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Social Networking Sites and Equal Opportunity: The Impact of Accessibility

Social Networking Sites and Equal Opportunity: The Impact of Accessibility. 22 nd Bled eConference eEnablement: Facilitating an Open, Effective and Representative eSociety June 14 - 17, 2009; Bled, Slovenia. Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie). Denise Leahy. Ultan Ó Broin.

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Social Networking Sites and Equal Opportunity: The Impact of Accessibility

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  1. Social Networking Sites and Equal Opportunity: The Impact of Accessibility 22nd Bled eConference eEnablement: Facilitating an Open, Effective and Representative eSociety June 14 - 17, 2009; Bled, Slovenia

  2. Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie) Denise Leahy Ultan Ó Broin • School of Computer Science and Statistics • University of Dublin, TCD, Ireland Founded 1592 • Only Irish university in top 100 world universities and top 50 European universities (Times Higher Education Supplement) • 15,716 registered students (2007–08) • Secured €70.6m in research income (2006-07) • 82,500 alumni (Beckett, Wilde, Walton, and so on) • Faculties of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Engineering, Mathematics and Science; and Health Sciences. • City centre campus 51 acres (including the Trinity Technology and Enterprise Campus) • Innovation (Havok, Iona, and so on) • 220,000 m^2 + of buildings, including beautiful historic architecture and state-of-the-art modern facilities

  3. About This Research • ICT positive contribution to economy, society and quality of life • i2010 Strategy – Single European Information Space • eInclusion: eAccessibility, Digital Literacy, Digital Gap, eGovernment, Ageing, Culture, and so on • Information society to be enjoyed by everyone • “Web 2.0” • Social networking sites (SNS) • Social, educational, cultural benefits • Uptake by E-Business • Is there open access and participation? • The visually impaired, accessibility • Policy, community and e-business implications

  4. Significant Research Findings • Visually impaired aware of, want to use Web 2.0 like others • Recognise social networking sites potential for economic (& other) opportunities • Exclusion: Accessibility barriers, all known • Existing web accessibility failing • New approach needed for accessibility • Maximize potential • Participation, representation, opportunity

  5. “Web 2.0” O’Reilly (2005) Participation, Collaboration, User Created Content (OECD, 2007) Cognitive surpluses (Shirky, 2008) Disruptive phase of Information Society (Reding, 2006) Social networking, wikis, image and video sharing, blogging, micro-blogging, and so on

  6. E-Business and Web 2.0 • Communities of employers, partners, customers (IDC, 2007) • Human resource and talent management, customer feedback, product development, support, services, sales, marketing • Strategic investment (Wu et al, 2007, Chu et al, 2009) • CRM, ERP, E-Business integration • LinkedIn, Facebook APIs, Google, Yahoo!, IBM, development toolkits

  7. Web Accessibility Guidelines • Web Accessibility Initiative (1999) • WCAG 1.0, 2.0, WAI-ARIA • Section 508 (1998, amended - US) • National laws (e.g., DDA 1995 - UK) • Other local guidelines (e.g., PAS 78 - UK) • E-Business WAI and S508 driven • Evidence does not deliver (Sloan et al, 2006) – “Accessibility 2.0” • Stakeholder, Usability (not “one size fits all”)

  8. Research Survey • Social networking sites usage • Visually impaired users, comparative • Irish-based • Respondent sources • Online user groups (VICS, BCAB), professional, educational, lobbyists • Quantitative and qualitative • Pre-testing and validation • Issues

  9. Respondent Profiles 29 visually impaired (VI) users, 20 non-VI users VI respondents mostly totally blind Mostly JAWS users Mostly aged 25-35 VI more unemployed, wider age distribution Inferences

  10. Web 2.0 Awareness • Visually impaired user reasons • Weaker on friends, • careerand job info • VI willing to use Web 2.0 • But less SNS

  11. Web 2.0 Usage Patterns Actual usage: VI weaker on SNS (social and jobs) Implication for social inclusion and opportunity

  12. Web 2.0 Challenges to Usage Challenges to inclusion Privacy, content trust Accessibility …

  13. Accessibility Challenges All known, addressed by guidelines Captcha Tables, images Forms, changes (AJAX), interactive elements, visual elements meaning

  14. Focus Group Comments Frustration, exclusion, discrimination….

  15. Accessibility by/for Users • “Accessibility 2.0” • WAI-driven guidelines not enough • More stakeholders, holistic, usability driven, tools • Include users, the visually impaired: • “Visually impaired people need to make their opinions and experiences count with web design and accessibility testing so they can give feedback and experience. ” (Survey comment)

  16. Research Conclusions • Recognition of social networking potential • Serious accessibility barriers: Social exclusion • Cannot participate equally • Illegal, guideline failures • Implications for policy makers and E-business • New approach: “accessibility 2.0” win-win • Community/ individual participation maximized • Business opportunities optimized • Future technology • Future research

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