Eleanor T. Loiacono

Web site accessibility: an online sector analysis

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), companies must provide customers with disabilities access to their “physical” stores. With the advent of the pure Web store, some wonder if the ADA will extend into “cyberspace”. So, are companies ready? This study assesses Web sites to determine their readiness. Results reveal that only 9 percent of the sites have accessible home pages.

Cyberaccess: web accessibility and corporate America

Many corporate Web sites contain barriers to accessibility. Fortunately, removing these obstacles will prove both relatively simple and beneficial.Many corporate Web sites contain barriers to accessibility. Fortunately, removing these obstacles will prove both relatively simple and beneficial.

Do men and women use feedback provided by their Decision Support Systems (DSS) differently

This study investigates the effect gender has on the use of computer-based feedback and the impact that this feedback has on mood. The decision making process of men and women are investigated via a laboratory experiment using a previously validated Decision Support System (DSS) and a commonly used and negatively framed feedback. Grounded in human-computer interaction theories highlighting the strong social component of computers and social feedback theories showing that men and women react to negative feedback differently, we argue that the commonly used outcome feedback in DSS studies will influence both the decision accuracy of male and female users and their moods differently. The results, which support our basic theoretical argument, indicate that outcome feedback (in particular the more negative outcome feedback) improved the decision accuracy of the female users compared to their male counterparts. The results also indicate that the outcome feedback affect the overall mood of men and women differently as well. The overall moods of the female subjects were significantly less positive before and after completing the task (receiving this commonly used negative form of feedback), the moods of the male subjects before and after completing the task (receiving the same negative feedback) did not change. These results not only extend prior DSS feedback studies but also highlight the need and provide support for examining gender differences in such investigations.

The Classification of Extranet Attributes in Terms of Their Asymmetric Influences on Overall User Satisfaction An Introduction to Asymmetric Impact-Performance Analysis

Information systems (IS), such as Internet applications, are widely used by the tourism and travel industry. Extranets, in particular, allow controlled access of outside organizations into a company’s internal systems. In the travel industry, these technological applications are generated and supplied by tour operators and used by travel agents to conduct their business. Use of an extranet is of benefit to a travel operator who gains more revenue if travel agents select or recommend its particular products. This article classifies the attributes of a tour operator’s extranet system in terms of its asymmetric influence on its user (travel agency sales representatives) satisfaction. In addition, a revised version of impact-asymmetry analysis is presented, called asymmetric impact-performance analysis, which is a simple and visual technique that assesses the key attributes for increasing overall user satisfaction.

Corporate website accessibility: does legislation matter?

Over 600 million people worldwide have disabilities ranging from visual and hearing impairments to cognitive and motor skill issues. This number is only growing as “Baby Boomers” age. Previous research reveals that those organizations, such as federal agencies and colleges, which are mandated to have accessible websites, do indeed have higher levels of accessible websites than corporate sites do. This led to the current research, which aims at understanding what factors truly impact a company’s decision to provide an accessible website. The results of a global survey of managers from a variety of industries uncovered that the key factors for influencing a company’s level of website accessibility are the number of IT professionals employed by the firm, the level of accessibility testing performed, and whether the company is mandated to have an accessible website.

Factors that affect visually impaired users' acceptance of audio and music websites

The number of users with visual impairments is on the rise. Companies have an opportunity to increase their reach and revenue by ensuring their websites are accessible to these users. Developing websites around the needs of those with visual impairments is especially critical as the affluent Baby Boomer generation ages and is faced with a multitude of vision problems. Despite this fast growing, web-reliant population, little work has been done to develop a behavioral model that addresses its needs. Grounded in accessibility and acceptance theories, this research proposes a model that predicts Web usage behavior of blind and low-vision users. Our results show that one of the most widely used acceptance models does not predict the adoption behavior of visually impaired users as effectively as a modified model that includes information accessibility. Those with visual impairments decide to revisit a website based, in part, on its accessibility as well as its ease of use and usefulness. These results suggest that traditional acceptance models may predict the behavior of users with visual impairments better when reliability and convenience of access to Information are also considered.

Improving Web accessibility

Fifty-four million Americans - nearly one in five - live with some form of visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disability. Although great strides have been made during the past decade to accommodate those with special needs in the physical workplace, the Internets increasing commercial prominence is raising new questions about how far this effort should extend into cyberspace. Making Web sites fully accessible benefits everyone, not just people with disabilities.

Self-Disclosure Behavior on Social Networking Web Sites

ABSTRACT The pervasiveness of social networking has sparked many researchers and practitioners’ interest in the individuals’ behavior on these networks. This paper investigates specifically the willingness of people to disclose personal information on a social networking site (SNS). Founded on social exchange theory (SET), the proposed model includes “the Big Five” personality traits of openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The results reveal that perceived risk and perceived benefits, as well as extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, have a strong impact on a person’s decision to self-disclose. The contributions to theory are an expanded SET model with greater explanatory power and a better understanding of the uniqueness of SNSs compared to other information systems. The results offer practical insights. Personality traits are significant contributors to people’s attitudes, and thus managers and marketers need to consider them in situations when self-disclosing of information is critical to the organization’s success, such as with SNSs.

Randomizing survey question order vs. grouping questions by construct: an empirical test of the impact on apparent reliabilities and links to related constructs

There has been a quiet debate about the proper way to design a questionnaire when multiple questions measure each construct. Two general arguments favor intermixing the questions randomly with those of other constructs; one argument favors grouping together questions that measure a single construct. This study tests these arguments using two different versions of a Web quality instrument. One version has questions grouped and labeled, and the other has questions randomly intermixed. Six hundred and three undergraduate students filled out questionnaires, half in each condition. Several different analyses suggest that the grouped question treatment has higher calculated Cronbachs alpha reliabilities than intermixed questions, but is actually less reliable.

Project‐based service‐learning for an unscripted world: the WPI IQP experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) interactive qualifying project (IQP) as a unique, project‐based service‐learning opportunity that offers teams of undergraduate students the opportunity to frame and investigate complex, unscripted problems with social and technological dimensions for non‐profit organizations and government agency sponsors.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the relationship of the IQP to the service‐learning literature, describes the proposal and delivery phases of the IQP, and then offers two short illustrative cases.Findings – The paper concludes that IQPs teach students how to frame and use background research to investigate unscripted, real world problems. It teaches students to think critically, to improve their presentation skills, and to become more aware of the social and cultural dimensions of technology. For faculty, IQP advising enriches their relationships with undergraduate students and can sometimes le...