Ana Belén Martínez

Factors influencing web accessibility of big listed firms: an international study

– This paper aims to identify the factors influencing the implementation of web accessibility., – Following the theoretical framework three hypotheses were developed. The database consisted of 108 non‐financial firms listed in the Dow Jones Industrial, CAC‐40, DAX and IBEX35 indexes. A multivariate regression equation was used to test the hypotheses., – Reasons for the implementation of web accessibility are technical rather than social or financial. The implementation of web accessibility is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the operations of the firm. Furthermore, web accessibility policies are more important in countries where the incorporation of the firms into the net has taken place at a date some time after the beginning of the scheme., – An implication of the results is the advisability of orienting governmental policies to raise awareness that web accessibility should be part of corporate social responsibility activities., – This is a pioneering empirical study of the factors influencing web accessibility. The results of the present research are of interest to other countries.

Economic and financial factors for the adoption and visibility effects of Web accessibility: The case of European banks

An ink jet printing apparatus responsive to an input digital image for producing a halftone image on a receiver, such as a lithographic plate, having halftone dots with each halftone dot being formed by one or more microdots in a screen dot of selectable areas, including an adjustable printhead for delivering different volumes of ink droplets which, when they contact the receiver, forming microdots of different areas according to the selected screen dot size. The apparatus delivers ink to the printhead and is responsive to a selected screen dot size and the digital image to control the printhead to form ink droplets of different volumes to produce a halftone image on the receiver.This article is focused on the changes needed in design to create positive solutions for all involved in design processes. It draws upon the rich discussion and discourse from a conference focused on positive design involving managers, designers, and IT specialists, all focused on overcoming the problem-based focus and decision paradigms to enhance all phases of the design processes to develop sustainable solutions for real issues in a changing world. Therefore, all fields using design, consciously or not, including management, Information Communication Technology (ICT), and designers as well, need to redesign their processes and first rethink their design paradigms on a meta level.

Size and culture as determinants of the web policy of listed firms: The case of web accessibility in Western European countries

Web accessibility (WA) is an innovation in Web design; it can be considered as part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy of the firms. As adoption of innovations and CSR commitment are linked with firm size and national culture/legislation, we hypothesize that size and national culture/legislation, may have an effect on WA level. The authors studied an international sample made up of companies included in EUROSTOXX600 (The STOXX Europe 600 Index). The main results suggest that both size and culture have a significant effect on WA. Large firms as well as Anglo-Saxon companies are more prone to have higher WA levels. A deeper analysis, which was done through the estimation of quantile regression equations, showed that the influence of size is significant for companies trying to excel or for those trying to avoid the worst WA. However, the effect of size is significant only in the lowest part of the conditional distribution.

Determinants of the Web accessibility of European banks

This paper aims at identifying the factors influencing the implementation of Web accessibility (WA) by European banks. We studied a database made up of 49 European banks whose shares are included in the Dow Jones EURO STOXX(R) TMI Banks [8300] Index. Regarding the factors for the implementation, we considered three feasible reasons. Firstly, WA adoption can be motivated by operational factors, as WA can aid in increasing operational efficiency. Secondly, we expect large banks to have higher WA levels, as small firms face competitive disadvantages with regard to technology adoption. Lastly, WA can also be understood as a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, so, the more committed a bank is to CSR, the more prone it will be to implement WA. Our results indicate that neither the operational factors nor the firm size seem to have exerted a significant influence on WA adoption. Regarding CSR commitment, results indicate a significant influence on WA adoption. However, the effect of the influence is contrary to that hypothesized, since more CSR-committed banks have less accessible Web sites. A possible reason for this result is that banks not included in the CSR indexes try to overcome this drawback by engaging in alternative CSR activities such as WA.

The reflective nitrO abstract machine

Abstract machines have been widely employed in computing systems in order to obtain different aims. Compiler simplification, platform neutrality, code distribution, interoperability, and direct support for specific paradigms are examples of the benefits they offer. Although performance has been its main drawback, the use of modern techniques like adaptive (hotspot) just in time compilation has overcome this weakness. Nowadays, well-known platforms based on abstract machines such as Java#8482; or Microsoft .NET are commercially used.With the purpose of supporting any programming-language computational-model in heterogeneous environments, we have noticed that most abstract machines have extensibility, adaptability and heterogeneously lacks. We have designed an abstract machine that, using reflection as the main design principle, overcomes the limitations discovered. In this paper, we describe its objectives, its design, a sample implementation, and a comparison with other similar platforms.

Does Web accessibility differ among banks

Web Accessibility (WA) is an attribute that must be taken increasingly into account in the design of websites. In this paper we assess on whether the drivers of more accessible online information differ among banks using a structural equation modelling approach. It is concluded that Web Accessibility (WA) implementation is an important and affordable way that could be used to increase the possibilities to explore online information and to meet the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) demands of stakeholders. Our results show that smaller banks are more prone to WA implementation, which may help them to differentiate from its competitors and create strategic advantages.

Towards the evaluation of usability in educative websites

This article presents a methodological approach of evaluation of the usability in educational environments ME-UsitE, an analysis of the necessity to implement a tool of evaluation and measurement of the usability to support the methodology, that contributes to the detection of problems and failures of usability from the perspective of the user of educative websites in a real work environment. Taking into account that the websites are designed and implemented for a domain and audience in particular, it is important to consider factors like these for the implementation of a tool that allows not only to carry out the evaluation process but also to support the analysis of the gathered data. Thus, the obtained results may allow us to establish policies for the improvement of the usability of the site, when providing a score that determines whether the level of usability offered covers the requirements for the proposed audience and the profile of the participant user in the evaluation.

WAB*: A Quantitative Metric Based on WAB

Web accessibility metrics are crucial for the quantitative evaluation of web sites. We present a new automatic metric called WAB, based on the WAB metric with extensions inspired from the UWEM metric. The first results are encouraging as we have obtained better precision when calculation the accessibility level measured for a site.

Improving web user satisfaction by ensuring usability criteria compliance: The case of an economically depressed region of Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of criteria and a range of evaluation values for each criterion as well as a complete websites classification, will guide evaluators. A usability percentage and a list of prioritized criteria, adapted to the type of website by a new usability metric, will help developers to improve the website. This improvement will increase the degree of web user satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Having established and validated a new usability evaluation framework, several usability tools have been analyzed. None of them totally fulfills the requirements of the evaluation framework. As a result of being unable to customize any of them, a new one has been developed. A study of 42 enterprise websites in an economically depressed region of Europe was performed using the new tool. This study involved 42 evaluators and 118 web users. Use...

Proposal of a Tool of Support to the Evaluation of User in Educative Web Sites

This article presents an analysis of the necessity to implement a tool of evaluation and measurement of the usability to support the ME-USitE methodology that contributes to the detection of problems and failures of usability from the perspective of the user of educative Web sites in a real work environment. Taking into account that the Web sites are designed and implemented for a domain and audience in particular, its important to consider factors like these for the implementation of a tool that allows not only to carry out the evaluation process but also to support the analysis of the gathered data. Thus, the obtained results may allow us to establish policies for the improvement of the usability of the site, when providing a score that determines whether the level of usability offered covers the requirements for the proposed audience and the profile of the participant user in the evaluation.