Abstract
The Internet has become an essential part of our society as we are continually embracing this technology to better facilitate our business and social lives. Hotels and restaurants have established websites providing functions such as room availability, menu description as well as online reservations. However, many of the hospitality web designers have neglected the difficulties that visitors with disabilities like visual impairment may have when they visit the websites. This study evaluated the current accessibility situation of current U.S. based hospitality websites and studied the potential problems those websites may have when presenting information to visitors with disabilities. By evaluating the sample hospitality websites under the criteria of Section 508, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, colorblind filter and text size flexibility, the study has found that the current accessibility of hospitality websites in the U.S. is low and failure in providing alternative text for non-text elements is the primary problem. Implications of possible reasons and future research suggestions are discussed accordingly.
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Xiong, L., Cobanoglu, C., Cummings, P., DeMicco, F. (2009). Website Accessibility of U.S. Based Hospitality Websites. In: Höpken, W., Gretzel, U., Law, R. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-93970-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-211-93971-0