Exploring perceptions of web accessibility: a survey approach

TLDR

Accessibility is a contested concept that is difficult to define, quantify, or agree upon, and prior specialist analyses have revealed gaps in understanding its relationship to other domains and how the community scopes it. We surveyed over 300 individuals interested in accessibility with 33 questions about the relationship between accessibility, UX, usability, inclusion/exclusion, and evaluation to harmonize understanding of web accessibility. Respondents view accessibility as highly related to usability, universally applicable, grounded in user‑centred practices, and evaluate it beyond source‑code inspection, though they disagree on the necessity of WCAG training, highlighting implications for usability/UX professionals, automated tool developers, and evaluators.

Abstract

The equality of access – accessibility – is difficult to quantify, define, or agree upon. Our previous work analysed the responses of web accessibility specialists in regard to a number of pre-defined definitions of accessibility. While uncovering much, this analysis did not allow us to quantify the communities' understanding of the relationship accessibility has with other domains and assess how the community scopes accessibility. In this case, we asked over 300 people, with an interest in accessibility, to answer 33 questions surrounding the relationship between accessibility, user experience (UX), and usability; inclusion and exclusion; and evaluation, in an attempt to harmonise our understanding of web accessibility. We found that respondents think that accessibility and usability are highly related and also think that accessibility is applicable to everyone and not just people with disabilities. Respondents strongly agree that accessibility must be grounded on user-centred practices and that accessibility evaluation is more than just inspecting source code; however, they are divided as to whether training in 'Web Content Accessibility Guidelines' is necessary or not to assess accessibility. These perceptions are important for usability and UX professionals, developers of automated evaluation tools, and those practitioners running website evaluations.