Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation
Abstract In recent years, there has been a growing field of research focused on comprehending complexity in relation to web platform accessibility. It has shown that it is quite difficult to accurately assess and identify web accessibility concerns while taking multifaceted factors into account. It...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-92192-5 |
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| author | Jinat Ara Cecilia Sik-Lanyi |
| author_facet | Jinat Ara Cecilia Sik-Lanyi |
| author_sort | Jinat Ara |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract In recent years, there has been a growing field of research focused on comprehending complexity in relation to web platform accessibility. It has shown that it is quite difficult to accurately assess and identify web accessibility concerns while taking multifaceted factors into account. It is imperative to prioritize multi-dimensional characteristics as they facilitate the integration of many aspects into the assessment process, which is a critical component in enhancing the accessibility evaluation process. Although many existing solutions with varying degrees of computational success have been proposed by scholars, they are confined to (1) following a certain set of rules of a specific guideline; (2) limited evaluation properties; (3) disregard for user criteria; and (4) complex functional properties or architectural design. To address these problems, we present in this work a straightforward yet precise model that assesses webpage accessibility by taking into account common features of the structural and visual elements of webpages that are part of the HTML Document Object Model (DOM) structure. In order to predict a webpage’s accessibility status, we implemented three distinct algorithms to analyze web features/objects considering both semantic and non-semantic aspects. We performed experimental work to validate 20 university webpages in Hungary through our developed tool. The computed result of the developed tool was assessed by comparing the result with a user study where we performed user testing that included 40 users’ 80 reviews on the same 20 university webpages in Hungary. Additionally, we compared our developed tool with other scientific models (that already exist) and existing ten open-source commercial automated testing tools considering several functional characteristics or properties. This two-phase assessment result shows that the developed tool has several advanced properties and the potential to predict the accessibility issues of the tested webpages. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c3f41f4e55ec44ce929fc3448b9afc2b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
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| spelling | doaj-art-c3f41f4e55ec44ce929fc3448b9afc2b2025-08-20T03:41:47ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-03-0115113310.1038/s41598-025-92192-5Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluationJinat Ara0Cecilia Sik-Lanyi1Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, University of PannoniaDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, University of PannoniaAbstract In recent years, there has been a growing field of research focused on comprehending complexity in relation to web platform accessibility. It has shown that it is quite difficult to accurately assess and identify web accessibility concerns while taking multifaceted factors into account. It is imperative to prioritize multi-dimensional characteristics as they facilitate the integration of many aspects into the assessment process, which is a critical component in enhancing the accessibility evaluation process. Although many existing solutions with varying degrees of computational success have been proposed by scholars, they are confined to (1) following a certain set of rules of a specific guideline; (2) limited evaluation properties; (3) disregard for user criteria; and (4) complex functional properties or architectural design. To address these problems, we present in this work a straightforward yet precise model that assesses webpage accessibility by taking into account common features of the structural and visual elements of webpages that are part of the HTML Document Object Model (DOM) structure. In order to predict a webpage’s accessibility status, we implemented three distinct algorithms to analyze web features/objects considering both semantic and non-semantic aspects. We performed experimental work to validate 20 university webpages in Hungary through our developed tool. The computed result of the developed tool was assessed by comparing the result with a user study where we performed user testing that included 40 users’ 80 reviews on the same 20 university webpages in Hungary. Additionally, we compared our developed tool with other scientific models (that already exist) and existing ten open-source commercial automated testing tools considering several functional characteristics or properties. This two-phase assessment result shows that the developed tool has several advanced properties and the potential to predict the accessibility issues of the tested webpages.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-92192-5Web accessibility issuesStructural and visual elementsSemantic and non-semantic perspectiveAlgorithmic evaluationAutomated tools |
| spellingShingle | Jinat Ara Cecilia Sik-Lanyi Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation Scientific Reports Web accessibility issues Structural and visual elements Semantic and non-semantic perspective Algorithmic evaluation Automated tools |
| title | Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation |
| title_full | Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation |
| title_fullStr | Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation |
| title_short | Automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content: tool and evaluation |
| title_sort | automated evaluation of accessibility issues of webpage content tool and evaluation |
| topic | Web accessibility issues Structural and visual elements Semantic and non-semantic perspective Algorithmic evaluation Automated tools |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-92192-5 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jinatara automatedevaluationofaccessibilityissuesofwebpagecontenttoolandevaluation AT ceciliasiklanyi automatedevaluationofaccessibilityissuesofwebpagecontenttoolandevaluation |