American University Special Education Departments’ Web sites. Univ Access Inf Soc 13, 249–254 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-013-0302-7

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