Analysis of Accessibility and Web Visibility of Universities in Region One of Ecuador

Abstract

Businesses, institutions, and other organizations employ multichannel processes, using technological resources in internet applications and services. Focusing on universities, they prioritize their information on the web; however, they neglect users with functional diversity. Consequently, web accessibility is a challenge in the communication process as stated in the Ecuadorian Constitution, which establishes access to information as a citizen's right regardless of creed, race, gender, or functional diversity. This research examines the accessibility of six web portals from both public and private universities headquartered in Ecuador's region one. The goal was to relate web accessibility, the inclusion of guidelines, standards, and web positioning variables obtained through Webometrics. The study is descriptive and correlational, conducted in five phases: selection of websites, choice of inspection tool, execution of accessibility inspection, observation and analysis of results, and development of conclusions and recommendations. The findings determined a moderate positive correlation of 0.51 between the openness ranking of universities according to Webometrics and the ranking of accessibility issues identified through the automatic inspection tool. It concludes that visibility on the internet is important for a university academic portal, and the use of automatic web accessibility inspection tools should be implemented in universities. It suggests that cyclic or periodic reviews can promote good practices to improve both local and international positioning and visibility.