The Need for Web Accessibility Regulation

for

Master of Applied Science

Information Communications and Technology

Christopher Jordan Conley

University of Denver University College

May 25, 2018

Faculty: Janice Minder, Ed.D

Director: Michael Batty, Ph.D.

Dean: Michael J. McGuire, MLS

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Abstract

Accessibility on the Web is still in need of enforcement. There are standards and

guidelines in place to help ensure that the Web is accessible; however, there are still problems

with websites complying with these. This paper reviews the statistics for the growth of the Web

along with accessibility issues. After reviewing these articles, the conclusion is reached that

there needs to be more regulations in place to enforce the current standards. It is proposed

that the government should be the one to regulate the Web to ensure that it complies to all

standards.

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Contents

Background……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Approach…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

Web Traffic…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7

Social Media…………………………………………………………………………….…………………….….8

Mobile Web…………………………………….………………………………………………………………...8

Accessibility……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

History of Web Accessibility…………………………………………..………………………………...10

Importance of Web Accessibility…………………………………………………………………….…10

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)……………………………………….……..…11

Legal Ramifications .…………………………………………………………………………………………………....12

Section 508…………………………………………………………………………………………………..….13

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)…………………………………………………….…….....14

Repercussions of Not Being Compliant……………………………………………………….…...15

Solution……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....16

Accessibility…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……16

Web Traffic…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18

Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…19

Strengths……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….20

Weaknesses………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….20

Opportunities……………………………………………………………………………………………………….………20

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Threats…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….21

Trends…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……22

Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….23

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….24

References…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..….26

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Background

The internet is a tool that assists its users with a numerous variety of tasks such as

entertainment, education, financial, and business needs. This tool has been made available to a

large majority of the world over the years. However, there have been issues in the past decade

where some users are unable to utilize this tool. Some of these users usually have a disability

that affects how they are able to interact with the websites. Therefore, developers and creators

should ensure that their content is accessible to every user possible (Abou-Zahra and Sinclair

2017). This will allow for more users to utilize their services and creations and will ensure that

their brand is accepted from users instead of associated with negative publicity that comes

from lawsuits against users.

The internet originally started as a way for government facilities to connect. Since its

early adoption by these types of agencies, more types of users like engineers, scientists,

students, and faculty began using the internet to assist them. During the mid-nineties, the time

where the Federal Networking Council (FNC) passed a resolution that defined the term Internet

(Leiner et al. 1997); it was beginning to see the introduction of the average user, or the average

person who simply purchased a computer for their homes as well as businesses such as

Amazon. With the introduction of these users, the focus began to transform from educational

to more consumer centered. Because of this change, there was a large influx of consumers and

businesses joining the list of users of the Web.

The next jump in traffic was during the early 2000’s with the introduction of social

media and services like Netflix. According to Sumits by 2014 the internet traffic increased by

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five hundred and sixty-four times what it was in 2000. With this addition of new users, the

internet was reaching a wider target audience now.

Two of the causes for the increase in traffic were services like social media and Netflix.

However, one of the main causes that allowed the targeting of a wider audience was the

introduction of mobile technology. Specifically, the introduction of smartphones and tablets

that are able to access the Web like a desktop. During the early 2000’s it was considered more

of a luxury option as Web browsing was not standard on all phones. This all changed with Apple

releasing the iPhone in 2007 (Commexis 2015). It was at this point that the amount of people

using the Web on the go increased. From this point on, phones began implementing web

browsers similar to the iPhone’s. Since the Web was going to be able to be viewed from

multiple screen sizes developers began creating content that would work well with the small

screen space given by mobile devices. With smaller screen space developers had to be

considerate of the layout of the websites and how they transition between desktop and mobile

devices.

With more phones accessing the Web, also came an increase in screen readers being

used on phones. Mobile screen reader usage drastically increased from twelve percent to

eighty-two percent between 2009 and 2014 (Siteimprove 2016). However, this presented the

same problem as the normal Web does on desktops. The content on some websites would not

be usable by disabled users. Some pages would not display the information correctly for the

screen reader or the screen reader may not have been able to read the page at all.

Since the early days of the internet, it has been on a steady incline with more users

flocking to it each year. As shown above, between 2000 and 2014 the amount of users grew by

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five hundred and sixty-four times that of what it was. The past decade has shown us that there

are still more and more new users accessing the internet each year. In June 2008, the total

number of users was at one thousand four hundred and sixty-three million (Internet World

Stats 2018). At the end of 2017 the Internet World Stats estimated that there are four thousand

one hundred and fifty-six million users on the internet at that time (Internet World Stats 2018).

To better understand the amount of potential users, a comparison should be done with

the total global population. The global population in 2018 is around seven point six billion

people (World Population Clock 2018). With an estimated four thousand one hundred and fifty-

six million users at the end of 2017, that would mean that about fifty four percent of the global

population is using the internet. Some of the potential users not included in this percentage are

going to be living in third world countries that do not have access to the internet. Other

potential users could belong to groups like the disabled users who choose to not use the

internet. Rainie et al. (2003) conducted research which identified that there was roughly thirty

eight percent of disabled Americans who use the internet. There is another twenty eight

percent that do not use the internet that says their disability prevents them from using the

internet (Rainie et al. 2003).

According to “The Global Economics of Disability Annual Report 2016” there is an

estimated one point three billion people with disabilities worldwide (Donovan 2016).

Therefore, about seventeen percent of the global population has some type of disability that

could potentially prevent them from using or accessing websites (Sentance 2018).

As with all parts of our world, the Web should be made accessible to all users, including

the disabled users mentioned above. One group that holds this same belief as part of their

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mission is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C is “an international community

that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web” (W3C 2018). The

W3C understands that the internet is a tool that assists users in multiple ways and they take an

active stance on ensuring that this tool is accessible to all people, regardless of their

circumstances. From this belief, they created the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The WAI

develops resources, strategies, and guidelines to help make the Web more accessible to

disabled users (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative 2018). One of these sets of guidelines, the Web

Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), is developed with partners across the world and

provides a single standard for Web accessibility.

The amount of users on the Web will continue to increase in the coming years as it has

the last two decades (Kemp 2017). Therefore, the amount of disabled users are going to be

increasing as well. Moving forward, developers are going to have to increase the amount of

effort they put into making the Web accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. The

business case to engage all potential internet users including those with disabilities includes

increased traffic which directly correlates to increased sales, increase public relations among

the general population and potential mitigation to liability. While businesses are impacted as

outlined standards exist today, enforcement of such regulations will increase Web accessibility.

Web developers and employers must have government guidelines on Web equality that clearly

enhance access, increase traffic, and ensure legal implications if not adhered. Typically, disabled

users have found accessing websites to be difficult thus the enforcement of current and

implementation of more suitable Web accessibility standards will improve sites and increase

traffic (Abou-Zahra and Sinclair 2017).

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Approach

After determining the problem that disabled users face when using the Web, one would

then need to show how this affects Web traffic with statistics and facts. Thus, the need for

numbers to back these claims was placed as a goal of high importance for this paper.

The first step in seeking these types of statistics was seeing how many other studies

have been done on this topic. Researching scholarly and peer-reviewed journals showed that

there were only a few studies done on this specific topic. There were many scholarly journals

found that cover Web accessibility specifically and its importance in the world. However, none

of them actually tied it directly to Web traffic. These journals did provide some of the required

information on statistics in regards to users, disabilities, etc. There are journals that introduced

the potential percentage of disabled users in the world and how many people there are in the

world.

To ensure the research still applied to current standards and statistics, research was

conducted from professional articles and websites. The main websites that were focused on

were from the W3C and the different ways they affect Web accessibility and government

websites covering the laws discussed throughout the articles found. These provided current

information on standards and how they have changed over the past decade. Other websites

used were ones that listed historical data for the Web including more recent years. These were

used to get the statistics for the past few years of growth that most of the articles did not

cover.

The second step was to find statistics on Web traffic. These statistics should be

answering questions like: “Has it increased over the last x years?”, “How much did it increase?”,

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“Is it still increasing?”, “What types of things affect Web traffic?”, etc. As with the first step,

scholarly and peer reviewed journals were the first items to be searched through. There were

some articles on Web traffic but not many that dealt with it on a global scale. Most of these

articles focused on growth in either certain countries or areas so the majority of the articles

were passed over. However, some journals covering the history of the internet were able to

provide data that was needed. Professional sources were also scoured for any other statistics

needed on Web traffic. There were a number of websites that track Web statistics including

users in each country but also tracks users on a global scale. These numbers were used to build

the case for Web traffic increasing.

The main statistics that this paper looked at while researching Web traffic were

numbers related to how the amount of users have increased over the years, social media’s role

in the increase in users for the Web, and how the introduction of the mobile Web gave a wider

range of people access to the Web. These statistics provided information for global users of

mobile phones as well as those on social media and whether they are increasing like the rest of

the Web was or not. This information will be used to build a case for how the users on the Web

are increasing across the board still and must be considered when developing content or

websites for the Web.

Once the information from the articles was reviewed, it was then compiled and

compared with the original hypothesis. From this assessment the final solution is able to be

reached. The main points from this final solution are then analyzed using a Strengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and Trends (SWOTT) analysis and discussed for any

potential holes that may be present in the logic.

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Literature Review

The purpose of this paper is to find the correlation between Web accessibility and Web

traffic and to see if the current standards and guidelines in place are currently enough to

promote equality on the Web. Currently there are standards and guidelines that are in place to

help developers and content creators ensure their websites are accessible to all users that have

been updated and are maintained regularly. However, there is a lack of enforcement of these

standards unless users get bothered by it enough to bring it to the government's attention.

Therefore, this paper hopes to find this correlation as a way to show organizations that Web

accessibility is not just a hurdle to clear, but it is actually a way to improve traffic and

potentially increase revenue for their websites. This research will include the following to

investigate the need for Web equality: Web Traffic, Accessibility, and Legal Ramifications.

Web Traffic

The research done on Web Traffic provides statistics to show the growth of the Web,

the amount of users it has currently, and how much room is left to grow. These statistics will

help to build the case for accessibility and therefore will be reviewed first. Web traffic is defined

as the amount of visitors that a website receives. Web traffic is measured in visits and is

considered a common way to measure an online business effectiveness at attracting an

audience (BigCommerce 2018). There have been increases in the amount of users on the Web

every year since its inception. The first website and server went live at the European

Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on December 20, 1990 and the first website was

published by Tim Berners-Lee on August 6, 1991. Then in 1993 CERN made the Web available

on a royalty free basis to the public (Leiner et al. 2018). According to Internet World Stats, in

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December of 1995 there were about sixteen million users or about zero point four percent of

the world population at that time. As of December 2017, there was an estimated four thousand

one hundred and fifty-six million users that totaled about fifty-four percent of the world

population. From these numbers, we see an increase of four thousand one hundred and forty-

one million users over the past twenty-two years (Internet World Stats 2018). Over the last

decade there have been many inventions that have led to the increase in Web growth. Two of

those things that have assisted to increase the amount of traffic on the Web are social media

and the mobile Web.

Social Media

Social media consists of applications and websites that allow users to create and share

content with other users and to network with users on a global scale. With the growth of the

Web, and its users, also came the implementation of social media tools like Facebook and

Twitter. In 2004, Facebook was launched and was used primarily as a Harvard only campus site

for two years before its public release in 2006 (Shah 2016). After this, other social media sites

like Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ were released as well and all began to garner users.

Between 2012 and 2017 there was an increase of one point three billion users which was a rise

of eighty-eight percent in these five years (Kemp 2017).

Mobile Web

In 2007 with the release of the Apple iPhone the world saw the beginning of the move

from the mobile Web being a luxury item to it being a common feature on mobile phones

(Commexis 2015). From this point forward, we see the phones being released including Web

browsers that are able to view normal Web pages using regular Web development languages

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such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Hypertext

Preprocessor (PHP), and JavaScript. With the inclusion of these common Web development

languages now usable on a phone’s WEb browser, this allowed companies to begin making

their websites work for both desktop and mobile devices such as phones and tablets (Commexis

2015). This also made it easier for these companies to develop their content for both platforms

at the same time meaning they can have the same team of developers creating the content.

Based off of the last five years, the amount of mobile users in the world will continue to grow.

Between 2012 and 2017 the amount of mobile subscriptions increased by two point two billion

for a growth of thirty-seven percent (Kemp 2017).

With Web traffic growing each year as it moves more towards the mobile and social

world, there is an increase of users adopting to this move. This means that there are going to be

more people each year, including those who may not be able to access these sites because of

accessibility issues, that will be trying to utilize these tools. Therefore, with this increase it will

be of the utmost importance that developers and creators ensure their sites and applications

are accessible to all users who may happen upon them.

Accessibility

Web accessibility means that all parts of the Web must be made accessible to users with

disabilities. Disabled users should be able to understand, perceive, interact, and navigate the

Web like regular users (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative 2005). There are many services and

industries that are available for people to use today. Simple things like hotels, banks, movie

theatres, etc. are all made available to the public in certain places. However, these services

must be made available for all people in that area, including those with disabilities. This could

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include making them wheelchair accessible, allowing service animals inside the building and

much more. Much like the physical world around us the Web must also be made accessible to

all users.

History of Web Accessibility

The W3C started their Web Accessibility project in the Fall of 1996 with just a few

members of the staff and some support from other enthusiasts (Dardailler 2009). Then on

January 6th, 1997 by one of the members of W3C and the United States government they held

a meeting regarding accessibility. At this meeting, the United States government found that the

W3C was the preferred entity to guide the initiative. By April later that year the W3C fully

implemented their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Finally, in August, at a meeting held at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), they started their first goal of making the Web

accessible (Ismanalijev 2012). From that point forward, they have been at the front of fighting

for Accessibility rights on the Web.

Importance of Accessibility

As discussed above in the background section, accessibility is important because the

information accessed and the tools used via the Web should be made available to everyone

regardless of their situations. However, this is not the only reason why organizations should

make their websites accessible. First, by making a website accessible you can increase the

amount of visitors to the website. From the above traffic section, we see that only about fifty-

four point four percent of the world is on the Web right now. This means that there is plenty of

room to grow still on the Web. By increasing the amount of visitors to the website, they will be

getting more potential customers. About seventeen percent of the global population that could

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have some disability that could prevent them from using their website (Sentance, 2018). This is

simply too great a percentage to blatantly not try to accommodate them.

Second, by following accessibility guidelines it will typically improve a websites Search

Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a type of marketing discipline that is focused on gaining more

visibility by free search engine results. Search Engines will parse a website when performing a

search for information. This same parsing method is similar to the ways that screen readers

used by blind or low vision users utilize their computers. Both will rely on document structure

to navigate the page to properly find the desired information. For deaf users including subtitles

for any video or audio sections of the website will allow them to access the information equally

as well. There is a method of ensuring that websites are made accessible for each type of

disability. Therefore, it is beneficial to follow accessibility guidelines such as the Web Content

Accessibility Guidelines (Douglas 2017).

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

In present day, there are multiple guidelines and standards in place that dictate how

and why websites should be accessible. One of those sets of guidelines comes from the WAI, is

the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The first version of the WCAG was released

in 1999 (W3C 2018). These guidelines were meant to explain to Web content creators and

developers how they could make their content accessible to people with disabilities. The

creators of the WCAG put the focus of the guidelines on making the Web inclusive to all. They

even go so far as to say that they do not wish to take away from the current Web or the use of

different types of media such as videos and images. They simply wish to make them accessible

to all users.

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While the WCAG is merely a set of guidelines, some countries have incorporated the

WCAG into their accessibility laws because their policy-makers found they were a good tool for

determining if a website is accessible. The first country to include these guidelines was the

United States Government. It was soon followed by Canada, India, France, Australia, Germany,

Spain, Japan, and the United Kingdom (Ribera et al. 2009).

This adoption led the W3C to release the next version, the WCAG 2.0 in 2008 (W3C

2018). This was meant to succeed the 1.0 version while providing more information on how to

better reach a wider range of disabled people. They provided options for the blind and low

vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, cognitive limitations,

learning disabilities, photosensitivity, and any combination of these (W3C 2018). However,

these are simply guidelines and there is no enforcement of these at this time.

Accessibility means making something accessible to all who would use it. This should

apply to the Web as well. With organizations of developers and creators like the W3C leading

the way on this endeavor, it is up to the rest of the community of developers and creators to

follow suit. The W3C provides not only the guidelines that will teach them how to create

accessible Web content, but also numerous tools on how to do so as well as tools on how to

check their website for accessibility. With this extra help and guidance from the W3C it would

be inadvisable to not make websites accessible.

Legal Ramifications

Making websites accessible allows all users to be able to view the content and interact

with it. However, most of the time guidelines are not enough to ensure websites are made

accessible. Therefore, there needs to be an implementation of laws in place that will hold

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developers, creators, and businesses accountable. Two laws that attempt to accomplish this are

Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities

Act.

Section 508

When researching Web accessibility, one will often stumble across Section 508 which

happens to be a piece of United States legislation. Section 508 is an amendment to the

Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998. This

piece of legislation requires that when Federal agencies develop, maintain, procure, or use

information technology they must provide any disabled members of the public and employees

access to information that is comparable to that which is available to others (Section 508 2018).

In addition to these standards, Section 508 also implemented a complaint procedure and

requirements for reporting those complaints. On December 21, 2000 a final rule was issued on

Section 508 (Thatcher 2018).

This final rule discusses standards and guidelines for accessible electronic and

information technology that provides sixteen items for Web accessibility. These items are

specific ways that must be used during development to ensure that a disabled user can utilize

the website. The standards that are provided here are: Offer Text Equivalents, Present

Synchronized Multimedia, Remain Independent of Color, Stay Independent of Style Sheets,

Provide Redundant Links for Server-Side Maps, Use Client-Side Image Maps, Label Row and

Column Headers, Use the Headers Attribute in Complex Tables, Supply Frame Titles, Reduce

Flicker, Write Accessible Scripts, Specify Accessible Applets and Plug-ins, Design Accessible

Forms, Offer Skip Navigation, Alert User to Timed Responses, and Offer a Text-only Alternative.

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The last of these standards, Offer a Text-only Alternative, is only to be used as a last resort. It

should only be followed when compliance cannot be accomplished any other way.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The shortcoming of Section 508 is that it does not apply to private sector websites or

any public websites that are not United States Federal Agency sites. While these standards are

enforceable against Federal agencies, websites that we use every day such as Amazon, eBay,

and Facebook are not held accountable. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was

introduced in 1990 as a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination of any kind against disabled

people. The ADA will generally require employers, publicly accessible buildings, and state and

local governments to offer reasonable services to ensure that any person is not discriminated

against because of disability. Since the ADA was first implemented before the Web it was not

originally covered by it. However, in 2010 the Department of Justice in the United States

published the Standards for Accessible Design (Interactive Accessibility). These standards will

apply to all public and commercial entities that have places of public accommodation including

the internet. The ADA affects all state and local government agencies, private employers with

15 or more employees, businesses operating for the benefit of the general population, and

Americans with disabilities and their families, caregivers, and friends. Even though the ADA

covers all of the entities, they still only encourage self-regulation (Interactive Accessibility

2018). While the Department of Justice is developing regulations, organizations are encouraged

to use the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WACG) 2.0 level AA as a guide to make

their websites accessible.

Repercussions for Being Non-Compliant

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Since the ADA, Section 508, and the WCAG are not heavily regulated, entities that do

not comply with accessibility standards face risk of litigation. Thanks to the ADA any member of

the American public can use the accessibility legislation to argue that their needs are not being

accommodated by a public organization or company. These companies face reduced revenues,

damaged reputations, and unhappy customers as well as financial consequences. According to

the Accessibility Blog in late 2017, there are have been over two hundred and fifty federal

lawsuits filed in the United States regarding accessibility since 2015. Some of the bigger

companies during this period were Target, the media giant Netflix, Disney, fast food restaurant

Five Guys, grocery chain Winn Dixie, and retailer Hobby Lobby (Accessibility.Blog 2017). During

this, Target was required to pay ten million dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit from the

National Federation of the Blind (Accessibility.Blog 2017). During 2017, there were at least eight

hundred and fourteen federal lawsuits filed by plaintiffs in regards to allegedly inaccessible

websites (Vu and Ryan 2018).

Thanks to the work of legislation such as Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation

Act of 1973 and ADA there have been improvements at the government level to regulate the

Web and try to ensure it is made accessible to everyone. These improvements would not have

been made possible if it was not for groups of likeminded developers such as the W3C. They

paved the way and provided the guidelines that the government uses to attempt to regulate

accessibility. However, there is still a need for more regulation. From the review of these pieces

of literature, one can see that there are ample guidelines in place. Most of the guidelines from

the W3C and their WAI even offer tutorials and tips on how to make a website more accessible

(W3C 2018).

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Since there have been drastic increases in users on the Web, there is going to be an

influx of users with disabilities as well. As shown in the review of the various articles

mentioned, they are often not taken into consideration when designing websites or developing

Web content. This means that most of those users who struggle with some form of disability

are not going to be able to navigate certain parts of the Web that regular users can. Even over

the years as organizations like the W3C have tried to get standards and guidelines set in place

for accessibility, there is still much work to be done about getting people to follow them. Since

the guidelines and standards that are in place are more than adequate to create an open and

equal environment for all users it would appear those are not the problem. The issue then lies

on the developers/companies to withhold these standards.

Solution

The original hypothesis for this paper was that if a website is made to be accessible it

would provide access to the website for more users which would in turn provide better Web

traffic for the website. After reviewing the literature from above we find that this hypothesis

will still be true, however the catch is how will that be accomplished. Either better standards or

guidelines need to be put in place or there needs to be a better way to regulate the Web. This

paper holds the belief that there needs to be better regulation on the Web.

Accessibility

From the literature covered in the accessibility sections above, we see that there are

standards and guidelines in place. Public organizations such as the W3C are able to help the

Web as an environment grow by offering tools and guidelines for developers and creators. Not

only do they release these tools and maintain the guidelines, but they also have their own

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initiative within their organization dedicated wholly to accessibility. Many countries worldwide

have sided with or adopted the W3C’s guidelines as part of their own litigations, including the

United States.

Within the United States there are also additional provisions on how to develop content

for the Web. There is Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that uses the

W3C guidelines to determine how government agencies should develop their website and

content. There is also the Americans with Disabilities Act that was amended to add guidelines

for the Web. These guidelines provide specific “checks” that a website should meet to be

considered accessible. The ADA also included steps for users to file claims against websites that

do not adhere to these guidelines. The litigation from the ADA applies to all state and local

government agencies, private employers with fifteen or more employees, businesses operating

for the benefit of the general population, and Americans with disabilities and their families,

caregivers, and friends. Even though the ADA covers all of the entities, they still only encourage

self-regulation (Interactive Accessibility 2018).

The last thing that the accessibility literature revealed was the sheer number of disabled

people in the world. There is an estimated seventeen percent of the world that has some sort

of disability that affects how they live. This could include things such as using the Web for any

of its tools or services.

From this literature we do see that the regulations and litigations in place are adequate

for what is needed to make websites accessible. They approach the need of accessibility with

wanting to have everything on the Web accessible to all people equally. Thanks to the work of

the W3C and their Web Accessibility Initiative they keep their current guidelines up to date with

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new technologies once they are standardized. From these guidelines, government agencies are

able to edit their legislations if needed to ensure they are up to these standards. What is left

lacking is a way to regulate these guidelines.

Web Traffic

The literature that was reviewed showed that Web traffic is increasing still each year. As

of 2017 a little over half (fifty four percent) of the world’s population are using the Web

(Worldometer 2018). This still leaves the other half of the world that are potential users as the

Web and the technology that supports it are beginning to reach more remote places. With this

percentage, there is also the number of disabled people in the world which totals to about

seventeen percent of the global population. As more people move to the Web there are going

to be more disabled people trying to access it as well.

Some of the technologies that support the growth of the Web are social media and the

move to mobile. After the release of the iPhone and eventually Android phones featuring full

Web browsers accessing the Web via mobile devices began to take off. This allowed companies

to begin creating websites that were fully functioning mobile versions of their regular sites.

Around the same time, social media began fully taking off.

As the Web has matured, there have been great increases in the amount of people that

can access the Web. It has gone from something that was used solely by government and

academics to something that the average citizen uses for their everyday lives. As of the end of

2017 we now have over half of the world using the Web and this number is increasing each

year (Worldometer 2018). Technologies and services such as the introduction of the mobile

Web and social media have also helped to increase the amount of users on the Web.

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After reviewing the articles found there does appear to be well defined standards and

guidelines set in place to assist developers and creators ensure that their websites are

accessible to all users. As the number of users rise each year there is going to be an influx of

different types of users. This will include users with disabilities trying to take advantage of tools

that we all use online. With more disabled users trying to get on the Web, developers and

creators are going to have to start ensuring their websites are up to the current standards in

place. If their websites are made to be accessible they will be able to be reached by more users

which will in turn increase traffic for the website. At the current state of the Web, accessibility

acts more like a bottle neck that is stemming the increase in disabled users. However, if

developers and creators make accessibility a priority, or are forced to make it a priority, there

will be a greater amount of people able to access the Web. Currently developers are not

regulated. What must be done is implement a way to regulate websites to ensure they meet all

criteria for accessibility.

Discussion

From all of the information gathered, it appears that there are numerous guidelines and

standards in place to make the Web a more accessible area for all. There are even multiple

guides and resources made available to developers and creators to ensure that they comply

with these guidelines and standards. These standards are not actively enforced by the

government, but they will investigate any website that is brought to their attention by users. At

this point the government can hold businesses legally accountable for not complying with the

standards set in place. Up to now it has been up to the businesses to be proactive with their

websites by making them accessible and researching the current guidelines to ensure they

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meet them. However, businesses have been failing at this. Therefore, the stance of this paper

would be that it would be up to the government to take an active role in regulating the

standards in place.

Strengths

There are a few benefits that could be caused by businesses taking an active role in

making their websites accessible. By removing the bottle neck caused by accessibility to the

Web, this will allow more users to utilize the tools all of us take advantage of daily. With more

users accessing the Web, it will mean that it is possible to gain new customers. New customers

or at least visitors will increase income for the business as it will have more customers using

their service or visitors that may interact with ads on the website. It will also increase publicity

of the business as they are making it a priority to accommodate all people. The last strength is it

will provide a better user experience for all users that utilize their website.

Weaknesses

The biggest shortcoming to this solution would be the fact that having the government

regulate the Web will have many people who would oppose this as it could eventually get to

the point where it interferes with the website owner’s rights depending on where the

government stops. This paper brings light to the negative things that can happen by not

complying with standards such as negative publicity, fines, and even loss of business. By

showing the costs that are forced upon them by not complying, it is possible that this will get

some developers and creators on the right path. However, it still comes down to the matter of

relying on someone to regulate themselves and hold themselves accountable. If they are

unable to hold themselves accountable, someone must do it. Currently that would be up to

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users which relies on a user getting frustrated enough with it to file a claim to the government.

At this point it would be in the best interest to just cut this middleman user out and have the

government regulate websites periodically.

Opportunities

As mentioned above in the Strengths section, there are many opportunities given to a

developer or creator that would adopt Web accessibility as a priority for their work. This will

give them access to new users and more visitors to their website as it will be accessible to

them. By making accessibility a priority, a developer would also align themselves with the W3C

who is a great resource to use for information on new technologies as well as complying with

them.

Threats

As mentioned above, the biggest threat will be the reliance on the developer or creator

to self-regulate their websites to the accessibility standards and guidelines. However, this is

similar to the current state we are in with Web accessibility. It has been left to the developers

to ensure their content is accessible to all users. One of the purposes of this paper was to make

known the repercussions of not complying with current standards and guidelines to the

developers and creators. This way they can be shown the cost of not following these guidelines

before it is too late for them and they get a claim against them. Because the current guidelines

and standards that are in place are more than adequate and there are plenty of tools to assist

them with ensuring they meet them, the rest of the work falls on the developers and creators

to either self-regulate their work. However, given that this paper realizes this is not a solution,

it would be up to the government to begin implementing ways to actively regulate websites.

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Trends

Since Web accessibility is still such an issue in 2018, the W3C is actively working on

developing their standards to keep up with new technologies as well as educational areas of the

WAI (Abou-Zahra 2018). This year they will be releasing the WCAG 2.1 version that will be a

much-anticipated step forward in Web accessibility. They also have their Silver Task Force

looking at the potential for a WCAG 2.2 as well. Finally, they are also going to be working on

harmonizing their standards throughout Europe this year and will eventually work their way

towards China as well (Abou-Zahra 2018). With the W3C taking such an active role in the

movement to make the Web accessible, this proves that there is more to be done. At the time

of this writing, they have even held numerous conferences this year alone where accessibility

was the focal point of the statement.

The leading entity with the Web accessibility movement, the W3C, is making changes

and updates to their standards and guidelines to accommodate changing technology. Not only

are they leading the way, they are also creating multiple educational materials that will assist

developers and creators meeting their standards. Since they are actively updating their

standards to meet the current technology it does appear that the standards in place are

adequate to make websites accessible. The problem then lies with enforcement of said

standards. The W3C takes an educational approach to this issue. They want to inform and offer

tools and resources for developers so they know how to adhere to the standards set in place.

Unfortunately, this is not enough. This paper has taken it a step further by looking directly at

repercussions of not following the standards put in place. This way developers can see the cost

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to them or their business if they do not follow the standards and guidelines set forward by the

government.

Recommendations

The original thesis for this paper was that the enforcement of current and

implementation of more suitable Web accessibility standards will improve sites and increase

traffic. Since the W3C is actively working on updating standards as new technology is

implemented, there will not be a need for any drastic new standards to be implemented. What

is left is a need for regulation. Having the government regulate the Web is one option,

however, there will be many who would oppose this as it could eventually get to the point

where it interferes with the website owner’s rights depending on where the government stops.

The idea that would probably pose the best answer would be a bot that scans websites.

This paper proposes an entity like the W3C to be the one to create this tool and implement it. It

would be owned by the W3C but would send notifications to the government for regulation.

This way the tool has the best interest of the Web at mind instead of any other agenda. The bot

could then scan a website, find any flaws in the accessibility of the website based on current

standards and guidelines, assign it a score, and then send a notification to the department in

charge of it. They could then see the score provided with the results and see where the issue is.

From this point the government could reach out and inform the owner of the website that they

do not follow current standards if that is the case. If the owner chooses to not comply then they

could be held accountable for their websites lack of accountability.

This could be a way that the Web is regulated in a controlled way that only checks for

errors in regards to current guidelines and not actual content on the websites. This way users

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cannot claim that there is some type of discrimination against their website since it is scanned

for the bot and compared to current standards. This would also show which specific part of

their website needs to be fixed and what standard it goes again specifically.

Given that the current issue is regulation of the standards and guidelines for the web,

the best course of action would be to determine the best way to regulate the Web. The option

presented by the solution is to have an entity like the government regulate the Web. The

problem caused by this would be the power given by this to the government. This power would

most likely cause issues in countries like the United States. Therefore, if going this route, there

would need to be some sort of control in place to ensure they do not go out of their bounds of

regulations.

Conclusion

Between the years 2000 and 2014 the number of users on the Web grew by five

hundred and sixty-four times that what it was in 2000 (Sumits 2015). At the end of 2017, the

total percentage of users on the Web was at fifty-four point four percent. Given this data, that

means that the total number of users on the Web is growing and still has plenty of room to

grow. One area of “untapped” will be the disabled. The number of disabled people in the world

amounts to about seventeen percent. Therefore, with this large percentage of the world

disabled in some way, developers and creators need to consider them while creating their

websites.

This paper looked at the current standards and guidelines in place, determined that they

are sufficient and provided insight into who contributes to these standards. From here it looked

at how Web traffic plays a role in the Web and how there are still users joining the list of users

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each year. However, there arose the dilemma of how disabled users are still unable to access

the Web. This supported the given thesis so far. The final step was how can this be solved; the

answer was regulation. This paper provided two different ways to regulate the Web. The first

and less intrusive solution would be for developers to crack down on themselves and self-

regulate. Education on what to do and what not to do would be a priority for them. The second

option would be for the government to take over the regulation, which would meet great

opposition. This paper is in favor of the government regulating the Web since leaving it up to

the developers has not been enough so far.

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