Benchmarking Public Library Web Sites

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Benchmarking Public Library web sites for accessibility and usability

T he sample used in the following surveys comprises Public Library Web sites nominated for the EARL "Best on the Web Award" of 1999.

The following surveys were undertaken between January - February 2002. Two of the surveys focus specifically on how accessible the entry level web pages are for disabled people. The remaining three surveys test for more general usability.

• Analysis of Domain Names
• Analysis of 404 Error Pages
• WAVE analysis (accessibility)
• BOBBY (accessibility)
• Analysis of Search facilities

Domain Names

The domain names of the Public Library Web sites are summarised below.

Summary

• 16 libraries: domain may indicate local authority department responsible for libraries e.g. 3 libraries located within learning/education; 3 within leisure; 2 within heritage; remaining 6 department not obvious. Entry points range from 1 at one level beneath the domain name to four levels beneath domain name.
• 1 site has over 50 alphanumerics as final part of url due to the CMS (Lotus Notes?).
• 15 = .gov.uk domain; 1 = .com domain

Discussion

Many of the sites have long unmemorable URLs as entry points. This is not very desirable in terms of branding, ease of indexing, etc. Top level domains are consistent - majority of library authorities use .gov.uk.

404 Error Page

A summary of the 404 error pages provided by the Public Library web sites is given below.

Accessibility:

WAVE analysis

Pennsylvannia's initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT) has produced the 'WAVE' to check if your page is accessible to people with disabilities. WAVE uses some of the techniques described in "Techniques for Web Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools" - work done by the Evaluation and Repair group of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

WAVE: uses icons and there is a tutorial which you might want to print out. The analysis for each site checked is also easier to interpret if printed. Key checks include: a check for the reading order of tables (to enable screen readers to read document) and an 'Alt-text' check for images and icons.

Bobby

• Based on the W3C's WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Performs Priority 1,2, and 3 Accessibility checks (denoted by the letter A in table)
• Performs User Checks (denoted by letter U in table). - User checks are triggered by something specific on page which requires a human to check to see if they apply and are not as major as Accessibility errors.
• A page must pass ALL of the priority 1,2, and 3 Accessibility checkpoints ,established in W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, to qualify for Bobby 'AAA' Approved status
• Priority 1 errors only are listed below

Summary of findings

One site only had zero Priority 1 Accessibility errrors using Bobby. Maximum number of Priority 1 (A) errors for one site was 4.

Majority of errors generated due to missing ALT text. However logos and decorative images may be counted as missing ALT text and empty ALT string e.g. ALT=" " is preferable - this tells screen reading software that these images can be skipped/ignored.

Warning: Results need careful interpretation.

Search facilities