Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Accessibility, usability, quality performance, and readability evaluation of university websites of Turkey: a comparative study of state and private universities

  • Communication
  • Published:
Universal Access in the Information Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Today, the web constitutes an essential segment of higher education institutions. Using their websites, universities can effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily provide information and services to their target groups, regardless of disabilities. As the number of disabled students in higher education rises, universities have to make the necessary design modifications to ensure web content accessibility. This paper presents an evaluation of accessibility, usability, quality performance, and readability aspects of all Turkish state and private university websites. The majority did not meet WCAG 2.0 accessibility criteria. Out of 110 state university websites and 69 private university websites, only 10 state and four private university websites attained conformance Level A. These results indicate low usability, quality performance, and readability that highlights the need for Turkish universities to devote more resources for making their websites more accessible, usable, high-quality performance, and readable for all their potential users.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. Bradbard, D.A., Peters, C., Caneva, Y.: Web accessibility policies at land-grant universities. Internet High. Educ. 13, 258–266 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Osika, E., Johnson, R., Buteau, R.: Factors influencing faculty use of technology in online instruction: a case study. J. Distance Learn. Adm. 12(1), 1–12 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  3. https://istatistik.yok.gov.tr/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  4. https://www.yok.gov.tr/documents/32527494/34292738/Macid_Melekoglu.pdf. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  5. Korbel, D.M., Lucia, J.H., Wenzel, C.M., Anderson, B.G.: Collaboration strategies to facilitate successful transition of students with disabilities in a changing higher education environment. New Dir. High. Educ. 154, 17–25 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ringlaben, R., Bray, M., Packard, A.: Accessibility of American university special education departments’ web sites. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 13, 249–254 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ismail, A., Kuppusamy, K.S.: Accessibility of Indian universities’ homepages: An exploratory study. J. King Saud Univ. Comput. Inf. Sci. (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuc.i.2016.06.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ismailova, R., Inal, Y.: Accessibility evaluation of top university websites: a comparative study of Kyrgyzstan. Univ. Access Inf. Soc Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-017-0541-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Rana, M.M., Fakrudeen, M., Rana, U.: Evaluating web accessibility of university web sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Int. J. Technol. Knowl. Soc. 7(3), 1–15 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Espadinha, C., Pereira, L.M., Da Silva, F.M., Lopes, J.B.: Accessibility of Portuguese Public Universities’ sites. Disabil. Rehabil. 33(6), 475–485 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Henry, S.L., EOWG Participants: introduction to web accessibility (2005). http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php. Accessed 13 Dec 2018

  12. Huang, Z., Brooks, L., Chen, S.: The assessment of credibility of e-government: users’ perspective. In: Salvendy, G., Smith, M.J. (eds.) Human Interface and the Management of Information: Information and Interaction, vol. 5618, pp. 26–35. Springer, Berlin (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ho, A.T.: Reinventing local governments and the e-government initiative. Pub. Adm. Rev. 62(4), 434–444 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Youngblood, N.E., Mackiewicz, J.: A usability analysis of municipal government website home pages in Alabama. Gov. Inf. Q. 28(4), 582–588 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  15. W3C: World Wide Web Consortium (2017). https://www.w3.org. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  16. Grewal, P., Alagaratnam, S.: The quality and readability of colorectal cancer information on the internet. Int. J. Surg. 11(5), 410–413 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Schloman, B.: Information resources column: “health literacy: a key ingredient for managing personal health. J. Issues Nurs. 9(2), 6 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Schutten, M., McFarland, A.: Readability levels of health-based websites: From content to comprehension. Int. Electron. J. Health Educ. 12, 99–107 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  19. O’Mahony, M. P., Smyth, B.: Using readability tests to predict helpful product reviews. In: Adaptivity, Personalization and Fusion of Heterogeneous Information. LE CENTRE DE HAUTES ETUDES INTERNATIONALES D’INFORMATIQUE DOCUMENTAIRE, pp. 164–167 (2010)

  20. Redish, J.C., Selzer, J.: The place of readability formulas in technical communication. Tech. Commun. 4, 46–52 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Patra, M. R., Dash, A. R., Mishra, P. K., 2017. A quantitative analysis of wcag 2.0 compliance for some indian web portals. arXiv preprint arXiv:0808.1725\hyperimage{http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.1725}{arXiv:0808.1725}arXiv:1710.08788

  22. Karhu, M., Hilera, J.R., Fernández, L., Ríos, R.: Accessibility and readability of university websites in Finland. J. Access. Des. 2(2), 178–189 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ojha, P. K., Ismail, A., Kuppusamy, K.S.: Readability assessment-cum-evaluation of Government Department Websites of Rajasthan. In: Proceedings of First International Conference on Smart System, Innovations and Computing, pp. 235–244 Springer, Singapore (2018)

  24. Kurt, S.: The accessibility of university web sites: the case of Turkish universities. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 10(1), 101–110 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Kurt, S.: Accessibility of Turkish university web sites. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 16(1), 505–515 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Akgül, Y.: The most violated WCAG 1.0 guidelines by the developers of university websites in Turkey. In: 2017 12th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), pp. 1–7. IEEE (2017)

  27. Yerlikaya, Z., Durdu, P.O.: Evaluation of accessibility of university websites: a case from Turkey. In: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 663–668. Springer, Cham (2017)

  28. Ismailova, R., Kimsanova, G.: Universities of the Kyrgyz Republic on the Web: accessibility and usability. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-016-0481-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Alahmadi, T., Drew, S.: Accessibility evaluation of top-ranking university websites in world, Oceania, and Arab categories for home, admission, and course description webpages. J. Open Flex. Distance Learn. 21(1), 7–24 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Nir, H.L., Rimmerman, A.: Evaluation of Web content accessibility in an Israeli institution of higher education. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 17, 663–673 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Verkijika, S.F., De Wet, L.: Accessibility of South African university websites. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 19(1), 201–210 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Menzi-Çetin, N., Alemdağ, E., Tüzün, H., Merve, Y.M.: Evaluation of a university website’s usability for visually impaired Students. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 16(1), 151–160 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Hashemian, B.J.: Analyzing web accessibility in Finnish higher education. ACM SIGACCESS Access. Comput. 101, 8–16 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Okada, H., Arakawa, H., Kondo, T.: Comparison of web accessibility within Japanese educational institution websites. In: ICROS-SICE International Joint Conference, Aug 18–21, Fukuoka International Congress Center, Japan (2009)

  35. Floyd, K.S., Santiago, J.: The state of Website accessibility in higher education. In: Southern Association for Information Systems Conference (2007)

  36. Solovieva, T.I., Bock, J.M.: Monitoring for accessibility and university Websites: meeting the needs of people with disabilities. J. Postsecond. Educ. Disabil. 27(2), 113–127 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Maisak, R., Brown, J.: Web accessibility on Thai higher education Websites. In: ICSEA 2014: The 9th International Conference on Software Engineering Advances, pp. 645–650 (2014)

  38. Aziz, M.A., Isa, W.A.R.W.M., Nordin, N.:Assessing the accessibility and usability of Malaysia higher education website. In: 2010 International Conference on User Science and Engineering (i-USEr), Shah Alam, pp. 203–208 (2010)

  39. Ahmi, A., Mohamad, R.: Web accessibility of the Malaysian Public University websites. In: International Conference on E-Commerce (ICoEC), pp. 171–177, 20–22 Oct 2015, Sarawak, Malaysia (2015)

  40. Alexander, D.: How accessible are university websites? (2003). https://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw03/papers/alexander3/paper.html. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  41. Alexander, D., Rippon S.: University website accessibility revisited (2007). https://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw07/papers/refereed/alexander/paper.html. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  42. Doulani, A., Hariri, N., Rashidi, A.: Analysis of Iranian and British university websites by world wide web consortium. J. Scientometr. Res. 2(1), 74–79 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Zaphiris, P., Ellis, R.D.: Website usability and content accessibility of the top USA Universities. In: WebNet, pp. 1380–1385 (2001)

  44. Fernández, J.M., Roig, J., Soler, V., 2010. Web Accessibility on Spanish Universities. In: 2nd International Conference on Evolving Internet, Valcencia, pp. 215–219

  45. Kuakiatwong, S.: Evaluating web accessibility and usability at Thailand Cyber University for totally blind users. In: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, vol. 2010, No. 1, pp. 1904–1907 (2010)

  46. Eyadat, M., Lew, J.: Web accessibility factor a key focus for serving students. Rev. Bus. Res. 11, 80–87 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Thompson, T., Burgstahler, S., Comden, D.: Research on web accessibility in higher education. Information technology and disabilities (2003). https://www.rit.edu/*easi/itd/itdv09n2/thompson.htm. Retrieved 1 May 2019

  48. Lazar, J., Beere, P., Greenidge, K., Nagappa, Y.: Web accessibility in the Mid-Atlantic United States: a study of 50 home pages. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. J. 2(4), 331–341 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Ribera, M., Térmens, M., Frías, A.: The accessibility of Spanish university web sites. A 2001–2006 assessment. Revista Española de Documentación Científica 32(3), 66–88 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  50. da Silva, P., Alturas, B.: Web accessibility: study of maturity level of Portuguese institutions of higher education. In: 10th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), Aveiro, pp. 1–7 (2015)

  51. Pereira, A.S., Machado, A.M., Carneiro, T.C.J.: Web accessibility evaluation on Brazilian institutions in higher education. Informacao & Sociedade-Estudos 23(3), 123–142 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Abu Shawar, B.: Evaluating web accessibility of educational websites. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. 10(4), 4–10 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Kamal, I.W., Alsmadi, I.M., Wahsheh, H.A., Al-Kabi, M.N.: Evaluating web accessibility metrics for Jordanian Universities. Int J Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl. 7(7), 113–122 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Acosta, T., Lujan-Mora, S.: Analysis of the accessibility in websites of Ecuadorian universities of excellence. Enfoque Ute 8(1), 46–61 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Acosta-Vargas, P., Luján-Mora, S., Salvador-Ullauri, L.: Evaluation of the web accessibility of higher-education websites. In: 15th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET), Istanbul, pp. 1–6 (2016)

  56. Windriyani, P., Ferdiana, R., Najib, W.: Accessibility evaluation using WCAG 2.0 guidelines webometrics based assessment criteria (case study: Sebelas Maret University). In: 2014 International Conference on ICT for Smart Society (ICISS), Bandung, pp. 305–311 (2014)

  57. Elgharabawy, M.A., Ayu, M.A.: Web content accessibility and its relation to webometrics ranking and search engines optimization. Int. Conf. Res. Innov. Inf. Syst. 2011, 1–6 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  58. Sanchez-Gordon, S., Luján-Mora, S.: Web accessibility of MOOCs for elderly students. In: 12th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET), Antalya, pp. 1–6 (2013)

  59. Ahmi, A., Mohamad, R.: Web accessibility of the Malaysian public university websites. Proc. Int. Conf. E-Commer. 2015, 171–177 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  60. Abuaddous, H.Y., Jali, M.Z., Basir, N.: Study of the accessibility diagnosis on the public higher institutions websites in Malaysia. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computing and Informatics (ICOCI 2013), pp. 28–30 August, 2013 Sarawak, Malaysia (2013)

  61. Schimmel, K., Motley, D., Racic, S., Marco, G., Eschenfelder, M.: The importance of university web pages in selecting a higher education institution. Res. High. Educ. J. 6, 1–16 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  62. Iseri, E.I., Uyar, K., Ilhan, U.: The accessibility of Cyprus Islands’ higher education institution websites. Procedia Comput. Sci. 120, 967–974 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  63. Kesswani, N., Kumar, S.: Accessibility analysis of websites of educational institutions. Perspect. Sci. 8, 210–212 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  64. Zap, N., Montgomerie, C.: The status of web accessibility of Canadian universities and colleges: a follow-up study 10 years later (2013). Retrieved Dec 18 2018 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/112322/

  65. Comeaux, D., Schmetzke, A.: Web accessibility trends in university libraries and library schools. Libr. Hi Tech 25(4), 457–477 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  66. Comeaux, D., Schmetzke, A.: Accessibility of academic library web sites in North America. Libr. Hi Tech 31(1), 8–33 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  67. Hackett, S., Parmanto, B.: A longitudinal evaluation of accessibility: higher education web sites. Internet Res. 15(3), 281–294 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  68. Harper, K.A., DeWaters, J.: A quest for website accessibility in higher education institutions. Internet High. Educ. 11, 160–164 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  69. Krach, S.K.: Snapshot-ten years after the law: a survey of the current status of university web accessibility. J. Spec. Educ. Technol. 22(4), 30–40 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  70. Thompson, T., Burgstahler, S., Moore, E.J.: Web accessibility: a longitudinal study of college and university home pages in the northwestern United States. Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. 5(2), 108–114 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  71. Thompson, T., Comden, D., Ferguson, S., Burgstahler, S., Moore, E.J.: Seeking predictors of web accessibility in U.S. higher education institutions. Inf. Technol. Disabil. J. 13(1), 18 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  72. Wijayaratne, A., Singh, D.: Is there space in cyberspace for distance learners with special needs in Asia? A review of the level of web accessibility of institutional and library homepages of AAOU members. Int. Inf. Libr. Rev. 42(1), 40–49 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  73. Chacón-Medina, A., Chacón-López, H., López-Justicia, M.D., Fernández-Jiménez, C.: The state of web accessibility in Spanish universities according to WCAG 2.0. Revista Española de Documentación Científica 36(4), e025 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2013.4.1009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Laitano, M.I.: Web accessibility in the Argentine public university space. Revista Española de Documentación Científica 38(1), e079 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2015.1.1136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Kane, S.K., Shulman, J.A., Shockley, T.J., Ladner, R.E.: A web accessibility report card for top international university web sites. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A), pp. 148–156 (2007)

  76. Alahmadi, T., Drew, S.: An evaluation of the accessibility of top-ranking-ranking university websites: accessibility rates from 2005 to 2015. Proc. DEANZ 2016, 224–233 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  77. Alayed, A., Wald, M., Draffan, E.: Challenges to enhancing web accessibility in Saudi University Websites: an exploratory Study, WEB 2016. In: The 4th International Conference on Building and Exploring Web Based Environments, June 2016, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 6–9

  78. May, S., Zhu, Q.: A web accessibility assessment on the Texas public school system. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 9, 87–96 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  79. Alotaibi M.B.: Assessing the usability of university websites in Saudi Arabia: a heuristic evaluation approach. In: 10th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, 15–17 April 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, pp. 138–142 (2013)

  80. Hasan, L.: Heuristic evaluation of three Jordanian university websites. Inform. Educ. 12(2), 231–251 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  81. Astani, M., Elhindi, M.: An empirical study of university websites. Issues Inf. Syst. 9(2), 460–465 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  82. Islam, A., Tsuji, K.: Evaluation of usage of university websites in Bangladesh. DESIDOC J. Libr. Inf. Technol. 31(6), 469–479 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  83. Mustafa, S.H., Al-Zoua’bi, L.F.: Usability of the academic websites of Jordan’s universities an evaluation study. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Arab Conference for Information Technology, pp. 31–40 (2008)

  84. Al-Ananbeh, A.A., Ata, B.A., Al-Kabi, M., Alsmadi, I.: Website usability evaluation and search engine optimization for eighty Arab University websites (2012)

  85. Erickson, W., Trerise, S., Lee, C., VanLooy, S., Knowlton, S., Bruyère, S.: The accessibility and usability of college websites: is your website presenting barriers to potential students? Community Coll. J. Res. Pract. 37(11), 864–876 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  86. Cappel, J.J., Huang, Z.: A usability analysis of company websites. J. Comput. Inf. Syste. 48(1), 117–123 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  87. Youngblood, N.E., Youngblood, S.A.: User experience and accessibility: an analysis of county web portals. J. Usability Stud. 9(1), 25–41 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  88. Galvez, R.A., Youngblood, N.E.: e-Government in Rhode Island: what effects do templates have on usability, accessibility, and mobile readiness? Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 15(2), 281–296 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  89. King, B.A., Youngblood, N.E.: E-government in Alabama: an analysis of county voting and election website content, usability, accessibility, and mobile readiness. Gov. Inf. Q. 33(4), 715–726 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  90. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved 18 Feb 2018, from https://www.usability.gov

  91. Pew Center on the States: Being online is not enough: state elections websites (2008). Retrieved 16 Feb 2019 from https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2008/vipfinal101408webpdf.pdf

  92. West, D. (2008). State and federal electronic government in the United States’ Governance Studies at Brookings. Washington DC

  93. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  94. WebPage Analyzer tool. https://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  95. Pingdom, A.B.: https://www.pingdom.com. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  96. Gopinath, S., Senthooran, V., Lojenaa, N., Kartheeswaran, T. Usability and accessibility analysis of selected government websites in Sri Lanka. In: 2016 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP), pp. 394–398. IEEE (2016)

  97. Ismailova, R.: Web site accessibility, usability and security: a survey of government websites in Kyrgyz Republic. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 16(1), 257–264 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  98. Jati, H., Dominic, D.D.: Quality evaluation of e-government website using web diagnostic tools: Asian case. In: International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, 2009. ICIME'09, pp. 85–89. IEEE (2009)

  99. Manhas, J.: Analysis on design issues of E-government websites of India. Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Sci. Softw. Eng. 4(2), 646–650 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  100. Akgül, Y.: Analysis on design ıssues of E-government websites of Turkey. In: IX. European Conference on Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp. 3–6 (2016)

  101. Akgül, Y. (2016). Quality evaluation of E-government websites of Turkey. In: 2016 11th Iberian Conference on  Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), pp. 1–7. IEEE (2016)

  102. Jange, S.: Library websites of universities in Karnataka State: an evaluative study. J. Adv. Libr. Inf. Sci 3(3), 195–202 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  103. Kaur, S., Kaur, K., Kaur, P.: An empirical performance evaluation of universities website. Int. J. Comput. Appl. 146(15), 10–16 (2016)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  104. Websitepulse available at https://www.websitepulse.com/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  105. PageSpeed Google available at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?hl=TR

  106. LinkMiner tool available at https://linkminer.com/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  107. Cooper J (2015) Introducing LinkMiner by Point Blank SEO. https://pointblankseo.com/linkminer. Accessed 05 Feb 2019

  108. Alexa Traffic Rank, https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  109. Google Page Rank, https://checkpagerank.net/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  110. The SUCURI Sitecheck, https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  111. https://validator.w3.org. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  112. https://jigsaw.w3.org/cssvalidator/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  113. Online-Utility.org. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  114. The Turkish Higher Education Council (THEC), https://www.yok.gov.tr/universiteler/universitelerimiz. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  115. Nielsen, J.: Usability inspection methods. In: Conference Companion on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 413–414. ACM (1994)

  116. Vermaat, M., Sebok, S., Freund, S., Campbell, J., Frydenberg, M.: Enhanced Discovering Computers, Essentials. Cengage Learning, Boston, MA (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  117. Verkijika, S.F., De Wet, L.: Quality assessment of e-government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa: a public values perspective. Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries. 84(2), e12015 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  118. Goodin, D. (2015). Joomla Bug Puts Millions of Websites at Risk of Remote Takeover Hacks. https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/10/joomla-bug-putsmillions%20-of-websites-at-risk-of-remote-takeover-hacks/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  119. Akgül, Y.: Web Site Accessibility, Quality and Vulnerability Assessment: a Survey of Government Web Sites in the Turkish Republic. J. Inf. Syst. Eng. Manag. 1(4), 50 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  120. https://www.oho.com/blog/2018-google-analytics-benchmarks-higher-education-college-and-university-websites. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  121. Dani, D., Agrawal, G.: Evaluating the Quality of Indian School Education boards’ websites using multi criteria decision making models. Int. j. inf. tecnol. (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-018-0119-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  122. Kincaid, J.P., Fishburne, R.P., Rogers, R.L., Chissom, B.S.: Derivation of new readability formulas (Automated Readability Index, Fog Count and Flesch Reading Ease Formula) for Navy enlisted personnel, Research Branch Report 8–75, Millington, TN: Naval Technical Training. U. S, Naval Air Station, Memphis, TN (1975)

  123. Gunning, R.: The technique of clear writing. McGraw-Hill, New York (1952)

    Google Scholar 

  124. Al-Khalifa, H.S., Baazeem, I., Alamer, R.: Revisiting the accessibility of Saudi Arabia government websites. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 16(4), 1027–1039 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  125. Verkijika, S.F., De Wet, L.: Determining the Accessibility of e-Government Websites in Sub-Saharan Africa Against WCAG 2.0 Standard. Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res. (IJEGR) 13(1), 52–68 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  126. Verkijika, S. F. Evaluating and improving the usability of e-government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa for enhancing citizen adoption and usage. Doctoral dissertation, University of the Free State

  127. Ismail, A., Kuppusamy, K.S., Nengroo, A.S.: Multi-tool accessibility assessment of government department websites: a case-study with JKGAD. Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. 13(6), 504–516 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  128. Youngblood, S.A., Youngblood, N.E.: Usability, content, and connections: How county-level Alabama emergency management agencies communicate with their online public. Gov. Inf. Q. 35(1), 50–60 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  129. https://dijilopedi.com/2018-turkiye-internet-kullanim-ve-sosyal-medya-istatistikleri/. Accessed 30 Nov 18

  130. Ismail, A., Kuppusamy, K.S., Kumar, A., Ojha, P.K.: Connect the dots: accessibility, readability and site ranking–an investigation with reference to top ranked websites of Government of India. J. King Saud. Univ. Comput. Inf. Sci. 31(4), 528–540 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Alanya, Antalya, Turkey

    Yakup Akgül

Authors
  1. Yakup Akgül
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yakup Akgül.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Akgül, Y. Accessibility, usability, quality performance, and readability evaluation of university websites of Turkey: a comparative study of state and private universities. Univ Access Inf Soc 20, 157–170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-020-00715-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-020-00715-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation