Università degli studi di Pavia
Laurea Specialistica Interfacoltà in
Editoria e Comunicazione Multimediale (ECM)
verifica dell’accessibilità nei siti di telefonia mobile
Tim, Vodafone e Wind
Relatore: Prof. Marco Porta
Tesi di
Correlatore: Prof. Lidia Falomo
Eleonora Cernuschi
Accessibility: a definition
“The art of ensuring that, to as large an extent as possible, facilities
(such as, for example, Web access) are available to people whether or not they have
impairments of one sort or another”
Tim Berners Lee
“ Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web.
More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive,
understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web”
W3C
Disability
Source:
“La disabilità in Italia - Il quadro della statistica ufficiale” (Istat 2009)
In Italy, in the years 2004-2005,
people with disabilities
were about 2,800,000
(5,1% of the whole population)
Rest of
population
People with
disabilities
Accessibility: beneficiaries
 People with permanent disability (visual, auditive, motor, cognitive,
neurological impairments)
But not only…
 Elderly people
 Temporary invalids
 People with low literacy or not fluent in the language
 People with (Internet) low-bandwidth or using obsolete technologies
 New and infrequent Web users
From WCAG 1.0 to 2.0
WCAG 1.0
WCAG 2.0
 2 principles:
 4 principles:
Perceivable
 Operable
 Understandable
 Robust

Ensuring graceful transformation
 Making content understandable and
navigable

 14 guidelines
 12 guidelines
 Checkpoints
 Success criteria
Priority 1 (must)
 Priority 2 (might)
 Priority 3 (may)

Level A
Level AA
Level AAA
Level A
 Level AA
 Level AAA

Italian regulation
 Law 4/2004 – “Disposizioni per favorire l’accesso dei soggetti disabili agli
strumenti informatici” (Stanca Law)
 Obstacles:



Public sector membership
Existence of a contract
Art. 8 of the Implementation Regulation
subjects
self-evaluation of the accessibility for public
 PDL 1226 (2006)
Proposal for modification and improvement of 4/2004
 Propose:


Independence from the contract
More checks on law enforcement
Studies of Accessibility
Aim:
To verify, on the basis of WCAG
2.0, the implementation of these
international regulations on the
websites of the three major mobile
phone companies operating in
Italy
Tim: pros and cons
 Resizable text
(but not up to 200%)
 Too much
content with
not enough
space
between text
lines
 Useful input
fields: clear label
out of the field
 Good contrast
ratio between text
(or images of text)
colors and
background
And more…
 Text alternatives are provided for any non-text content
 All functionalities are available from keyboard
 Visible focus
 Headings and labels clearly describe topic or purpose
 CAPTCHA with alternative file audio link
And more…
 Effective titles (“TIM.it: Tariffe, Chiavette,Telefonini, Assistenza e Servizi Mobili”)
 Alternative language is not provided
 HTML and CSS coding errors:
•
missing objects
•
end tags omitted
•
no unique ID
•
..and more..
57 errors only in the homepage…
Vodafone: pros and cons
 Insufficient
contrast ratio
between text
and
background
colors in
menu area
(red/white)
 Too much
content with
not enough
space
between text
lines
 Accessible site link
 Useful input
fields: clear label
in the field
And more…
 Text alternatives are provided for any non- text content
 Good contrast ratio between text (or images of text) colors and background
(except for white/red)
 Headings and labels clearly describe topic or purpose
 Effective titles (“ADSL internet, telefoni cellulari e offerte telefonia- Vodafone ”)
 Only few functionality are available from keyboard
 Invisible focus
 No resizable text
And more…
 Alternative language is not provided
 HTML and CSS coding errors :
• missing objects
• end tags omitted
• no unique ID
• ..and more...
194 errors only in the homepage…
Vodafone: pros and cons
 Insufficient
contrast ratio
between text
and
background
colors in
menu area
(red/white)
 Glossary
 Content
only based on
text
 Resizable text
(but not up to
200%)
 W3C certification (HTML 1.0, CSS, WCAG 1.0- level AAA)
And more…
 All functionalities are available from keyboard
 Headings and labels clearly describe topic or purpose
 HTML and CSS in conformity with W3C standards (HTML 1.0, CSS, WCAG 1.0-
level AAA)
 Color scheme and content organization customizable by the user
(“Personalizza il sito”)
And more…
 Enough space between paragraph but not enough between text lines
 Absence of input field (provided in normal site): only informative content
no interaction with the users
 Alternative language is not provided
Wind: pros and cons
 Headings
and labels clearly
describe topic or
purpose
 Unuseful
input field:
label in the
field
 Low contrast
ratio between text
(or images of
text) color and
background
 Less content
in the
homepage: less
dispersive page
And more…
 All functionalities are available from keyboard
 Visible focus
 Text alternatives are not provided for any non-text content (ex. box images)
 No effective titles (only the name of the company without description of its
activity)
 No resizable text
 Alternative language is not provided
 Color scheme and content organization not customizable by the user
And more…
 HTML and CSS coding errors:
•
•
•
•
•
missing objects
attribute "alt" not specified
end tags omitted
no unique ID
HTML language tag defines English but pages content is in Italian
to screen reader
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" >
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
155 errors only in the homepage…
problem
Conclusions
 The analysis shows that, even leading companies do not properly consider web
accessibility
 As a consequence, a still large number of people afflicted with chronic or temporary
disability are neglected
 The compliance with accessibility rules would represent a significant advantage for
many people and further development opportunities for companies. Accessibility
should therefore be considered not as a plus, but as an essential synergy between
social needs and development of companies (both public and private)
Thanks for your kind
attention