Not an Afterthought: Ongoing Accessibility Evaluations During Development of Science Gateway Websites – Life and Earth Sciences

Noreen Y. Whysel, MSLIS / Adjunct Lecturer / New York College of Technology, CUNY Shari Thurow, Founder / Information Architect / Search Director / Information Architecture Gateway Bev Corwin, Founder / Technology Director / Information Architecture Gateway Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) 2025 Annual Conference Not an Afterthought: Ongoing Accessibility Evaluations During Development of Science Gateway Websites – Life and Earth Sciences WCAG Guidelines Perceptive. Information and UI components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. The perceivable principle ensures that content is discernible by all users, including those who do not have command of one or more of their senses due to impairments. Operable. Features should be fully employable by everyone, regardless of the limitations of users. For example, operable features allow for alternative control input, such as a keyboard. Abstract Both ratings combined can help Science Gateway teams assess the quality of their websites, track improvements over time, and plan for future iterations of their web interfaces, frontand back-end programming, as well as applications. In addition, accessibility-compliance guidelines can be added to style guides, pattern libraries, and various types of specifications to ensure consistency, scalability, and extensibility. Ideally, information should be available to people with and without disabilities. In December 2024, the W3C published new items for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-3.0/). Therefore, Information Architecture Gateway researchers re-analyzed the 70 gateway websites in the Life Sciences section to see if there were improvements in accessibility compliance. Additionally, we analyzed websites in the Earth Sciences section of the SGCI catalog. Types of Disabilities Understandable. Relates to the cognitive abilities of users to comprehend the meaning of presented information. Formatting of elements should ensure the order (of elements) should be predictable and consistent. Content should also provide contextual help to guide users through actions. Earth Sciences Copyright ©2020-2025 Information Architecture Gateway. All rights reserved. Life Sciences 15% 12% 66% 62% 55% 73% 73% 82% 2020 2025 Alt attribute on graphic images Image elements with accessible names Animations that can't be paused or stopped Language declaration PERCENTAGE OF ASSESSED WEBSITES WITH SEVERE ACCESSIBILITY ISSUE The issues of (1) how graphic images are named, and (2) how graphic images are described continues to be a problem in the majority of the evaluated sites. The average number of failed accessibility guidelines for Life Sciences was 23.83 errors, with the average number of warnings (requiring human evaluation) being 82.07. Human accessibility evaluations were conducted on the assessed sites in Life Sciences and Earth Sciences categories in the SGCI Catalog. We found that websites in the Earth Sciences websites had less accessibility issues than the Life Sciences gateway sites we initially assessed. The average number of failed accessibility guidelines for Earth Sciences was 13.7 errors, with the average number of warnings being 50.33. A vision impairment occurs when an eye condition affects the visual system and its vision functions. Some eye conditions that can cause vision impairment or blindness include cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic neuropathy, and macular degeneration. A speech or voice disability, prevents a person from producing or articulating spoken words. This disability can also be partial (like stuttering) and full (muteness). Vocal cord nerves can also be injured from surgery or an involuntary trauma, such as a car accident. Diseases and congenital conditions that can cause motor disabilities include arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebral palsy. A person with motor difficulties might use speech-recognition software, a screen reader, or a special mouse. Cognitive and learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and autism, impact how users process information (perception, memory, problem solving, comprehension, language, etc.) These disabilities can be temporary, partial, and/or permanent. 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