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Surveys of Scottish 5/99 Project Web Sites

Brian KellyUK Web Focus &

QA Focus Manager UKOLNUniversity of BathEmail:B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

Contents Background Summaries of Surveys:

• HTML Compliance

• Accessibility

• Availability on a PDA

• Availability on the Internet Archive

Implications Development of a Self-

Assessment Toolkit

Contents Background Summaries of Surveys:

• HTML Compliance

• Accessibility

• Availability on a PDA

• Availability on the Internet Archive

Implications Development of a Self-

Assessment Toolkit

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Background To The Surveys

QA Focus:• Is addressing QA in several areas (e.g. access

digitisation, service deployments, etc.)• Initial activities are based on areas of expertise

of QA Focus Team members (e.g. Web and images)

• This presentation covers an initial set of surveys concerned with Web access

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About The Surveys

The surveys:• Made use of freely-available Web-based services• The survey methodology is transparent & usable by all• The findings are reproducible

The aims of the surveys are to:• Identify best practices which can be adopted by others• Provide examples of approaches which can be used

by projects either individually or in clusters • Covered FAILTE, Xgrain, EEVL Computing

Gateway, Using Numerical Data, Lemur and e-MapScholar project Web sites

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Survey 1: HTML Compliance (1)

A survey of compliance with HTML standards:• Aims to provide an indication of compliance with

HTML standards across projects• Survey looks at project entry points• Survey uses W3C’s HTML validation service

Findings: One entry point is compliant with XHTML One entry point does not have a DTD Four entry points have no Character Encoding Three entry points have small number of errors Two entry points have a large number of errors

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Survey 1: HTML Compliance (2)

Compliance with HTML standards is needed to:• Avoid browser vendor proprietary features• Maximise accessibility• Allow resources to be repurposed by applications

other than browsers• Allow Web sites to claim compliance with HTML and

accessibility standards (which may be mandatory)

Discussion:• FAILTE shows an attractive entry point which

complies with the latest HTML standards• Other sites need to address HTML tools

and workflow issues

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Survey 1: HTML Compliance (3)

http://failte.ac.uk/http://failte.ac.uk/

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Survey 2: Accessibility

A survey of compliance with accessibility standards:• Aims to provide an indication of compliance with W3C

WAI guidelines across projects• Survey looks at project entry points• Survey uses the Bobby accessibility testing service

Findings:One entry point is compliant with WAI AAA (FAILTE!)Four entry points are compliant with WAI AAOne entry point is not compliant

NOTE:• Use of automated tools will not detect all

accessibility problems.

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Survey 3: Access Using PDA

Why?• We can expect to see increasing use of PDAs• If Web sites can be accessed on a PDA they are

likely to be reusable by other applications

How?• The AvantGo Web site was used and Web sites

made available on a Palm PDA

Findings:All Web sites could be accessed

on a PDAThe entry point for some sites was

not held in a project sub-directory sothe entire Web site was transferred.

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Survey 4: Availability On Internet ArchiveA survey of the availability of project Web sites on the Internet Archive was carried out:

• This may provide a emergency backup if a project ceases to exist and Web site disappears

• If Web sites can be stored successfully on the Internet Archive they may be harvested by other mirroring/archiving services

Findings:Five Web sites are available in Internet Archive One Web site is not available

NOTE:• No archives are available since Nov 2001

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Discussion

Survey Findings:• The findings are available at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

qa-focus/surveys/scottish-projects-09-2002/>Note that:

• A “league table” is inappropriate (projects have different objectives, levels of resources, etc.)

• The findings may need interpretation

Support Documentation• Where findings show that advice is needed

we will advise JISC Advisory Service or produce materials ourselves

• Initial documents available at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/>

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Discussion

We hope that:• The survey findings will be of interest to projects

and will allow you to address problem areas and implement examples of best practices

• You will be able to implement more comprehensive testing across project Web sites

Note that:• The surveys are intended initially for

discussions within projects• If serious problems are found QA Focus will

raise concerns with the project. If problems are not addressed we will raise the matter with JISC (as we are funded to do).

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Development Of A Self-Assessment ToolkitQA Focus:

• Aims to develop a self-assessment toolkit which will allow projects to check their QA procedures in areas including:

• Access (e.g. Web) Digitisation• Metadata Software

development• Service deployment …

• The Web surveys are the first step• Your feedback is welcomed