The German Web 2.0 accessibility survey: Empirical findings and recommendations

The German BIENE award (Barrierefreies Internet Eröffnet Neue Einsichten / Accessible Internet Provides New Insights) happened to be a best practice competition for accessible websites organized by the social association "Aktion Mensch" and the endowment "Digitale Chancen". For the last 2010 competition 224 web pages have been checked for their barrier free accessibility. Web applications that facilitate interactive sharing of user generated content have been of particular importance. In this respect it soon turned out, that Web 2.0 services cannot only be made accessible by applying common design guidelines and ad-hoc adaptations. In addition to conventional software ergonomic verification procedures, accessibility validation has to rely on sociological reasoning about unique Web 2.0 entities and corresponding usage obstacles. Empirically these considerations have been conceptualized by an online survey amongst 671 respondents with all kinds of different disabilities, carried out by "Aktion Mensch"