Site Accessibility and Usability Study
A multimodal accessibility and usability study of a university website.
I conducted research during my final semester at Angelo State University that focused on the accessibility and usability of the school's website for students with vision disabilities. It was a challenging and rewarding project that required a cross-section of technical and soft skills. The end result was a report that illuminated multiple accessibility and usability barriers for students with disabilities.
Research began with automated accessibility testing of select pages on the university website using a web crawler I developed. This research stage aimed to generate quantitative information about the accessibility of pages that offered core services for students. Pages that students used for critical functionality, such as registering for classes and viewing other academic information, were the main focus.
The second stage involved conducting multiple in-person and remote usability tests with student subjects who had vision disabilities. Subjects were asked to perform four tasks designed to represent student interactions with the core services provided by the page.
The end result was a report that revealed the need for the university to account for the interplay between accessibility and usability — especially on pages that offer critical services to students. This report was also published as an accessible website and made available to all participants.