본 연구는 한국의 정부 및 공공기관에서 운영하는 보건웹사이트의 접근성을 평가하고자 하였다. 본 연구는 24명의 전맹자와 1명의 2급 시각장애인을 모집하여 10개의 보건웹사이트에 대한 이용자평가를 실시하였다. 이러한 웹사이트들은 접근성 표준의 4가지 원칙: 인식의 ...

본 연구는 한국의 정부 및 공공기관에서 운영하는 보건웹사이트의 접근성을 평가하고자 하였다. 본 연구는 24명의 전맹자와 1명의 2급 시각장애인을 모집하여 10개의 보건웹사이트에 대한 이용자평가를 실시하였다. 이러한 웹사이트들은 접근성 표준의 4가지 원칙: 인식의 용이성, 운용의 용이성, 이해의 용이성, 그리고 견고성 전반에 걸쳐 문제점을 나타냈다. 먼저, 원칙 1, 인식의 용이성에 따르면, 그 주요 오류는 적절한 대체 텍스트와 명확한 안내를 제공하는데서 나타났다. 두번째, 원칙 2, 운용의 용이성에서는 5가지 문제점이 주로 나타났다. 이는 키보드 사용보장, 초점 이동, 반복영역 건너뛰기, 페이지 제목의 오류, 그리고 적절한 링크 텍스트의 부족 등 이었다. 세번째, 원칙 3, 이해의 용이성과 관련하여, 대부분의 오류는 사용자 요구에 따른 실행, 콘텐츠의 선형화, 표의 구성, 그리고 적절한 레이블 제공 등에서 발견되었다. 마지막으로, 원칙 4, 견고성에서는 마크업 오류 방지와 웹 애플리케이션 접근성 준수에서 오류가 발생했다.
본 연구에서 발견된 문제점은 간단히 해결될 수 있다. 하지만, 웹 접근성 준수에 대한 정책이나 규제의 결여내지는 정부나 공공기관의 접근성에 대한 인식의 부족으로 인해 유사한 접근성 문제점들이 계속해서 발생했다. 웹 접근성 지침을 준수하는데 영향을 미치는 주요 요인을 이해하기 위해서는 정부 기관이나 웹 개발자들의 인식을 평가해 볼 필요가 있다. 따라서, 후속 연구에서는 정부나 공공기관 또는 그러한 기관의 웹 개발자들이 웹접근성의 중요성을 인식하는지를 조사하는 것이 필요하다. 본 연구의 결과와 시사점들은 다른 맥락에 있는 웹사이트들을 접근성있게 디자인하는데 좋은 참고자료로 활용될 수 있다. 스마트폰의 확산을 고려할 때, 본 연구의 결과는 보건 및 관련기관의 모바일 서비스를 시각장애인들을 위해 개발하는데 활용될 수 있으며, 이는 접근성 문제로 인한 디지털 정보 격차를 줄이는 데 기여할 수 있다. 정부 및 공공기관의 보건 웹사이트의 접근성을 향상시키는 것은 노인이나 시각장애인들이 신뢰할 만한 건강정보를 빠르면서도 편하게 이용하도록 도울 뿐 아니라, 공중보건정보를 전달하는데에도 이바지함으로써 실질적으로 공중보건을 증진시킬 수 있다. 정부 및 공공기관의 웹 접근성을 갖추고자 하는 노력은 국민과 정보를 공유하고 소통하고자 하는 정부 3.0의 목표를 이루기 위한 바람직한 접근이라 할 수 있다.

The study aims to evaluate the accessibility of government and public agency healthcare Web sites in Korea. The study recruited blind (24 people) and second-level sight-impaired people (1 person), and performed user testing on ten healthcare Web sites ...

The study aims to evaluate the accessibility of government and public agency healthcare Web sites in Korea. The study recruited blind (24 people) and second-level sight-impaired people (1 person), and performed user testing on ten healthcare Web sites. These Web sites revealed problems across the four principles of accessibility standard: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. First, according to the principle 1, perceivable, the main errors occurred in providing adequate alternate texts and clear instructions. Second, five errors were predominant in the principle 2, operable. These are keyboard operation errors, focus order errors, bypass blocks errors, page title errors, and the lack of appropriate link text. Third, with respect to the principle 3, understandable, most problems were found in user responses, content sequence, tables, and labels. Finally, based on the principle 4, robust, problems regarded markup correctness and Web application accessibility. The problems identified in the study can be simply resolved. However, due to the lack of policies or regulations that require compliance with Web accessibility standards or due to government or public agencies’ lack of awareness for accessibility [8], similar accessibility issues have recurred. To understand the main factors that affect compliance with Web accessibility guidelines, perceptions of the government agencies or their Web developers must be evaluated. Therefore, future research needs to investigate whether government and public agencies or their Web developers are aware of the importance of accessibility.
The findings and suggestions of this study can be helpful references for accessible Web site design in other contexts. Considering the prevalence of smartphones, the findings of the present study can be applied to developing mobile services of healthcare and allied organizations for visually impaired people, thereby reducing the digital information gap resulting from accessibility issues. Improving accessibility of healthcare Web sites of government and public institutions not only helps the elderly and people with sight impairment to use reliable health information quickly and comfortably, but it also contributes to the dissemination of public health information, thereby substantially promoting public health. The effort to attain Web accessibility of government/public agencies can be a desirable approach to achieve the goals of Government 3.0, which seeks to share information with members of the public and to promote communication with them.

Purpose - The present study attempts to evaluate the accessibility of government and public agency healthcare Web sites in Korea through user testing.
Methods - The study recruited blind (24 people) and second-level sight-impaired people (1 person), ...

Purpose - The present study attempts to evaluate the accessibility of government and public agency healthcare Web sites in Korea through user testing.
Methods - The study recruited blind (24 people) and second-level sight-impaired people (1 person), and evaluated ten healthcare Web sites of Korean government and public institutions.
Results - These Web sites revealed problems across the four principles of accessibility standard: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. First, according to the principle 1, perceivable, the main errors occurred in providing adequate alternate texts and clear instructions. Second, five errors were predominant in the principle 2, operable. These are keyboard operation errors, focus order errors, bypass blocks errors, page title errors, and the lack of appropriate link text. Third, with respect to the principle 3, understandable, most problems were found in user responses, content sequence, tables, and labels. Finally, based on the principle 4, robust, problems regarded markup correctness and Web application accessibility.
Conclusions - The problems identified in the study can be simply resolved; however, similar accessibility issues have recurred. Therefore, future research needs to investigate whether government and public agencies or their Web developers are aware of the importance of accessibility.

Healthcare Web sites of Korean government and public institutions have revealed problems across the four dimensions of accessibility standard: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. First, according to the principle 1, perceivable, the mai ...

Healthcare Web sites of Korean government and public institutions have revealed problems across the four dimensions of accessibility standard: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. First, according to the principle 1, perceivable, the main errors occurred in providing adequate alternate texts and clear instructions. Second, five errors were predominant in principle 2, operable. These are keyboard operation errors, focus order errors, bypass blocks errors, page title errors, and the lack of appropriate link texts. Third, with respect to the principle 3, understandable, most problems were found in user responses, content sequence, tables, and labels. Finally, based on principle 4, robust, problems regarded markup correctness and Web application accessibility. As noted in previous studies [15, 17], the problems identified can be simply resolved; the experts who participated in the present study made the same suggestions. However, due to the lack of policies or regulations that require compliance with Web accessibility standards or due to government or public agencies’ lack of awareness for accessibility [8], similar accessibility issues have recurred. To understand the main factors that affect compliance with Web accessibility guidelines, perceptions of the government agencies or their Web developers must be evaluated [16]. Therefore, future research needs to investigate whether government and public agencies or their Web developers are aware of the importance of accessibility.
The findings and suggestions of this study can be helpful references for accessible Web site design in other contexts. Considering the prevalence of smartphones, the findings of the present study can be applied to developing mobile services of healthcare and allied organizations for visually impaired people, thereby reducing the digital information gap resulting from accessibility issues. Since smartphones play a key role in information seeking, future research needs to pay attention to mobile accessibility issues and related policies. Improving accessibility of healthcare Web sites of government and public institutions not only helps the elderly and people with sight impairment to use reliable health information quickly and comfortably, but it also contributes to the dissemination of public health information, thereby substantially promoting public health. The effort to attain Web accessibility of government/public agencies can be a desirable approach to achieve the goals of Government 3.0, which seeks to share information with members of the public and to promote communication with them.