Accessibility and readability of university websites in Finland

Abstract

This article describes a study conducted by the authors to evaluate the accessibility and readability of the contents of the Web sites of seven universities in Finland. The accessibility assessment has been carried out to check compliance with accessibility guidelines for Web content established by the World Wide Web Consortium recommendation in WCAG 2.0. The readability has been evaluated using the Flesch Reading Ease Level formula for English texts. We have tried to determine whether the universities have been concerned to provide accessible information about the university through its website so that it can be accessed by everyone (teachers, students), regardless of whether or not the user has a disability.