"Fine Tuning" Image Accessibility for Museum Web Sites

: Accessibility and usability guidelines are available to design web sites accessible to blind users. However, the actual usability of accessible web pages varies depending on the type of information the user is dealing with. Museum web sites, including specimens and hall descriptions, need specific requirements to allow vision-impaired users, who navigate using a screen-reader, to access pieces of information that are mainly based on visual perception. Here we address a methodology to be applied for the proper creation and elaboration of alternative image descriptions in museum web pages. Such methodology has been applied to a gallery of the Museum of Natural History and Territory (University of Pisa). Such indications allow the user: (1) to address indexed contents and to link to information in more details, (2) to calibrate image descriptions (with a command providing alternative explanations for specimens), and (3) to access extra information for the blind (via hidden labels). A mu...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: JUCS
• Authors: Barbara Leporini, Ivan Norscia
• Keywords: JUCS 2008, Museum Web, Web Pages, Web Sites