New Review of NIDRR Grantees' Web Site

How are NIDRR's grantees using the World Wide Web (WWW) to share information with the world at large? A review of grantees' Web sites in November, 1997 (NCDDR, 1998) was repeated in November, 1998. Over the year, the percentage of NIDRR-funded grantees with Web sites had increased from 58 percent in 1997 (176 of 284 projects) to 72 percent in 1998 (214 of 300 projects). In 1996, 32 percent of grantees had sites on the Web (88 of 270 projects). This rapid increase reflects the general growth of the Web. NCDDR staff originally analyzed grantees' Web sites to identify common characteristics, and one year later, to see what changes or trends could be highlighted.

The NCDDR identified 20 objective characteristics to use in the Web site analysis. These characteristics stemmed from a discussion in The Research Exchange Vol. 2, No. 3 (NCDDR, 1997) that addressed the "communication power" of a WWW site. NCDDR staff chose to review the following characteristics:

NCDDR staff reviewed all grantee Web sites during the period November 11-20, 1997, and again November 2-9, 1998. For each review, sites that could not be accessed on a first attempt were tried again the following day. Sites that could not be accessed on the second day were not included in the review. Of the 214 NIDRR grantee Web sites, NCDDR staff were unable to access only one during the time frame of the review in 1998. Four sites were not accessed and not included in 1997. Percentages of grantee Web sites with specific characteristics are reported in Figure 4.

Comparison of Findings from 1997-1998

These were the major findings of the NCDDR review of Web sites:

• The most common feature of NIDRR grantees' Web sites was the use of both text and graphics (98 percent); up from 70 percent in 1997. The most common feature in 1997 was the use of forms and/or electronic mail links (86 percent). This figure remained constant in 1998.
• Nearly three-quarters (70 percent) of the grantees acknowledged NIDRR as the funding agency supporting the project work presented on their Web site (up from 57 percent in 1997).
• Over half (51 percent) of grantees include one or more links to other NIDRR-funded projects in 1998. This more than doubled, from 23 percent in 1997.
• Nearly one-third (31 percent) of grantees include a link to NIDRR's homepage from their Web site (up from 24 percent in 1997).
• Over one-quarter (26 percent) of grantee Web sites included a search engine (up from 16 percent in 1997).
• The use of a copyright symbol and/or disclaimer increased over the year. In 1997, 21 percent of grantee Web sites displayed a copyright symbol (©); this increased by nearly half, to 31 percent of all grantees' sites in 1998. A disclaimer statement was observed in 19 percent of sites in 1997; this increased to 23 percent in 1998.

Review of Accessibility

As the use of the Web page is seen as an effective tool for dissemination, the issue of accessibility of Web site information for users with disabilities has become more immediate. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), through its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and special features in the HTML 4.0 publishing language, has embraced accessibility of the Web for people with disabilities. Some accessibility features include alternate text labels and descriptions for pictures and graphics, ensuring that page layouts do not confuse content when read by a screenreader, supplying scripts or captions for video or audio content, and providing text-only alternatives for images that provide content.

In its brief review of NIDRR grantees' Web sites, the NCDDR used Bobby as a measurement tool. Bobby is Web-based software developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) <http://www.cast.org/bobby/> for the purpose of verifying accessibility (CAST, 1998). In 1997, the Bobby software version assigned from one to four stars, depending on the number of accessibility problems found on the page reviewed. In 1998, Bobby version 3.0 is based on the W3C's WAI Page Author Guidelines (W3C, 1998). A page is identified as Bobby Approved if no accessibility errors are found.

Accessibility Findings

In 1997, approximately one-third (36 percent) of the NIDRR grantees' Web site home pages earned four stars to be recognized as Bobby Approved. In 1998, this figure increased to 43 percent of the sites reported as Bobby Approved. It is important to note that this increase occurred while many of the sites also use more text and graphics, animation, and other interactive elements that can impact accessibility if not implemented with care. The review of accessibility of NIDRR grantee Web sites is presented in Figure 5.

* One site not reviewed ** Two sites not reviewed

Content is Everything

In the 1998 Web site review, NCDDR also looked at several content aspects of each grantee's Web site. All (100 percent) of the grantees use their Web sites to introduce the organization and/or NIDRR-funded grant project, as well as their products and services. Some use Web sites to provide data or other information in downloadable or printable forms, and others use their sites for marketing of available products. This was a subjective overview, primarily scanning several pages of each site to see if information materials were directly available to Web visitors, or if only ordering forms and instructions were presented. Approximately 56 percent of the NIDRR grantees sites do provide information that can be downloaded or printed, while 5 percent demonstrated a marketing focus that allowed visitors to order information for purchase that was not available directly from the site.

The updating of Web sites is important to ensure that information is current and to encourage visitors to return frequently to seek new information. The 1998 review of Web site characteristics found that 41 percent of current NIDRR grantees' Web sites provided a notice of the last update on their home pages. Of these, 66 percent were updated within 3 months of the review. Eleven percent were last updated from 3 to 6 months before the review, 7 percent within 6 to 12 months, and 16 percent were last updated 12 months or longer prior to the review.

Conclusions

Information gained from the NCDDR's 1998 review of NIDRR grantees' Web sites found several trends. The greatest increases from 1997 to 1998 included:

• Use of Interactive Dimensions
• Use of Access Icons
• Links to other NIDRR projects

These characteristics demonstrate increasing use of the communication and information sharing features of the Web (Use of Interactive Dimensions, Links to other NIDRR Projects), as well as understanding and showing attention to accessibility issues (Use of Access Icons).

Greatest decreases were seen among these characteristics:

• Use of Audio
• Use of Text Only
• Use of Frames

Less use of Text Only demonstrates increasing sophistication of Web sites (most sites used both Text and Graphics) while a decrease in the use of Frames could reflect more attention to accessibility. The drop in use of Audio may also respond to accessibility concerns.

Looking at the accessibility of NIDRR grantees' Web sites, there was an increase from 1997 (36 percent) to 1998 (43 percent) in the percentage of grantee Web sites that were identified as Bobby Approved. This is a good increase, especially considering the fact that the total number of grantees' Web sites increased and that the use of interactive dimensions, graphics, and animation increased among NIDRR grantee Web sites overall. Nevertheless, these data show that in 1998, more than half (57 percent) of the NIDRR grantee's Web sites still present accessibility errors that prevent them from being Bobby Approved.

Grantees are once again encouraged to apply the graphical Web-based Bobby program to their Web site in order to begin evaluating its accessibility for people with disabilities. It is reasonable to expect that NIDRR grantees' Web sites should be held to a higher standard reflecting what is desired in every WWW site—the most accessible sites possible for all users, including Web visitors with disabilities.

References

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (1998). Bobby Web accessibility validator. [Online]. Available: http://www.cast.org/bobby/

National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). (1998). The Web Access Symbol. [Online]. http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/currentprojects/symbolwinner.html

NCDDR. (1997). Assessing the communication power of your WWW site. The Research Exchange, 2(3), 6. [Online]. Available: http://www.ncddr.org/products/researchexchange/v02n03/power.html

NCDDR. (1998). Common characteristics of NIDRR Grantees' Websites. The Research Exchange, 3(1), 1-4. [Online]. Available: http://www.ncddr.org/products/researchexchange/v03n01/chara1.html

W3C. (1998). WAI Accessibility Guidelines: Page Authoring, (W3C Working Draft, 18 September 1998). [Online]. Available: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH/

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