1. Laurea Specialistica in
Editoria e Comunicazione Multimediale (ECM)
THE ACCESSIBILITY OF SOCIAL
NETWORKS: THE VIADEO CASE
Relatore:
Prof. Marco Porta
Correlatore:
Prof. Mario Dossoni
Correlatore esterno: Tesi di laurea di:
Dott. Roberto Marmo Chiara Evangelista

2. Aim of work is…
 To Check and Verify the accessibility of Social Networks
(Viadeo in particular) by comparison with accessibility
guidelines (WCAG 2.0) in a “social environment” in which
are all involved , without exceptions
 To Spread a culture of accessibility and increase its
practical application and the verification of its
requirements by the developers of content
 To Make clear that the development of accessible
resources is a gain in quantitative and qualitative terms

3. Social Network: definition
“A social network is a social structure made up of
individuals (or organizations) called "nodes“,
which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types
of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship,
common interest, financial exchange, dislike,
sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs,
knowledge or prestige”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

4. Social Network: birth and development
sixdegrees.com
Born in 1997, remained a niche reality for some time

5. friendster.com
Born in 2003; unlike sixdegrees.com became immediately famous on the Web
Started the boom of Social Networks on the Web
that still does not seem to stop

6. From Social Networks to Social Media
 Social Network:
“ […] a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes“
which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency […]”
(Source: en.wikipedia.org)
 Social Media:
“a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange
of user-generated content” (Source: en.wikipedia.org)

7. Disability: definition
“Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments,
activity limitations, and participation restrictions.
An impairment is a problem in body function or structure;
an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by
an individual in executing a task or action;
while a participation restriction is a problem experienced
by an individual in involvement in life situations”
Source: World Health Organization – http:/www.who.int

8. Disability: normative sources
 Italian Law n. 104/92, Legge-Quadro per l’assistenza,
l’integrazione sociale e i diritti delle persone
handicappate
 Italian Law n. 4/2004, “Disposizioni per favorire
l'accesso dei soggetti disabili agli strumenti informatici”
c.d. Stanca Law
 The Madrid Declaration “Non discrimination plus
positive action results in social inclusion (2002)
 ONU Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (2007) implemented by Italy in 2009

9. Accessibility: definition
 “Capability of informatic systems, in the forms and limits
allowed by technological knowledges, to supply services and
to provide usable information, without discriminations even
by those who need assistance technologies or special
configurations, owing to disabilities” *
 “Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can
use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that
people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate,
and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to
the Web” **
* Source: Italian Law n.4/2004
** Source: http://www.w3.org

10. About the W3C
“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international
community where Member organizations, a full-time staff,
and the public work together to develop Web standards.
Led by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe,
W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential”
The information are taken from the Web site: www.w3.org

11. WCAG 2.0
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines”
are the new guidelines for accessibility of Web content
(official version of 2008)
They represent the revised edition of the existing
WCAG 1.0, written in 1999 for the same purpose

12. WCAG 2.0: structure
• Principles - At the top are 4 principles that provide the foundation
for Web accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and
robust
• Guidelines - Under the principles are guidelines. The 12 guidelines
provide the basic goals that authors should work toward in order to
make content more accessible to users with different disabilities
• Success Criteria - For each guideline, testable success criteria are
provided to allow WCAG 2.0 to be used where requirements and
conformance testing are necessary such as in design specification,
purchasing, regulation, and contractual agreements. In order to
meet the needs of different groups and different situations, three
levels of conformance are defined: A (lowest), AA, and AAA
(highest)

13. WCAG 2.0: an example
Principle 2. Operable – User interface
components and navigation must be PRINCIPLE
operable.
- Guideline 2.1 Keyboard Accessible:
Make all functionality available from a GUIDELINE
keyboard.
• 2.1.1 Keyboard: All functionality of the
content is operable through a keyboard
interface without requiring specific
timings for individual keystrokes, except SUCCESS
where the underlying function requires CRITERION
input that depends on the path of the
user's movement and not just the
endpoints. (Level A)

14. Facebook
Born in 2004 from an intuition
of a student of Harward,
Mark Zuckerberg,
is now the most popular and used
Social Network with over
500.000.000
users
- 123.000.000 in Europe
- more than 13.000.000 in Italy

15. facebook.com: accessibility

17. m.facebook.com (“Mobile” version)

18. LinkedIn
Founded in 2003,
is the Business Social Network
with the largest number of users
Currently has over
75.000.000
users
- 15.000.000 in Europe and
- 1.000.000 in Italy

19. linkedin.com: accessibility

20. m.linkedin.com (“Mobile” version)

21. The Viadeo case
Founded in 2000, is one of the
most popular and used Business
Social Network, second only to
LinkedIn
Has currently
30.000.000
members
- 10.000.000 in Europe
- 700.000 in Italy

22. Viadeo: study of accessibility
1. Use of colors that create little contrast with the background and
therefore are not suitable for low-vision or color blind people

23. 2. Too much content with not enough space between text lines

24. Also…
It is not possible to:
3. resize the text and change the color scheme
4. display “high contrast” or “content only” versions of the pages
5. vary the structure or order of the content
6. obtain clear indications about mistakes (no checking and suggestions
for correction)

25. Study of Viadeo accessibility:
conclusions
• The WCAG 2.0 Guidelines principles satisfied by Viadeo
are more than those not satisfied
• However, Viadeo remains partly inaccessible…
• Viadeo developers are currently working to provide a full
accessible version

26. Conclusions
• WCAG 2.0 are available to everyone, so accessibility should be
checked for any Web resource
• Accessibility is currently not taken into proper consideration…
as demonstrated by the inaccessibility of the two most
popular Social Networks: Facebook and LinkedIn
• Prejudice against the “different” is still widespread
• Inaccessible sites preclude their use by a significant number of
people

27. My future project is…
 To Continue in my personal studies and research on the
subject by creating a space dedicated to them on the Web
 To Continue the discussion emphasizing the importance of
accessibility and application of his knowledge
 To Propose myself as a “consultant for accessibility” for all
companies that will want to understand the effectiveness
and make accessible design
 To Develop innovative projects with major Social Networks

28. Author
Chiara Evangelista
mail: evangelista.chiara@alice.it
Viadeo: http://www.viadeo.com/it/profile/chiara.evangelista
LinkedIn: http://it.linkedin.com/in/chiaraevangelista
Tesi on line: http://www.tesionline.it/adminautori/admin.asp