Front-end solution for enhancing web sites accessibility

Abstract

Despite great potential in the use of new technologies, which make it possible to communicate, access information and generally increase the quality of life for people with disabilities and the elderly, there are still accessibility barriers that they experience while using different ICT solutions. The paper presents research undertaken with the goal to provide solution for enhancing web site accessibility and to remove some of barriers these user groups experience while consuming web-content. Paper presents research projects in the area, gives an overview of guidelines and recommendations for ensuring accessibility and discusses results of accessibility analysis of Croatian most visited desktop and mobile web sites. Based on these results, a software solution for web accessibility improvement is proposed in the paper for the selected case study web site. The solution is based on front-end adaptation of the web site content presentation by using technologies CSS, JQuery and JavaScript. Paper also discusses shortcomings of existing accessibility checking tools that were identified through the analysis of the web sites with improved accessibility.