SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY BARRIERS BASED ON DATA ANALYTICS

Abstract

The article presents a systemic analysis of web accessibility barriers for individuals with visual impairments and cognitive differences based on data analytics. The relevance of the study is driven by the rapid digitalization of public services, as a result of which the inaccessibility of the web environment acquires the characteristics of systemic social exclusion for over 2.2 billion people with visual impairments and millions of individuals with cognitive differences.

The empirical basis of the study consists of three open datasets: the Web Accessibility Compliance Dataset, which contains the results of automated audits of publicly available web resources; the Dataset for Global Web Accessibility Assessment of National Libraries' Websites, which covers the accessibility of websites of 73 national libraries; as well as the annual WebAIM Million Report, which provides a global context for analyzing one million of the most visited websites. The analysis was performed using Power BI with the application of descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and comparative analysis.

The results demonstrate the systemic nature of violations of the principles of perceivability and understandability of web content. Visual barriers are dominant, particularly insufficient color contrast and the absence of text alternatives for non-text content, as well as cognitive barriers related to navigational complexity, information overload, and insufficient clarity of interfaces. The generalization of results across the three datasets confirms that the identified violations are reproduced across all types of studied resources—from publicly available commercial websites to specialized public institutions.

The conducted study demonstrates that the problem of web inaccessibility is not merely technical but systemic in nature, caused by the lack of prioritization of inclusive design principles at all stages of development. Eliminating the identified barriers requires the integration of accessibility checks into the development process, the implementation of regular monitoring of compliance with WCAG standards, and the improvement of professional competencies in the field of web accessibility.