Ty Lazarchik

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Roy, Tania

Area of Concentration

Computer Science

Abstract

Accessibility and usability are often presented as tightly coupled, with the former being a subset of the latter. However, there is a lack of robust research to back this claim. This thesis demonstrates the flaws in considering the fields to be intertwined by proving that a website that follows usability practices may still lack adherence to accessibility standards. This is done by creating a website for New College’s computer science department through iterative design principles and analyzing the resulting website for adherence to accessibility standards. The results of this thesis show that a website created according to usability standards can still be flawed in its adherence to accessibility guidelines, demonstrating that in order to develop a well-rounded practice of accessible usability, the two fields must be considered separate entities that are both essential to Web development.

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