The Perception of Website Accessibility: A Survey of Turkish Software Professionals

Abstract

Websites become main information dissemination mechanism to a variety of audiences for a wide spectrum of organizations from commercial to governmental context. The universal design of this communication medium, which enables them to be accessible for all people, becomes an important issue. However, currently websites are still not accessible. One of the reason for this situation can be based on the lack of awareness and understanding of software professionals who develop them since they have the greatest influence. In this study, the aim was to reveal the current situation among software professionals who contributed in any stage of the website development in Turkey by mainly focusing on their perceptions of website accessibility and related issues. A web-based questionnaire was implemented with 108 participants from academy, industry and government to reveal the perceptions regarding the relationship between accessibility, user experience (UX) and usability as well as professionals’ perspectives on related issues such as the need of a standard accessibility definition, accessibility evaluation methods, and accessibility drivers. The results showed that software professionals prefer inclusive definitions for website accessibility by relating it to all people. They think that accessibility, usability and UX are all related concepts and user-centered practices should be applied to enable the website accessibility. In addition, they think that legislations should be enabled to ensure web accessibility. Although the findings provides the snapshot of the Turkish situation regarding website accessibility perceptions, these perceptions are critical since they provide guidance on shared understanding for the accessibility community.