An Environment for Defining and Handling Guidelines for the Web

Abstract

Several accessibility and usability guidelines are proposed more and more. In this paper we present an environment for defining, handling and checking guidelines for the Web. The goal of such a tool is to support developers and evaluators in flexibly handling multiple sets of guidelines, which can be dynamically considered in the evaluation process. In particular, an interactive editor has been designed to assist the evaluators in abstracting and specifying new and existing guidelines in our XML-based Guideline Abstraction Language (GAL), which are then stored in external files. Our tool is able to check any guidelines specified in this language without requiring changes in its implementation.

Transition of accessibility evaluation tools to new standards

“…Not only does it allow developers to customize their own set by updating existing guideline sets but guideline sets can also be created from scratch. Although there are similar examples in the literature [25,26] this framework is a cooperative online tool available to the community and allowing collaboration between researchers and practitioners, as it serves as a centralized repository where developers can share and search for accessibility information defined by experts. In addition, the evaluation component that works jointly with the guidelines management front-end makes it possible to check and test guidelines while they are being defined.…”

Identificação de padrões de utilização da web mediada por tecnologias assistivas

“…The tool applies verifications using configured guidelines and returns suggestions of how to deal with problems found, helping in the task of modifying the implementation in order to improve website's A&U. In addition, the tool uses a Guideline Abstraction Language markup to allow changes in the guidelines set; also, it provides a visual editor for the guidelines [54].…”

“…Ferramentas de validação e simulação são um importante recurso na criação de código acessível, seja pela facilidade em realizar uma varredura no código ou pela dificuldade que pequenas equipes encontram em ter contato com toda a diversidade de usuários existentes em cenários como o brasileiro. Algumas das ferramentas de validação amplamente utilizadas são o ATRC [15], o MAGENTA [54] e, no contexto brasileiro, o DaSilva [12] e o ASES [31], sendo esta última uma ferramenta que funciona localmente na máquina do usuário.…”