Evaluation tool and procedures

WAVE, a free web accessibility evaluation tool developed and administered by Web Accessibility In Mind, was utilized to assess the accessibility of PPI library homepages for this research. Detected errors indicate that there is direct violation of the Section 508 standards and WCAG guidelines as interpreted by WAVE. The detected alerts are employed to make the user aware of a possible accessibility deficiency. For example, WAVE utilizes a “noscript” icon to indicate that a < noscript > element is present. WAVE explains that if JavaScript is disabled, < noscript > is presented to the user (“Alerts noscript element,” n.d.).

It should be noted that the WAVE interface has changed between December 2019 and October 2020. Although the functionalities are almost identical, the fonts and icons have been slightly modified.

The result view from the December 2019 data collection is comparable to the October 2020 view of the displayed analysis.

The sidebars in both the 2019 and 2020 versions of WAVE contain the same evaluation parameters: summary, details, documentation/reference (2019 and 2020, respectively), outline/structure (2019 and 2020, respectively), and contrast. Each version also allows the user the option to view the results with or without styles.