A study of the web and collections database accessibility of archives in Taiwan

網際網路是一個傳播資訊與向公眾提供服務的主要渠道，圖書館、檔案典藏機構或資訊機構網站都是實體服務的延伸。圖書館與檔案典藏機構的館藏檢索系統變得重要，除了資料需鍵入正確、著錄精確外，系統還需達至網頁無障礙（Web Accessibility）以滿足大眾對於資訊的獲得率。 當網頁出現障礙化，會影響使用者資訊的取用、理解能力。對於身心障礙者而言，再豐富的數位內容，無法自由取用數位資源即沒有任何獲得資訊內容的機會。因此，即使擁有先進的輔助科技與有學習取用資訊的能力，仍要面對克服網頁障礙化的問題。 本研究透過文獻探討，先行瞭解無障礙網頁設計意涵，並針對導致網頁與檢索系統產生障礙化原因作進行分析，進而發展因障礙而產生「資訊落差」之影響；再以兩版無障礙網頁檢測工具進行六所檔案典藏機構之網頁系統檢測，根據結果進行網頁產生障礙化的因素歸納；最後，實施使用者任務實測與訪談，從使用者觀點瞭解實際使用網頁系統之情況與意見，確實瞭解檔案典藏機構環境無障礙程度與未來網頁朝達至無障礙化之可行性。 研究結果顯示臺灣六所檔案典藏機構網頁系統無障礙網頁檢測結果不理想，產生障礙類型與文獻研究有相似之處，主要以圖片、表格與網頁標頭未加上替代文字等問題是最多的障礙，產生之障礙也多以視聽覺障礙者無法取用為主；使用者實際使用六所檔案典藏機構網頁系統過程亦不順利，部分受測者直接放棄、需要他人協助，或雖使用輔助科技使用有通過無障礙檢測之網站，卻無法讀取其內容，並會因此而放棄取用。因此，身心障礙者無法取用所有資訊，致使取用資訊途徑較單一，而會產生資訊落差現象，並處於資訊貧困之中。 本研究建議應加快推動新版網站無障礙規範2.0、加強網站架構無障礙化教育、加入身心障礙者協助架構網頁、館藏檢索系統加入無障礙設計概念之必要性。同時，亦應因網際網路與大眾取用資源的工具與習慣，與使用者為主之基礎概念，加快推動未來各種網路發展與無障礙網頁開發規範之進一步結合與修正。Internet is a major channel for the dissemination of information and the provision of services to the public. The websites of libraries, archives, or information agency have played an extension role of physical services and the collection database of library and archival repositories has become the most important part of reader services. Therefore, the information services not only require to maintain content correctly, but also need to reach web accessibility for satisfying the public's information needs. When the websites have barriers to the disability, it will affect the users’ access to information and understanding. For the people who have physical and mental handicapped, they cannot freely access the digital resources means they are no opportunities to access information content. Even though they have advanced assistive technology as wll as have the ability to learn knowledge, they still have to overcome the problem of the website barriers. According to literature review, this study explained the meaning of website accessibility. And focused on analyzing the cause of the barriers on library websites or searching systems. In order to have a deep discussion of the impact on “information gaps” that is caused by the barrier on archives websites, this study use web accessibility testing to find the barriers of six archives. The automatic assessment tools, Freego3.1.1 and Freego2.0, are used and compared their differences. Finally, in order to understand the experience of users navigating archives websites and collections retrieval system, this study recruited the disabled people to do some tasks and interviewed their openions for understanding the accessibility degrees of archival information systems and analyzing the feasibility of websites toward accessibility in the future. The results of this study show that the accessibility of websites and collections database on six archival repositories are not ideal. There are the same types of barriers as literature review which are mainly in pictures, forms and website headers without additional text and other issues. The barriers also generate the inaccessibility to the visual and hearing impaired. The process of the experiments are not smooth that some of the users give up or need others assist. Based on the findings, this study proposes that accelerate and promote the accessibility standards 2.0 to strengthen the education of web accessibility. Also, let physically and mentally handicapped join to design websites and collections database. At the same time, should base on the habits of public access to internet information to accelerate the future of barrier-free web development