Human-Computer Interface

Accessibility Evaluation on Websites in

Malaysia

Nur Ain Binti Md Isa

Department of Computer Science and Information Technology
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
gs57753@student.upm.edu.my

Abstract– Human-computer interaction is one of the important aspects in software engineering.

HCI is a way of interaction between humans and machines. It deals with design, execution and
assessment of computer systems and related to things that are for human use. This paper will
review about the accessibility evaluation towards several websites in Malaysia. Accessibility is
the practice of allowing people with cognitive or physical limitations to interact with goods,
programmes, or services in a natural way. Several issues and the way to solve them will be
discussed based on papers that will be reviewed.

Keywords— Human computer interface, Website accessibility evaluation.

1. Introduction

Through the website, the majority of people can get most of their information
easily from the internet, anywhere and anytime. Because of that, to have websites that
practice good accessibility is a must. Removing the barriers that might otherwise prevent
certain individuals from accessing a service, a product or a system at all is what
accessibility is all about (Benyon, 2017). Meanwhile, an accessibility evaluation is based
on common accessibility guidelines, including Section 508 and WCAG 2.0. An
accessibility evaluation may or may not involve end-users. The outcome of an
accessibility evaluation is the identification of accessibility issues, and the best remedy to
 improve the accessibility of any product. An accessibility evaluation is conducted when
customers need to enhance, improve or validate their product's accessibility. Generally
an accessibility evaluation takes place later in the design phase or after the product is in
live or in production.

2. Content Reviewed

This section will briefly describe the way and technique on how they evaluate the
accessibility of their websites. In (Hanapi et al., 2010) discussing about accessibility
evaluation on Malaysian E-Government websites. Those websites become an important
thing for the government to advertise their institution to prospective customers and also
to provide government services and information on-line. This research study shows how
important it is for the Malaysian government to pay attention to and have a plan for the
accessibility of their websites. The evaluations involved nine e-government websites.
These websites were selected because Malaysian citizens often accessed them. To
evaluate the accessibility of the websites, an automatic testing tool called Bobby was
used. They measure on 5 respects which is;

1. provides alternative text for all images

2. provides alternative text for all image type buttons in forms
3. provides alternative text for all images map hot-spot
4. provides alternative content for each OBJECT and
5. gives each frame a title.

Based on the research findings, here are some suggestions proposed to improve
accessibility of Malaysian E-Government websites.

1. Follow WCAG and proprietary accessibility guidelines

a. Malaysia's e-government websites should adhere to WCAG since
it is a well-known standard that is extensively utilized and
approved worldwide.
2. Use the ALT attribute to provide text equivalent
a. According to this study, the biggest issue with the Malaysian
e-government homepages is the lack of text equivalents for all
non-text elements (such as AREAs, photos, image-type buttons,
APPLETs, etc.).
b. One of the most important aspects of accessibility is the
availability of text equivalent for non-text elements. Text can be
readily output to speech synthesizers and braille displays and can
be presented visually on computer displays. When a text equivalent
is presented to the user, it satisfies the same function as the original
content.

3. Establish formal Web accessibility laws and guidelines

a. Malaysia has enacted several legislations and governmental
regulations concerning the employment, transportation and public
facilities for disabled people, so Malaysia inevitably needs the
regulations and guidelines related to web accessibility for people
with disabilities too to ensure equal rights.

4. Involve user in testing

a. Effective compliance with the W3C guidelines cannot be verified
with automatic testing tools alone and without human judgements.
So, web accessibility testing on e-government websites should be
involved with users and especially the users with disabilities.

5. Make it routine
a. Web accessibility is a continual process and one that should be
evaluated often. Each time a web page is updated or created, its
accessibility should be checked immediately.
 6. Training to webmasters
a. These webmasters should receive further training on the skills
required to design websites that are highly accessible and meet the
standards.
b. The development of any government websites should take into
consideration the suggestions and opinions of the disabled
community

Same approach also can be applied to (Aziz et al., 2010) that were talking about
accessing the accessibility of Malaysia Higher Education websites since Higher education
websites are also very important to every student to gain information about university,
college, studies and everything. 120 samples of websites from higher education
institutions were taken from the Ministry of Higher Education's online portal
(http://www.mohe.gov.my) for this study. The WCAG 1.0 guidelines were used to
determine the accessibility level during the evaluation of accessibility. Research has
revealed that several accessibility issues happen in Malaysia Higher Education website.
The picture below is the result of accessibility analysis that has been done.
 Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia might need to consider the accessibility
aspects to guarantee that persons with disabilities have the freedom to access the website
and to assist the accessibility of normal users. Therefore, further improvement has to be
done to ensure the Malaysia Higher Education institution websites meet the accessibility
criteria. The findings from this study may help and motivate the web developers to
prioritize the accessibility aspects during website development. Hence, the proposed
approach by (Hanapi et al., 2010) can be used to overcome the accessibility issues stated.
3. Conclusion

In conclusion, accessibility is advantageous to everyone. Access to online

information is made easier for those with and without disabilities because of its
accessible design. The websites that have good accessibility aspects, well-designed, will
speed up the delivery of information and services. The accessibility evaluation is thus
required to ensure that our website is used by everybody, regardless of their ability.

4. References

Benyon, D. (2017). Designing user experience : a guide to HCI, UX and

interaction design. In Upper Saddle River : Pearson.
https://www.pearson.com/nl/en_NL/higher-education/subject-catalogue/computer-science
/designing-user-experience-a-guide-to-HCI-UX-and-interaction-design.html

Hanapi, M., Latif, A., Masrek, M. N., & Mara, U. T. (2010). Accessibility
Evaluation on Malaysian E-Government Websites. Journal of E-Government Studies and
Best Practices, 2010.

Aziz, M. A., Wan Mohd Isa, W. A. R., & Nordin, N. (2010). Assessing the
accessibility and usability of Malaysia higher education website. Proceedings - 2010
International Conference on User Science and Engineering, i-USEr 2010, 203–208.
https://doi.org/10.1109/IUSER.2010.5716752