Challenges to Assess Accessibility in Higher Education Websites: A Comparative Study of Latin America Universities

Abstract

The Web has revolutionized our daily lives, becoming a prime source of information, knowledge, inquiry, and provision of services in various areas. It is possible to obtain information easily from any institution through the Internet; in fact, the first impression of an organization an individual perceives is almost always based on its official website. Services related to education are increasing worldwide; therefore, it is important that users, regardless of their disabilities, be able to access these websites in an effective manner. However, the homepages of universities in Latin America still do not meet web accessibility criteria. This paper describes the problems of web accessibility identified in 348 main university websites in Latin America according to their rankings on Webometrics. The results show that the universities’ websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative image text. It was found that the university websites included in the present study violate Web accessibility requirements based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The many problems identified concerning Website accessibility indicate that it is necessary to strengthen Web accessibility policies in each country and apply better directives in this area to make Websites more inclusive.