| dc.description.abstract | This research study is about an investigation on the accessibility and usability issues that people of Nepal have faced while using earthquake-related emergency management websites in the context of Universal Design. There are few previous research studies done in the past to explore the accessibility and usability issues on emergency management websites, but it was not enough. Four earthquake-related emergency management websites were selected for the evaluation process. Firstly, two automated accessibility evaluation tools i.e. WAVE and SortSite has been used to determine the accessibility level among all the four websites, if they meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or not. After the evaluation form the automated tools, an empirical experiment was performed among the 16 participants including visually impaired as well as non-disabled participants. To measure the performance, System Usability Scale (SUS) was used to measure usability scale among all the four websites. Similarly, the open-ended question was asked to find out related accessibility issues and participant’s opinion (post accessibility and usability questionnaire) were used. Data collected from the participants were analysed with a mixed-method approach where quantitative data were analysed followed by qualitative data. From the analysis, participants found NSC and EMSC websites were usable and accessible to some extent among the four emergency management websites. However, the participants suggested web developers and designers should follow WCAG 2.1 guidelines as well as Universal Design and its principles to make the website more usable and accessible. They also suggested adding the additional features in the website that is necessary during an earthquake situation to keep themselves prepared. The findings of the study may also be useful to investigate the subject matter to future researchers. | en |
