Web Watch and Web AccessibilityThe WebWatch robot software has been developed to assist in the monitoring of use of web technologies across various communities. The WebWatch project was funded by the BLRIC for a one-year period from 28 August 1997. UKOLN will be looking to continue running a number of WebWatch trawls of communities.
Robot software to monitor web technologies can be important in providing an automated system for advising communities of the extend of accessible and non-accessible websites, for observing trends in communities and for monitoring the effectiveness of accessibility initiatives.
For example the WebWatch project has analysed the main entry pages for UK Universities. The analysis has indicated a number of accessibility issues, such as the typical size of the pages, numbers of hypertext links, use of technologies, such as Java and Javascript and conformance with good accessibility principles, such as such of the the ALT attribute in IMG elements.
UKOLN will be willing to make the WebWatch robot software freely available for use with the accessibility communities, although it should be noted that Unix and Perl expertise is required in order to use the software.
For further information about the WebWatch project see the WebWatch home page at <URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/>.
For further information about WebWatch contact Ian Peacock (I.Peacock@ukoln.ac.uk) or Brian Kelly (B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk).