Web Content Accessibility Evaluation of Universities' Websites - A Case Study for Universities of Punjab State in India

Abstract

Websites become a primary source of information for most Universities where users can communicate and share their relevant data. Web accessibility means the websites, technologies, and tools developed and designed for all users (abled/ disabled). This paper examines accessibility of 27 University websites belonging to Indian state of Punjab. The website examination is carried out by adapting two major evaluation tools: TAW and WAVE. These tools provide us the results of selected websites status on (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) WCAG 2.1. The evaluation has also noticed that few recurrent errors are there which shall be eliminated by simply adding accessibility features elements. The overall results of analysis further demanded for improvement regarding the accessibility of these sites. The paper comes up with a list of errors that will benefit user groups having different disabilities when corrected, feature metrics elements, and useful suggestions for improving the accessibility of these websites, so that information provided by these sites shall reach their audience without any barrier.