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Web Accessibility for the Visually Impaired: A Case of Higher Education Institutions’ Websites in Ghana

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Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2017 (ICWL 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10473))

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Abstract

Globally, the use of web-based resources has increased tremendously among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This move has made access to information more convenient and easy for most students. However, while providing this benefit, some students may be excluded because they cannot use standard modes of access. Students with disabilities are most at risk of being excluded from access, particularly those who are visually impaired and use assistive technologies such as screen magnifiers and screen readers. Websites of education institutions serve as virtual gateway to access immediate information for students and should therefore be accessible. Yet, web accessibility is under-explored in Ghana. In this study, we evaluate based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0); the accessibility of some HEIs’ websites in Ghana using diagnostic automatic tool. The findings show that most HEIs websites failed to comply with perceivable and operable principles of WCAG 2.0. The study also shows that despite a growing awareness of web accessibility issues worldwide, visually impaired students in Ghana are likely to be experiencing barriers in accessing web content from these institutions. The study recommends increasing awareness, training web developers and users, and developing contextualized web accessibility guidelines as some needed steps to ensure the integration of visually impaired students into the digital society.

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Acknowledgment

The first author is grateful Schlumberger Foundation, Faculty of the Future Fellowship and L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Sub-Saharan Africa for funding support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Millicent Akotam Agangiba

  2. Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

    Emmanuel Boahen Nketiah & William Akotam Agangiba

Authors
  1. Millicent Akotam Agangiba
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  2. Emmanuel Boahen Nketiah
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  3. William Akotam Agangiba
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Millicent Akotam Agangiba .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Haoran Xie

  2. University of Craiova, Craiova, Romania

    Elvira Popescu

  3. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Gerhard Hancke

  4. Department of software, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Baltasar Fernández Manjón

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Agangiba, M.A., Nketiah, E.B., Agangiba, W.A. (2017). Web Accessibility for the Visually Impaired: A Case of Higher Education Institutions’ Websites in Ghana. In: Xie, H., Popescu, E., Hancke, G., Fernández Manjón, B. (eds) Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2017. ICWL 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10473. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66733-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66733-1_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66732-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66733-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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