The Recognition of Web Pages' Hyperlinks by People with Intellectual Disabilities: An Evaluation Study

Abstract

Background

One of the most mentioned problems of web accessibility, as recognized in several different studies, is related to the difficulty regarding the perception of what is or is not clickable in a web page. In particular, a key problem is the recognition of hyperlinks by a specific group of people, namely those with intellectual disabilities.

Materials and Methods

This experiment investigated a methodology based on the direct observation, video recording, interview and data obtained by an eye tracker device. Ten participants took part in this study. They were divided into two groups and asked to perform two tasks: ‘Sing a song’ and ‘Listen to a story’ in two websites. These websites were developed to include specific details. The first website presented an image navigation menu (INM), whereas the other one showed a text navigation menu (TNM).

Results

There was a general improvement regarding the participants' performance when using INMs.

Conclusion

The referred analysis indeed shows that not only did these specific participants gain a better understanding of the demanding task, but also they showed an improved perception concerning the content of the navigation menu that included hyperlinks with images.