Web accessibility of Indian cultural heritage information: an analytical study of museum websites

Abstract

PurposeThis paper compares the web accessibility of Indian museum websites assessing the level of compliance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1). The study aims to assess the accessibility of Indian museum websites in terms of their severity.Design/methodology/approachThe accessibility evaluation of 11 Indian museum websites was conducted using Siteimprove Accessibility Checker (SAC), an automated website testing tool.FindingsThe study results indicate that the mean conformance score for the Indian museum websites for level A was 19.27, while for level AA and AAA, it came out to be 2.63 and 4.09, respectively, with the highest severity scores for error (16.3) followed by review (5.81) criteria and warning (3.81). The major findings indicate that the websites of Indian museums poorly conform to web accessibility guidelines.Practical implicationsThe study's findings will assist the museum's website creators, managers and administrators in determining the level of conformity as per standard accessibility guidelines helping them make strategic decisions to improve the accessibility.Originality/valueMost of the studies available in the field of website accessibility range from the web accessibility of educational institutions, tourism websites, municipal websites and ministerial websites, but there are very few studies investigating the accessibility of museum websites. A quantitative evaluation of different aspects of accessibility was conducted in the study, which can pave the way for the better design of web sites by addressing deficiencies.