A framework for the development of localised web accessibility guidelines for university websites in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The number of universities in Saudi Arabia has increased dramatically in the last two decades. As a result the number of their websites has also increased without any clear guidelines regarding accessibility, which may hinder some of their disabled users from benefiting from their content. Internationally, a number of initiatives have been implemented to develop guidelines for web accessibility such as WCAG to overcome this problem. However, these guidelines are developed in Western countries and applying them to Arabic websites can raise more accessibility issues, for example related to culture and language. In order to enhance the accessibility of Saudi university websites, a new framework for the development of localised web accessibility guidelines is presented in this paper. In addition, an evaluation process to validate the framework is described.