Schmutz Sven, Sonderegger Andreas, Sauer Juergen
a Department of Psychology , University of Fribourg , Fribourg , Switzerland.
Ergonomics. 2018 May;61(5):697-709. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2017.1405080. Epub 2017 Nov 24.
This study examined how implementing recommendations from Web accessibility guidelines affects nondisabled people in different age groups using different technical devices. While recent research showed positive effects of implementing such recommendations for nondisabled users, it remains unclear whether such effects would apply to different age groups and kind of devices. A 2 × 2 × 2 design was employed with website accessibility (high accessibility vs. very low accessibility), age (younger adults vs. older adults) and type of device (laptop vs. tablet) as independent variables. 110 nondisabled participants took part in a usability test, in which performance and satisfaction were measured as dependent variables. The results showed that higher accessibility increased task completion rate, task completion time and satisfaction ratings of nondisabled users. While user age did not have any effects, users showed faster task completion time under high accessibility when using a tablet rather than a laptop. The findings confirmed previous findings, which showed benefits of accessible websites for nondisabled users. These beneficial effects may now be generalised to a wide age range and across different devices. Practitioner Summary: This work is relevant to the design of websites since it emphasises the need to consider the characteristics of different user groups. Accessible website design (aimed at users with disabilities) leads to benefits for nondisabled users across different ages. These findings provide further encouragement for practitioners to apply WCAG 2.0.
本研究考察了实施网络无障碍指南中的建议如何影响使用不同技术设备的不同年龄组的非残疾人士。虽然最近的研究表明，对非残疾用户实施此类建议有积极效果，但尚不清楚这些效果是否适用于不同年龄组和不同类型的设备。本研究采用2×2×2设计，将网站无障碍性（高无障碍性与极低无障碍性）、年龄（年轻成年人与年长成年人）和设备类型（笔记本电脑与平板电脑）作为自变量。110名非残疾参与者参加了一项可用性测试，在该测试中，将表现和满意度作为因变量进行测量。结果表明，更高的无障碍性提高了非残疾用户的任务完成率、任务完成时间和满意度评分。虽然用户年龄没有任何影响，但在高无障碍性条件下，使用平板电脑的用户比使用笔记本电脑的用户任务完成时间更快。这些发现证实了之前的研究结果，即无障碍网站对非残疾用户有益。现在，这些有益效果可能会推广到更广泛的年龄范围和不同设备上。从业者总结：这项工作与网站设计相关，因为它强调了考虑不同用户群体特征的必要性。无障碍网站设计（针对残疾用户）对不同年龄的非残疾用户都有好处。这些发现进一步鼓励从业者应用WCAG 2.0。
