Telling the story of older people e-mailing: An ethnographical study

While e-mail is the Internet application most used by older people, very little is known about how they interact with e-mail systems and use them in their daily lives. We undertook a 3-year ethnographical study aimed at revealing and explaining real life e-mailing. We describe and discuss the nature of e-mail use in terms of social circles; frequency, type of content and patterns of communication; relationship with other technologies and activities; motivation and interactive experiences. Within this context of everyday use, we uncover and explain the (relative) importance of several interaction barriers, such as cognitive load, difficulties using input devices and perception of visual information. We claim that cognitive difficulties are much more relevant than difficulties in reading from the screen, for instance, so challenging results of current HCI research with older people. We show and discuss some implications for designing better e-mail systems (and interactive technologies) for older people.     

Everyday use of computer-mediated communication tools and its evolution over time: An ethnographical study with older people

Based on a 3-year ethnographical study, this paper discusses the prolonged use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools by approximately 400 older people in an adult education centre in Barcelona (Spain). Contrary to oversimplified views of older people as ICT users, this paper shows that they make a very rich use of CMC tools. Relevant elements of this use are their permanent desire to feel and be included, social, independent and competent ICT users. Despite the numerous interaction issues they face when using ICT, some are constant across different tools. Difficulties due to cognition limit their interactions more severely than those problems due to perceiving visual information or using the mouse. By examining the longitudinal aspect of the study, this paper addresses the evolution of technology use and whether the interaction issues that most of the current older people exhibit will be relevant when today’s more ICT literate young adults grow older. Interaction issues due to cognition are time-persistent, and independent of both experience and practice with ICT. Difficulties reading from the screen or using input devices are overcome with ICT experience. The strategies adopted by older people for coping with all these interaction issues are always targeted at feeling and being included, social, independent and competent ICT users. The results deepen current understanding of tools use in connecting older people with their social circles and the interaction issues most of them encounter when using ICT. The results also suggest that cognitive-related problems will be the most important ones in our work with the next generation of older people.     

Selective attention in web forms: an exploratory case study with older people

This article reports on an exploratory study aimed to identify which ways of marking required and optional fields help older people fill in web forms correctly. Drawing on a pilot study and selective attention research in ageing, modified versions of widely used forms were created, in which standard asterisks were replaced with one of three alternatives: large asterisks (double standard size), textual labels and a simple binary classification of fields. Older novice computer users participated in this study (N = 88). The quantitative results were independent of the type of form and showed that the method of denoting required fields had a significant effect on the number of errors (measured as required fields not being filled (p < 0.05)). The participants made fewer errors in the binary classification than in the others (p < 0.05), while the differences between standard asterisks, large asterisks and labels were not significant (p > 0.05). The qualitative findings revealed that the participants felt overloaded with information when using every method except the binary classification. These results challenge widespread design solutions for older people (e.g. enlarging elements) and suggest that reducing selective attention demands can help us meet their accessibility needs.     

An exploratory study of web adaptation techniques for people with low vision

Universal Access in the Information Society - People with low vision may experience accessibility barriers when they interact with the web. The navigation strategies of low-vision users are...     

Improving web accessibility: a study of webmaster perceptions

Large percentages of web sites continue to be inaccessible to people with disabilities. Since tools and guidelines are available to help designers and webmasters in making their web sites accessible, it is unclear why so many sites continue to be inaccessible. In this paper, we present the “Web Accessibility Integration Model,” which highlights the multiple points within web development where accessibility can be incorporated or forgotten. It is uncertain why webmasters do not use the various tools and guidelines that currently are available for making web sites accessible. A survey was created, and data was collected from 175 webmasters, indicating their knowledge on the topic of web accessibility and the reasons for their actions related to web accessibility. Findings and future directions for research are discussed.     

A systematic approach to the development of research-based web design guidelines for older people

This paper presents a systematic approach to the development of a set of research-based ageing-centred web design guidelines (SilverWeb Guidelines). The approach included an initial extensive literature review in the area of human–computer interaction and ageing, the development of an initial set of guidelines based on the reviewed literature, a card sorting exercise for their classification, an affinity diagramming exercise for the reduction and further finalisation of the guidelines, and finally a set of heuristic evaluations for the validation and test of robustness of the guidelines. The 38 final guidelines are grouped into eleven distinct categories (target design, use of graphics, navigation, browser window features, content layout design, links, user cognitive design, use of colour and background, text design, search engine, user feedback and support).     

Universal web accessibility and the challenge to integrate informal Arabic users: a case study

Universal Access in the Information Society - Most Arabs can read text written in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). However, to easily express themselves, they may find it easier to switch to informal...     

An exploratory study of the accessibility of state government Web sites

This paper focuses on Web accessibility. Relevant legislation and judicial decisions are reviewed, and prior empirical research is presented. This study presents the results from the Web accessibility analysis of the home pages of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It found that twenty-nine percent of the home pages do not meet the requirements for Conformance Level A Web accessibility. Only one state meets Conformance Level AA standards, which are the minimum standards recommended for Web accessibility, and no state meets Conformance Level AAA standards. This paper also discusses how to address common accessibility problems.

The accessibility of university web sites: the case of Turkish universities

The Web has become a part of daily life, and yet web accessibility remains an important issue because of continuing accessibility problems involving many web users. Universities utilize the Web for many purposes, and therefore, university Web sites must be accessible for all. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the level of accessibility of Turkish university homepages. A sample of university homepages was reviewed using multiple techniques based on The World Wide Web Consortium suggestions. The results indicated that all university homepages show some accessibility problems. Several recommendations are provided based on the research findings.     

Evaluation of accessibility barriers and learning features in m-learning chat applications for users with disabilities

Universal Access in the Information Society - Chat applications are being used for more than one decade in learning environments as a useful computer-supported collaborative learning tool. However,...     

Evaluation of web accessibility in China: changes from 2009 to 2013

The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the status of web accessibility in China and to reveal any improvements during the period 2009 to 2013. Two evaluation studies were carried out in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Thirty-eight popular Chinese websites were evaluated in 2009 and fifty in 2013 with reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG). The studies applied the conformance evaluation method with the help of the automatic evaluation tool Hera. The evaluation results indicated that none of the surveyed websites passed all the checkpoints of Priority 1 in both studies, which means no website met the minimum requirement for web accessibility. The average level of web accessibility worsened between 2009 and 2013 due to the increase of website complexity and the amount of content. However, e-government websites had made some significant improvement during these 4 years, which indicated that the government had realized the web accessibility issues and made some effort to address them. The evaluation also revealed five major accessibility barriers existing in both studies, and these barriers also served as technical suggestions for web content providers. The web accessibility of Chinese websites is far from satisfactory, and it is getting worse from 2009 to 2013. However, e-government websites had improved significantly in regards to accessibility due to the release of accessibility regulations. Thus, the reason that explains low web accessibility in China is the lack of awareness rather than lack of technical skills.     

Evaluating the accessibility of public health websites: An exploratory cross-country study

Universal Access in the Information Society - Public health websites are regarded as official references that citizens of any country rely on for domestic and individual health affairs. For people...     

Support and information needs of older and disabled older people in the UK

The aim of this study was to determine the support and information needs of older and disabled older people in the UK. Following an initial literature survey, an examination of data on enquiries made by older people to information providers, and a series of focus groups, a questionnaire was developed for a nationwide survey. Over 1630 questionnaires were completed by disabled older clients of Day Care Centres and less frail older members of social clubs. Findings showed that there is a serious shortfall in the number of older people getting the practical support that they need, and the information that enables access to this support, compared to the number that actually need help. Substantial percentages of the survey respondents experienced difficulty with everyday tasks and with accessing the information they needed. Implications for formal sources of support and information are discussed.     

A survey of technology accessibility problems faced by older users in China

Internet accessibility for older users has become an important issue to promote inclusion and participation in the Information Society. This paper proposes an investigation into the technology accessibility problems faced by older users in China. The research reported here was conducted by means of an exploratory survey with a Web-based questionnaire and discussions with older users at meetings. The study had 180 valid answers and involved representatives from each of the 25 provinces of China. The results show that 39% of the participants cannot or can only partially access information, because of various kinds of accessibility problems. Many participants indicated that the main problems in accessing the Internet were health barriers, circumstances barriers, and Internet design barrier. The possible reason for these difficulties could be that the government doesn’t foster a social environment conducive to helping the elderly to get online and that it does not provide services for the elderly designed to help them access information electronically. The poor rate of accessibility industry for the elderly, as well as the lack of Chinese accessibility laws, is an important issue that must be dealt with to promote greater Internet accessibility for the elderly.     

An empirical study of the cross-channel effects between web and mobile shopping channels

With the increasing popularity of mobile applications, increasingly more e-commerce websites are providing mobile shopping services that enable their consumers to access their products and services through an additional mobile channel. The question arises here as to whether the new channel brings new sales or merely shifts consumers from the web to the mobile channel. Using the 2½-year transaction data obtained from an e-commerce company that expanded its web service onto a mobile platform, we investigated the impact of the newly introduced mobile channel on the sales of the incumbent web channel, and whether it could stimulate new consumption from consumers. Our empirical results indicate that after the adoption of the mobile channel, the purchases on the web channel were slightly cannibalized; however, the consumers’ purchases increased overall, suggesting that the positive synergy effect of the new channel overrode the negative cannibalization effect. Our investigation contributes to multichannel e-commerce literature by empirically testing the cross-channel effects of a new mobile channel and also providing insights for e-retailers interested in introducing a new mobile channel.     

Accessibility of the Italian institutional web pages: a survey on the compliance of the Italian public administration web pages to the Stanca Act and its 22 technical requirements for web accessibility

Accessibility of the Italian public administration web pages is ruled by the Stanca Act and in particular the Decree of the Minister issued on July 8, 2005. In this paper, an objective test is performed on the official web pages of the Italian province and region chief towns to check their compliance to the 22 technical requirements defined by the Stanca Act. A sample of 976 web pages belonging to the websites of the Italian chief towns have been downloaded in the period October–December 2012. Such a data collection has been submitted to Achecker, the worldwide recognized syntax and accessibility validation service. Several accessibility and syntax errors have been found following the automatic analysis. Such errors have been classified, a statistic has been produced, and some graphs are included to offer an immediate view of the error distribution. Moreover, the most frequent errors are pointed out and explained in detail. Although the Stanca Act has been promulgated some years ago, and contains precise indications about updating a web page to be compliant to the 22 technical requirements, all the analyzed websites are not fully compliant to the law. Updating web pages to be compliant to the Stanca Act is a slow process and some grave errors are still present, both in terms of syntax and accessibility.     

Challenges and opportunities to improve the accessibility of YouTube for people with visual impairments as content creators

Universal Access in the Information Society - This position paper proposes technology opportunities for supporting people with visual impairments (PVI) as content creators, rather than just content...     

Investigating the problems faced by older adults and people with disabilities in online environments

Irresponsible and inaccessible web design causes unnecessary problems to certain website users. By applying the web content accessibility guidelines to a website the amount of possible users who can successfully view the content of that site will increase especially for those who are in the disabled and older adult categories of online users. We present the results of assessing the compliance of a selection of websites with guidelines set out by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). It was found that most sites evaluated were inaccessible to those with disabilities. Only one of the selected sites passed all three priority levels set out by the WAI. In many cases, minor modifications to sites will make them accessible to people with disabilities. Therefore it can only be speculated that the reasons for lack of conformance may vary from lack of awareness of the issue, time constraints or the general stress of having to keep up with new technologies. Companies who overlook users with disabilities however may be doing so at long-term risk to their legal position, public image and ultimately business success.     

Investigating the problems faced by older adults and people with disabilities in online environments

Irresponsible and inaccessible web design causes unnecessary problems to certain website users. By applying the web content accessibility guidelines to a website the amount of possible users who can successfully view the content of that site will increase especially for those who are in the disabled and older adult categories of online users. We present the results of assessing the compliance of a selection of websites with guidelines set out by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). It was found that most sites evaluated were inaccessible to those with disabilities. Only one of the selected sites passed all three priority levels set out by the WAI. In many cases, minor modifications to sites will make them accessible to people with disabilities. Therefore it can only be speculated that the reasons for lack of conformance may vary from lack of awareness of the issue, time constraints or the general stress of having to keep up with new technologies. Companies who overlook users with disabilities however may be doing so at long-term risk to their legal position, public image and ultimately business success.     

An attribute-grammar framework for specifying the accessibility in Java programs

The three access modifiers—public, protected, and private—control the accessibility of the members of a type in the Java programming language. Furthermore, the accessibility may be transmitted along the two structures—package structure and inheritance structure. It is difficult to identify the weaknesses of the access modifiers from the informal semantics stated in the language manual. We develop a formal framework for specifying the accessibility in Java programs based on attribute grammars. With the help of this framework, we found several situations in the language specification that are irregular or counter-intuitive or ambiguous. These situations may confuse the programmers and hence may create weaknesses in Java programs.