Web Accessibility for the Blind:

Corporate Social Responsibility or Litigation Avoidance?

Jonathan FrankSuffolk University

Boston, MA

Background

45m. blind individuals worldwide 1.3m. blind individuals in US (0.48%

pop.) Web Accessibility Guidelines & Laws Lawsuits

Text Browser & Screen Reader

Previous Work on Web Accessibility Frustrated and annoyed blind users [Lazar

et al, 2004] Time-oriented accessibility ignored [Takagi

2004] Website increasing complexity [Zeng et al

2004] Developers use syntactical checking

[Mankoff 2005] Lack of training, client support, confusing

guidelines, inadequate software tools [Lazar et al, 2004]

Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR Postures

Reactive Defensive Accommodative Proactive

Model

CSR Propensity

Perceived Litigation Threat

Website Accessibility

(CSR Posture)

Product/ Service Type

Web Media Complexity

+

+

+/-

-Time

+

+

Measuring Accessibility

Enabling people with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web” [Henry 2006]

Limitation of popular tools Alternative approach -- aDesigner –

IBM navigability and listenability metrics

Sample

A&P CompUSA Radio Shack

Albertsons Family Dollar Rite Aid

Barnes & Noble Kmart Ross Stores

Bed Bath and Beyond Lowe's Sears

BJ's Marshall Supervalu

Blockbuster Menard T.J.Maxx

Burlington Coat Factory Office Depot Wal-Mart

Costco Office Max Wegmans

Dillard's Publix Whole Foods Markets

Dollar General QVC Winn-Dixie

Method

Wayback Machine Initially sampled 1st occurrence of

homepage 4/03, 2/06, & 6/07

Declining Accessibility

Name Apr-03 Feb-06 Jun-07

Costco 100 49 49

Burlington Coat 88 65 44

Marshall 74 72 40

T.J.Maxx 86 72 60

Radio Shack 18 0 0

Target Corp Improves Accessibility

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Feb-06 Lawsuit Jun-07

Acc

essi

bil

ity

Worst Accessibility 2007

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

RadioShack

Bed Bath& Beyond

OfficeMax

Costco QVC Meijer Marshall OfficeDepot

Wal-Mart

Acc

essi

bili

ty

Best Accessibility 2007

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

BJ's CompUSA Rite Aid Dillard's Sears Barnes &Noble

Albertsons Winn-Dixie Target

Ac

ce

ss

ibil

ity

Gains in Accessibility after Target Case Begins(Feb-06 to Jun-07)

% Change Feb-06 to Jun-07

0%

200%

400%

600%

800%

1000%

1200%

Winn-Dixie

QVC Wal-Mart

Rite Aid Target BJ's Sears Dillard's Meijer

Retailers’ reaction to the Target case

Apr-2003 Feb-2006 P

Accessibility 49.2 53.4 0.1904

Feb-2006 June-2007 P

Accessibility 53.4 74.5 0.0000

CSR Propensity & Accessibility

Top CSR Companies IBM, Fannie Mae, Avon Products, Timberland, Bank of America, Southwest Airlines, FedEx Corp., JP Morgan Chase, Symantec Corp., Lexmark International, New York Times, Microsoft, Charles Schwab, Marriott International, Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard

Sample Companies BedBath, QVC, Walmart, Radioshack, Officemax, KMart, Winn-Dixie, Target, Riteaid, Barns and Noble, Apsupermarket, Meijer, CompUSA, Blockbuster, Marshallonline, Dollargeneral , Lowes, Dillards, Wholefoods, BJs, Costco, Albertsons, Publix, Tjmaxx, Burlingtoncoatfactory, Rosstore, Office depot, Familydollar, Wegmans, Supervalu

Regression results t=1,2…7 Anova of Betas

 Slope before Feb-

06Slope after Feb-

06 P

Sample companies (N=27) 1.806 11.107

0.006

Top CSR companies (N=14) 1.812 2.553

0.425

Conclusions