emphasis on the accessibility of the services for
citizens.
This being one of the basic premises of the Plan,
a UPV team has been carrying out a study on the
degree of implementation of these recommendations
in the e-learning platforms of various Universities on
a European level. In order to carry out the
aforementioned study all the services offered by the
Valencian Generalitat in the various institutions that
offer on-line training have been analysed, as well as
a sample of 10 European Universities, and of these
those that are really capable of being true e-learning
platforms in view of their level of accessibility have
been selected, from this selection interactive services
to be studied were obtained. The methodology of the
study forced us to carry out various types of
evaluation, both manual and automatic, so as to be
able to appreciate the degree of accessibility
implanted. To what extent the levels were reached
within the service, which guidelines had been
followed according to the W3C and what
appreciation disabled users perceived of the said
services.
The data obtained from the study denote a lack
of precision in the application of the accessibility
criteria, which in many cases makes access with
minimum levels of disability impossible. This
communiqué presents in detail how the study has
been carried out, the conclusions and some
minimum recommendations as regards the
optimisation of the services offered in the matter of
accessible e-learning.
2.1 Accessibility and Accessible Design
Accessibility can be defined as: The set of
characteristics that an environment, product or
service should have in order to be usable in
comfortable, safe and equal conditions for all people
and, in particular, for those who are in some way
disabled. Accessibility can be understood in relation
to three basic forms of human activity: mobility,
communication and understanding; the three are
subject to limitations as a consequence of the
existence of barriers. The barriers are any
impediment, hindrance or obstacle that limits or
impedes normalised, dignified, comfortable and safe
ways of access, use, enjoyment, interaction and
understanding of the environment, product and
service. To be specific, the advances insofar as the
degree or level of accessibility that characterises the
environments, buildings and public spaces in
society, are not isolated cases but depend on the
interaction between the three components of that
same society:
• The normative and institutional structure,
which establishes the minimum demands
of accessibility, should encourage their
compliance.
• The technological level, which establishes
the development of solutions and their
application possibilities.
• The social organisation, which is at the
same time the receiver, mediator and
executor of the conditions established by
the regulations, institutions and
technology.
The interaction between these three components
makes up a system that, in an aggregate way, will
determine the possibilities that make an asset or
service appropriate for its use with all people or, on
the contrary, inaccessible for a segment of the
population.
The consequence is that it is not enough to work
in an isolated fashion on one aspect of the system,
but rather that it is essential to work jointly between
the institutional, regulative, social and technological
spheres in order to achieve that, both for the
suppression of barriers as for the Design for All, it
be a reality applied to any asset or service, i.e. that
what is new should be made accessible and what is
old should be transformed in order to become
accessible. Only through planned action and taking
the system as a whole will it be possible to tackle the
area adequately.
Accessibility is a necessary condition for the
social participation of people with different
functional limitations and a guarantee for the best
design for everyone. In a society in which the
information technologies and communications are
being used more and more so as to be informed, in
order to study, to relate to others, for entertainment
and for work, and in which there are increasingly
more services provided via telematics, assuring the
accessibility of the new technological resources,
Internet in particular, is a priority.
In fact, currently, accessibility in the Internet is
very limited, above all due to indifference, or
ignorance of the problem, on the part of many web
designers, and bearing in mind the great number of
disabled all over the world – some five hundred
million people – it is a very important aspect to be
considered.
Before entering into the web design, strictly
speaking, it is a good idea to talk about accessible
Design, broadly speaking, in general terms, given
that many of the principles used here are also
applicable to web design as a result of being
included in the design of a product in general.
The concept of Design for All (as it is known in
Europe, whereas in America it is known by the name
Universal Design) is a synonym of “meant for
everyone”. In a strict sense it is the process of
HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY INTERACTION - Accessible Interfaces Design in Spanish University e-Learning Platforms
507