title: Search, Read and Write: An Inquiry into Web Accessibility for People with Dyslexia.
abstract: Universal design in context of digitalisation has become an integrated part of international conventions and national legislations. A goal is to make the Web accessible for people of different genders, ages, backgrounds, cultures and physical, sensory and cognitive abilities. Political demands for universally designed solutions have raised questions about how it is achieved in practice. Developers, designers and legislators have looked towards the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for answers. WCAG 2.0 has become the de facto standard for universal design on the Web. Some of the guidelines are directed at the general population, while others are targeted at more specific user groups, such as the visually impaired or hearing impaired. Issues related to cognitive impairments such as dyslexia receive less attention, although dyslexia is prevalent in at least 5-10% of the population. Navigation and search are two common ways of using the Web. However, while navigation has received a fair amount of attention, search systems are not explicitly included, although search has become an important part of people's daily routines. This paper discusses WCAG in the context of dyslexia for the Web in general and search user interfaces specifically. Although certain guidelines address topics that affect dyslexia, WCAG does not seem to fully accommodate users with dyslexia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berget
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Design of Information Systems, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Herstad
authors.affiliation: Institute of Information Technology, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Frode Eika
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Sandnes
mesh_terms: D004410:Dyslexia; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D012106:Research; D061108:Social Media; D012984:Software; D014956:Writing