Web for All: An User-Centred Design Approach for Making More Usable and Accessible Web Sites

The paper presents aspects of design that would improve web accessibility and usability not only for people with disability but for all users. Accessibility means that an information can be reached, used, and understood by any kind of user independently of skill, disability, and hardware or software configuration. Our experimental methodology which tests web accessibility and usability through several tasks that disabled users should carry out, are discussed. The metrics used are accessibility, site structure comprehension, information reaching through navigation or by using a search engine. Our experimental results showed critical problems with respect to accessibility, such as structure of pages, quality of colours and scalability of characters, images, clarity of language, navigation aids, search engines, and crucial technologies. Some suggestions for solving these problems are given in the paper.