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Evaluation of a university website’s usability for visually impaired students

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Abstract

Today websites are the tools most commonly used to access information. People with disabilities face difficulties accessing or using information, and the importance of website usability in their lives needs to be recognized. Visually impaired students need to be able to use university websites that inform them about the opportunities and events taking place on campus. This study aims to evaluate the usability of a university website by visually impaired students. In this research, six visually impaired students were interviewed. The assistive technologies they use, as well as the various web pages they wished to use unaided were identified. Following data collection, usability tests were conducted and satisfaction surveys were completed. The usability test was done with five visually impaired students. They were asked to think aloud while performing 11 tasks involving their university’s web pages, including the main page and the pages of student affairs, library and departments and then to accomplish these tasks. In this test, five tasks were not successfully completed by all students. According to the test results, finding final exam dates on the academic calendar posed major difficulties, and accessing the course schedule web page was the task that required the most time. The test results indicated the need for a search engine on each page, a text version for all pages, rearrangement of the web link sequences with tabs and more information about visuals. Suggestions related to the visually impaired students’ needs were offered.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the users participated in this research, and the anonymous reviewers along with the editor for their constructive feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Hacettepe University, 06800, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Nihal Menzi-Çetin, Ecenaz Alemdağ & Hakan Tüzün

  2. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Erzincan University, Yalnızbağ Campus, 24100, Erzincan, Turkey

    Merve Yıldız

Authors
  1. Nihal Menzi-Çetin
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  2. Ecenaz Alemdağ
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  3. Hakan Tüzün
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  4. Merve Yıldız
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nihal Menzi-Çetin.

Appendices

Appendices

See Tables 8 and 9.

Table 8 Interview form
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Table 9 Satisfaction Survey
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Menzi-Çetin, N., Alemdağ, E., Tüzün, H. et al. Evaluation of a university website’s usability for visually impaired students. Univ Access Inf Soc 16, 151–160 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-015-0430-3

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