EVALUATION OF THE ACCESSIBILITY OF DYNAMIC WEB ...

Proceedings of the International Conference on Science, Technology, Education, Arts, Management and Social Sciences iSTEAMS Research Nexus 2014, Afe babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria – May 29-31st, 2014.

EVALUATION OF THE ACCESSIBILITY OF DYNAMIC WEB APPLICATIONS WITH EMPHASIS ON VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS Kingsley Okoye School of Architecture Computing and Engineering University of East London London, E16 2RD, UK [email protected] Hossein Jahankhani School of Architecture Computing and Engineering University of East London London, E16 2RD, UK [email protected] Abdel Rahman Tawil School of Architecture Computing and Engineering University of East London London, E16 2RD, UK [email protected]

ABSTRACT As the internet is fast migrating from static web pages to dynamic web pages, the users with visual impairment finds its confusing and challenging when accessing the contents on the web. There is evidence that dynamic web applications are confusing and pose accessibility challenges for the visually impaired users. This paper shows that a difference can be made through the basic understanding of the technical requirement of the users with visual impairment and thus propose that only by designing a framework that is structurally flexible, by removing unnecessary extras thereby making every bit useful (fitfor-purpose) for the visually impaired users will such persons be given an increased capacity to intuitively access e-contents. This theory was implemented in a dynamic website for the visually impaired designed in this paper. Designers should be aware of how the screen reading software works to enable them make reasonable adjustments or provide alternative contents that still corresponds to the objective contents to increase the possibility of offering faultless service to users such as the visually impaired. The result of our research reveals that materials can be added to a content repository or re-use of existing ones by identifying the content types and then transform them into a flexible and accessible one that fits the requirements of the visually impaired through our method (no-frill + Agile methodology) rather than computing in advance or designing according to a given specification. This paper also discussed and addressed a number of issues pertinent to the accessibility needs of the visually impaired person as well as means to enhancing their use and access to dynamic web applications. Key words: Dynamic web Application, accessibility, visually impaired users, contents.

1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1 Introduction A greater number if not all individuals now use the internet as a means to communicate and to a large extent work and collaborate with each other. However, these innovations in information and communication technology utilisation have paved way for improvement as well as challenges for both the users and the developers. These challenges do not exclude the disabled users. Recently there has been a couple of questions arising as to how best can the use of these fast changing technology be used to intuitively address the needs of the users with disability as well as what is needed in future to better support these users especially the visually impaired users since the internet is fast migrating from static web pages to dynamic web pages; due to the increasing rate at which demand for rich internet application and multimedia content is growing. The software developers has failed to consider what kind of support could be built for such users that do not really want to deal with all the technical details that comes along with the dynamic web applications, focusing only on the increasing demand for rich internet applications. Garrigos et al, 2009 mentions that due to the growing demand for web applications offering a rich user experience, usercentric web applications are being replaced by the so called Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), which provide an interface, interaction and functionality capabilities similar to desktop applications. Rich internet application development has new requirements and concerns that come into play (Wright & Dietrich, 2008), complicating the task of the software developers, impose limited screen size, more difficult interaction and poorer multimedia support. The dynamic web developer’s community is well-aware of these challenging difficulties, because these approaches do not yet cover all design concerns usually encountered in state-of-the-art applications such as the dynamic web.

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One of the major unsupported aspect is the personalization of content and requirement to the specific user and his/her context, specifically for users with disabilities such as the visually impaired. 1.2 Scope of Study This paper has focused on investigating and finding out some of the challenging features found in recent web applications, techniques to measure and improve the ability and performance of visually impaired users in using and accessing the contents embodied in them; as a step towards bridging the digital gap between dynamic web applications and the visually impaired users. In this paper we presented the hypothesis guiding this research followed by the review of existing literatures. Next, the Data collection, Analysis and results were presented. Subsequently, the implementation and practical element and the last section concludes this research work with discussion of findings, contribution of the research work, limitation and recommendation for future research. 2. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Various studies claim that the visually impaired users are the category of disabled users of web applications that needs the most assistance due to the level of challenge they face in using and accessing the e-contents (Petrie et al, 2010, Swallow et al, 2010, Santos et al, 2007). Some of these challenge has been identified as decreasing ability to focus on near tasks, Changing colour perception and sensitivity, Pupil shrinkage and decreasing contrast sensitivity (Saldano et al, 2013) . This research paper aims at capturing the experiences and intellectual of past researchers in context of web application development as well as visually impaired persons themselves; as an indication and means to revealing the areas where supports is lacking and thereby discuss a road map for further improvement and reviews. 2.1 Accessibility issues for the visually impaired Web User Visual Impairment refers to someone who is blind or partially sighted (NHS, 2009). The Royal National Institute for the Blind RNIB (2014) describes persons with visual impairment as “people with irretrievable loss of sight”. According to NHS, about 314 million people are visually impaired globally, of which approximately 15% (45 million) are blind. These figures were justified by Veal & Maj, (2010) who also points out that “globally there are over 314 million visually impaired people: 45 million of them are totally blind”. Visual impairment is a worldwide disability problem, which has been seen as a “global public health problem”. However, Mulloy et al (2014) argue that the use of assistive technology with users with visual impairments and blindness has the potential to improve interactivity and accessibility outcome via enhancement of existing sight abilities and/or engagement of other senses. Visual impairment exists in various category or groups of individuals including the children, unskilled, disabled and the elderly as they face serious problems in using ICT tools. Adetoro (2010) confirms that individuals with visual impairment like every other person or group need information to minimize ambiguity; identify and resolve problems and eventually enhance their performance and interactivity especially in using ICT. Thylefors (1999) stated that number of visually impaired persons is expected to rise come 2020 as the total number of elderly persons is estimated to double in number reaching 2 billion of the world population. According to Sheng et al (2010), the incidence of visual impairment will continue to increase at the rate of (p=0.01) with greater age. This increase according to them is not associated with gender, environment or level of experience of such person. Our paper focuses on providing solution for an accessible platform for the visually impaired users of ICT rather than age and sex. Despite the fact there has been other available means through which the visually impaired persons interact with the web applications, a greater number of them still needs assistance to intuitively interact with the contents embodied in these applications opting for a fully barrier free web products (Mulloy et al, 2014, Swallow et al, 2010). According to Petrie et al, (2010), the new flash content per say rich internet applications and colour contrast level are causing new accessibility problems for the visually impaired users; the screen reader reads static HTML pages by analysing the HTML tag structures and allows users to navigate through pages using a keyboard with shortcuts and key combinations. As a result of this most dynamic content are not accessible through the use of screen reader since such contents are designed and built with DHTML tag structures (Asakawa et al, 2007). The subjective observation by these researchers also stresses that because the visually impaired person uses the screen reader in combination with keyboard, they find it difficult to interact with the graphics and moving objects since most often the view of such contents changes dynamically in response to mouse operation. The findings of Hunsucker, (2013) further suggest that there are various measures that would be possible to take toward alleviating the situation, in the form of further improvements to retrieval systems, to search interfaces, and to text-to-speech screen readers. However, Freire et al, (2010) stated that is a very challenging accessibility issue since even texts are treated as images which explains why the challenge increasingly lies not in the visual impairment but in the design of the technology that mediates their access to and use of the dynamic web application. These is why new evidence is needed to help us plan; both due to the increase in demand and due to the changing lifestyles. 2.2 Dynamic Web Application for the Visually impaired Web based applications as those applications which are directly accessible using any available browser and which does not need to be installed on the user’s computer, while standalone applications includes the “downloadable” applications from the Web, which cannot be accessed directly from the browser but needs to be installed locally on the user’s computer Bocconi et al, (2007). Following these, Avila et al, (2011) refers to dynamic Web Application as “a multimedia platform that incorporates animation, sound, flash, video and interactivity into a standalone product or onto a web page”. According to them, the application uses various multimedia channels ranging from simple web page decorations and banner advertisements to fully interactive training and electronic forms.

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A fully accessible website is one that is designed to make use of the latest web technologies such as multimedia, while at the same time accommodating the needs of those who have difficulty with or are unable to use these technologies such as the visually impaired (RNIB, 2014). Adetoro (2010) proposed that dynamic web applications for visually impaired users should be provided with the intention of meeting their accessibility and information need by transcribing the application into alternative format in other to increase the performance of the visually impaired users in using such technologies. This is a multi-faceted problem that requires research into technical challenges; from user modelling to context analysis (Syed et al, 2009). Zhao et al, (2009) mention that the font sizes should be made larger for the visually impaired due to the decline in visual acuity. This shows that colour and text combination is critical when designing web application for the visually impaired users. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (see: http://www.pubbliaccesso.it/normative/DM080705-D-en.htm) also requires content developers to make electronic and information technology accessible to users with disabilities, including the Blindness, colour blindness, visual impairment. The law includes standards for software applications, operating systems (OS), web-based applications and multimedia. The technical criteria of the Section 508 pointed out two design approaches toward making web applications accessible to users with disabilities which include: 1. Provision of multiple ways to operate the technology and retrieve information so that users can choose alternatives based on their physical capabilities. 2. Provide support for the assistive technology (AT) being used by the users with disabilities to ensure improved accessibility. 3. OBJECTIVE This research present a novel framework for practice capable of enabling a deeper understanding of accessibility requirements for dynamic web applications centred around users with visual impairment through evaluation of collected facts and analysis of results from face-to-face and online survey of the user group mentioned in this work. We then propose and implement solutions to the dynamic web accessibility issues by designing and deploying a software application and its implemtation for best practice which then informs the current debate on literature to a significant impact on knowledge as well as software developers on how best to significantly and effectively approach the design of dynamic web application contents with the visually impaired users in mind. 4. METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research Methods We focused on the target user groups “the visually impaired ICT users” as it is very important to know the users and what their previous and present experience is. According to Krajnc et al, (2010) knowing the users technical skills is as important as knowing their expectation. 4.1.1 Participants. Research participants comprised various categories of blind and partially sighted people who use the services and are registered with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) UK, as well as professionals at the organisation, in London, UK. The categories of the participants involved both older and adult persons trying as much as possible to cross the range between sex including male and female, ethnicity, age, skills as well as experience. The internet-mediated research was also implemented as a simple online-based methodology, whereby participants were contacted and sent an experimental textbased questionnaire via email and focus groups. 4.2 Research design. In other to gather the necessary information with which to attempt to provide answers to the research questions. A holistic design method was used to gather the information for this research which draws on both quantitative and qualitative method of collecting data (see: Robson, 2011). With the visually impaired persons as the unit of analysis, the research utilised the combination of cluster and random sampling for its primary data collection trying as much as possible to represent every unit. The case study sampling was used to examine the problem of accessibility and what is missing in design of dynamic web contents for the visually impaired based on the information we got from the survey, interviews and questionnaire and to test the implications of the result against the current literature and present a representation of the results using both quantitative and qualitative method of data analysis 4.2.1 Design Procedure Evidence was collected via face-to-face interaction as well as online interviews and reviews with a number of key informants. These were the visually impaired persons themselves, professionals, careers, advisors as well as service providers who work with the visually impaired persons. Documentary evidence was also obtained in the form of journals, written articles and policies on visual disabilities by the various participants. Where possible, more information was gathered from online forums, e-mail discussions and comments by visually impaired users as well as other professionals who work with such persons. The internet-assisted means of data collection was chosen with the aim of improving the reliability and validity of the research as it was perceived to help eliminate the natural human error and lack of control over the research. Consequently, structured questionnaires were distributed via the internet to some of these key informants and were set to collect responses via the internet enhancing the anonymity of the researcher and the respondent. The outcome was positive as it helped the researcher overcome the barrier of sex, ethnicity and age and also encouraged honesty and increase in response rate without violating the ethical issues in relation to the participants. 3


5. DATA PRESENTATION The research collected its face-to-face and interview information through a visit to the Royal National Institute for the Blind, an organisation that has been providing solutions for people who are visually impaired for over 30 years. One of the UK’s leading provider of access technology working with and for people with sight problems, providing over 60 services; many of which is designed to support professionals in their work and to almost 2 million people with sight loss (see: rnib.org.uk). Initially, there were over 12,000 people registered to the 60 services being provided by RNIB. The visit to the organisation presented participants with two simple tasks to complete trying as much as possible not to cross boundaries considering the ethical issues involved in the research. The procedure was to involve the visually impaired persons who use the screen reader; to access the web particularly the dynamic websites and then followed by a questionnaire which was handed to them to complete. This resulted in a sample of 25 respondents out of the 30 screen reader users that was interviewed. However, since this method did not generate many responses and proved time-consuming, it was decided that an internet-mediated approach might prove beneficial in collecting more effective and less time consuming data. To this end a number of participants were sent questionnaire via the internet and within 3 weeks of sending the requests 61 response was obtained. A copy of the link to the questionnaire was attached into the body of the email message being sent to the participants to complete (see: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HQLW7ND) and the HTML code to the questionnaire was also copied and paste to add the Web Link to any webpage (Click here to take survey). These methods allowed the researcher to reach a vast and diverse number of potential participants as well as providing the respondents easy access to the questionnaire thereby increasing the time and cost efficiency of the research. 6. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 6.1 Data Analysis A review of the responses we got from the participants was conducted and two results list was generated based on the responses: One, of persons who use the screen reader programs to access the computer and another; sample of visually impaired individuals, designers, professionals and advisers who respondent through the online survey. This resulted in a sample of 86 respondents and 14 no-responses from the participants on the overall web accessibility issues which were raised. A total of 100 Questionnaires were distributed to this participant both by face-to-face interview and through e-mail request and online forums. 6.1.1. Face-to-Face Interview with Screen Reader Users 30 Questionnaires were distributed to the participants who use the screen reading programs to access the web, at the RNIB research centre. Out of the 30 Questionnaires that were distributed by face-to-face, 25 responded to the survey representing about 83.3% of the distributed questionnaires. Table 1.. Table showing the percentage face-to-face response by the screen reader users. Response No. Of Completers Percentage (%)

Confusing- Finds it difficult to access dynamic

18

72%

Not very confusing

5

20%

Not confusing

2

8%

websites

From the table 1. Our sample resulted to 72% of the group who finds it difficult to access dynamic web pages, 20% says it’s not very confusing while 8% accepts they can access the dynamic websites. Below is a pie chart representation of our faceto-face interview with the visually impaired users at RNIB

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Rep: Accessibilityof the Dynamic Web pages by the screen reader Users in (%) 8%

20%

Confusing = 18 Not very Confusing = 5 Not Confusing = 2 72.00%

Fig.1 The result of the face-to-face respondents in percentage. 6.1.2 The Online Survey The online survey was highly successful in generating vast sample of participants in less time and cost. Messages requesting the participants to complete the questionnaire were sent to a handful of professionals, groups and individuals; yet in just 3 weeks 61 responses were received. Below is a screenshot of the response we gathered through our online survey using survey monkey (See: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HQLW7ND)

Fig.2 Screenshot of the online survey respondents and result In Fig 2. The collection of data was a random one and no duplication was found in the data collected, as respondents provided their submissions online via the web-based survey system. A total of 70 questionnaires were sent out to the participants via email attachment and web links. Out of the 70 questionnaires that were distributed to the participants; 61 responded, representing about 87% of the distributed questionnaires. However 68.9% of the respondents admitted that dynamic websites are confusing and inaccessible to the visually impaired, 21.3% says it’s not very confusing while 9.8% believe they are not confusing. Below is a pie chart representation of the online survey in percentage.

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Fig.3 The result of the online survey respondents in (%) The various data that we collected were organised in both tables and chart pertinent to the research findings and outcomes, as we have seen above. This was to ensure consistency and to enable comparison, to see if the method works and to identify factors that might lead to bottleneck in the entire research process. In the next section, we analyse the results of the face-toface interview in relation to the online survey. 6.1.3 Resulting Analysis The results of the face-to-face and online survey were represented in a table as well as bar chart to enable us compare the result of the data we collected (see: fig 4)

Fig.4. Bar chart representing the face-to-face plotted against the online survey results.

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The results were calculated to help determine the overall Mean (%) of responses which we represented in the table 2 below Table 2. Mean (%) of the Face-to-Face vs online survey result analysis Not Confusing Not Very Confusing Confusing

Others

Face-to-Face

8.0%

20.0%

72.0%

0%

Online survey

9.8%

21.3%

68.9%

0%

Mean (%)

8.9%

20.65%

70.45%

0%

The result at the end of the research which provided a sample of 86 Respondents in all, clearly shows that; 60 respondents = who says that dynamic web application are confusing to the visually impaired. • 18 respondents = says they are Not Very Confusing • 8 respondents = says Not Confusing

Fig.5. Line Graph showing the Mean (%) of the responses.

Fig 5. In summary, presented the results of the data analysis which shows 60 responses out of 86 participants: who says that dynamic web applications are confusing for the visually impaired users (fig 5; more than 100% greater than the- Not Very Confusing & Not Confusing Respondents) from all indication is evidence that dynamic web applications are to some extent inaccessible and confusing to the visually impaired users. 6.2 Research findings Even though the visually impaired users was already used to navigating through Web pages and other e-contents using a screen reader, being able to navigate through the content on the dynamic web pages was a complete novel experience for them; ranging from lack of further contextual information to limited control over the interaction and the amount of information that was being displayed, which in several occasions is confusing to them. These are quite evidence that the dynamic web pages are causing impediments to the visually impaired users when accessing the contents.

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6.2.1 Implementation of solution From the previous sections, it was seen that from all indication that dynamic web applications are confusing and to some extent inaccessible to the visually impaired users. However, in this section, the research paper as part of its contribution towards enhancing the use and access to the dynamic web applications by the visually impaired users; draws prototypes as well as implementation of some technical design approach intended towards the creation of an accessible dynamic website for the visually impaired, ensuring keyboard accessibility and providing accessible user interface control over the font size and page colours as well as voice over programs. 6.3 Proposed Website Design Developing accessible dynamic applications is not only feasible but increasingly practical. Creating dynamic websites and allowing the visually impaired users to access its pages requires two different approaches: which will be tackled in this section: • The developers need an authoring tool to create the DHTML (dynamic) content and to package it into the product the visually impaired user will see. • Secondly, the Users generally need an Assistive Device such as screen reader to run or access the end product on their computers. 6.3.2 Technical high level specification of our proposed Website In order to focus on applying the principles of accessibility to the dynamic website and to make sure the proposed new system is efficient, this paper choose to use the following application software found to be more consistence and reliable than other authoring tools and works more readily with ActionScript which supports testing for accessibility. The Table 3 below shows the software requirement for our proposed website and their functions in the design phase. Table.3. Software requirement for the new proposed website Software Requirement Functions Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Professional

For designing the website graphical User Interface (GUI), buttons and tables

Adobe Flash CS4 Professional

For designing the dynamic contents, moving images and pages.

Adobe Fireworks CS5 Professional

Firework is used for complete solution for creating, optimizing and integrating web graphics, videos, sounds and rich texts.

Adobe-Photo-shop CS4

Adobe Photo-shop was used for the design of navigation buttons and the top bar and also many other graphics that have been used in the design

ActionScript, version 3.0

coding and programming

Adobe Flash Player, version 10

for running and testing the App which is expect to run on any browser

JAWS 4.0

A screen reading program for testing and implementing the whole application.

Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 8.0

Since the browsers feed information about the web contents to the screen reading program using Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA). It is expected that any browser that supports MSAA; such as the Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer will be able to run the program.

6.3.3 Structure of the Web Application in diagrammatic form and the Homepage screenshot.

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KIB Welcome

Home

About Us

Services

Contact Us

Enhance Legibility (Text Size, Colours & Voice-over Pro gram )

Fig. 6 The Control navigation of Our website pages

Fig 7. Screenshoot of the new website homepage Fig 6. And Fig 7. Shows the different pages as well as the enhance legibility criteria embodied in our new website and the screenshot of the homepage respectively.

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6.4 Implementation Test By default text objects in dynamic websites are already read and can as well identify objects with text label using the screen reader. It is up to the developer to add text equivalent to images and movies which is a good design consideration when designing for the visually impaired user to provide further context. Setting the Tab index also allows the designer to control the reading order of the elements in the flash movie, which allows users to navigate using only the Tab and Enter keys on the Keyboard. Information about the list of the Available shortcuts as text equivalent were also provided or made available for the screen reader users through the help area button. In adobe Flash CS4, combo and list boxes are already accessible, you only have to enable the accessibility object by using the command enable.Accessibility().

Fig 7. The Accessibility panel In Fig 7. Text equivalent and Tab index number can be added using the Accessibility Panel or Action Script. To detect whether the screen reader is on, use the function; Accessibility.isActive(). The Flash CS4 Professional also offers a new component to display captions that are either contained in a World Wide Web consortium (W3C) Timed Text, XML file (DFXP) or integrated with FLV file as cue points. Custom Screen magnifiers and an option to change the text size through font formatting also support the visually impaired user in accessing the dynamic contents. 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS This research paper as part of its contributions towards the current debate on how best to design web applications for the visually impaired users, affirms that if designers would apply the combination of the no-frills and agile methodology in correspondence to the article of the section508 main requirement for software application development it will go a long way in solving the problem of accessing dynamic web pages by the visually impaired ICT users. The research attempts to validate such theoretical impact by suggesting two types of methodology. One that suggests the removal of unnecessary and non-essential contents, new materials to be added to a content repository and re-use of already existing contents (the no-frills methodology) and another which identifies the potential users as well as the content type, creates prototypes fitting the expected user’s need and finally evaluates the developed product with test or heuristics to analyse its impact on the users (the Agile methodology). Thus this research work affirms that: • Only by designing a framework that is structurally flexible, by removing unnecessary extras thereby making every bit useful (fit-for-purpose) for the visually impaired users will such persons be given an increased capacity to intuitively access e-contents. The audio of a streaming video which automatically starts playing when a particular website is opened seems to interfere with the synthesized assistive voice generated from the screen reading software, which is confusing for the user with visual impairment (Syed et al, 2009, Petrie et al, 2010, Asakawa et al, 2007, Veal & Maj, 2010, IBM, 2007, RNIB, 2010). Consequently, this study affirms that: •

Designers should be aware of how the screen reading software works to enable them make reasonable adjustments or provide alternative contents that still corresponds to the objective contents to increase the possibility of offering faultless service to the users with visual impairment.

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Another study suggests that DHTML and XML metadata has the ability of simplifying or reorganising contents, thereby providing or enabling additional data or navigation methods to be manually added to the contents which according to them can improve the accessibility of the dynamic web or multimedia applications made available for the visually impaired users (IBM, 2007). Thus, this study proposes this last bit of its contribution in relation to this factor: that • materials can be added to a content repository or re-use of already existing one by identifying the content types and transform them into a flexible and accessible one for the visually impaired (no-frill + Agile methodology) rather than computing in advance or designing according to a given specification (moore’s model). Content developer should have a basic understanding of how the screen readers obtain information through an application programming interface (API) such as Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) when accessing an application and then convey that information to the user. Although MSAA recognizes and automatically conveys some types of information to the user, it is required in most cases that the content developers must perform specific steps to expose the information to MSAA so that it can be passed along to the user. • The web application must have support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA): the interface through which accessibility information is conveyed to assistive technology • Provide scalable graphics and magnification capability for users with visual impairment • Ensure accessible video playback controls that allow users to stop, forward, rewind and pause presentations Provide customized colour swatches that allow developers to design for users who are colour blind • Mouse-free navigation that allows users to navigate via the keyboard. From our Practical section; the implementation shows some practical suggestion for creating accessible web contents that is exciting, engaging and usable for the visually impaired using the relevant software and authoring tools. Visually impaired users can access the best experience on the web; if developers will step outside of their frame of reference and keep all the technical user requirement by the visually impaired in mind; considering the fact that such users might not be able to use the mouse, might not see the fonts clearly or may be not at all or view contents in different colours or colourless. 8. CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE First, this study attempts to revitalise the research on providing accessible dynamic web applications for the visually impaired users. In doing so, many additional studies to the current debate and revelation of what is missing in literature was sparked. Many Dynamic web applications appears to be confusing as well as inaccessible in general, to the users with visual impairment. Because the contents are dynamic and time-based, it can be challenging to make it accessible to assistive technology users, such as screen readers. Careful developer involvement is required to ensure that the moving and flash contents are exposed in a logical manner. On the other hand, many of the steps required to achieve accessibility are not technically difficult, but one of the biggest challenges for dynamic website and software developers in general; is to understand the perspective of the visually impaired users as well as how the various screen reading programs work and take that perspective into account during the early stages of development. The second major contribution of this study is in its findings and the contribution to the body of knowledge towards provision of accessible web contents for such users with visual impairment. Results of this study are consistent with prior literature about the impact of dynamic web pages on the visually impaired users with an attempt to validate its proposal that if designers would apply the combination of the no-frills and agile methodology in correspondence to the article of the section508 main requirement for software application development by designing a framework that is structurally flexible, removal of unnecessary extras thereby making every bit useful (fit-for-purpose), the visually impaired users will be given an increased capacity to intuitively access the dynamic web applications. 8.1 Recommendation and Future work There are many areas where further research can be applied; the scope of the survey could focus on slightly larger sample of Dynamic web users with visual impairment to provide more authenticity to this work. Research could also be applied to the various categories of dynamic web users with visual impairment as the level of visual acuity in different users may also correlate to their level of access to dynamic web contents. So this could be another area of further research. Another option for future work is to evaluate dynamic web applications with other types of web users with different disabilities to determine their accessibility in that aspect.

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AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Kingsley Okoye obtained a BSc degree in Computer Science at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria in 2007, a Masters in Technology Management at the University of East London, UK in 2011. He is currently doing a Ph.D. program in Software Engineering at the School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, Post-graduate School, University of East London, UK. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK. His research interests include Personalised Adaptive Learning, Process Mining, Semantic Web Technologies and Internet Applications and Ontology. Kingsley can be reached by phone on +447404403230 and e-mail [email protected].

Hossein Jahankhani obtained his first degree from Iran in Physics, a Master Degree from Bedford College, University of London in Solid State Physics and PhD degree in Semiconductor Physics from Birkbeck College, University of London in 1987. Since 1996, he have been working at the University of East London as a part time lecture and then as a senior Lecturer in the School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering. He was a visiting lecturer at City University (1997 to 2001), and at the University of Westminster, (1993 to 1997). He worked at Brunel University from 1986 to 1993 as a senior Research Fellow, working with Ministry of Defence and several national and international organizations including Ministry of Environment and Exxon Oil Company. Hossein’s main research area for number of years has been in the field of ECommerce, E-Learning, Biometrics and web services. He can be reached on his e-mail [email protected]

Abdel-Rahman H. Tawil is currently a Senior lecturer at the School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering. He received his BSc in Computer Science from the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, and his PhD in Semantic Interoperability in Heterogeneous and Distributed Multiple-Information Servers Environment from Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. Before he joined UEL, he worked as a lecturer at the School of Computing Science and Mathematics, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He is a member of the Distributed Software Engineering Research Group. Abdel-Rahman has extensive research expertise and a wide range of research interests with special emphasis being placed on semantic technology and its use for real-world applications. His current research interest includes using wireless sensor networks in Tele-health and Tele-homecare applications: exploiting the semantics of resources and activities descriptions available in a patient surrounding environment, adaptive learning and care actors profiling. Abdel can be reached on [email protected]

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