Experimentation with a System Dynamics Based Interactive Learning Environment A Case Study of Accessibility of Norwegian Municipalities Websites

Following the WCAG 2.0 techniques: Experiences from designing a WCAG 2.0 checking tool

Published version of a chapter in the book: Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31522-0_63 This paper presents a conceptual analysis of how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and its accompanying documents can be used as a basis for the implementation of an automatic checking tool and the definition of a web accessibility metric. There are two major issues that need to be resolved to derive valid and reliable conclusions from the output of individual tests. First, the relationship of Sufficient Techniques and Common Failures has to be taken into account. Second, the logical combination of the…

Project report : Lessons learned from terminology harmonisation

A common understanding of language and the meaning of concepts is needed for communications in general, and can be crucial to save lives in large rescue operations. Redningshåndboka (the National Rescue handbook) provides a common glossary for first responders’ communications across all sectors in training and practice. However, today each sector maintains their own glossaries, acronyms and jargon, causing potential misunderstandings in joint operations. In this report we outline lessons learned from national and international standardisation and additional practical project outcomes to contribute to terminology harmonisation from the INSITU project.

Accessibility of Norwegian Municipalities Websites: A Decision Support Tool

Access to public websites is crucial to assure equal opportunities for all citizens to participate in society. Although, a range of studies to analyse the accessibility of websites have been carried out, we have not been able to find any study evaluating the effect of managerial decisions on the accessibility of websites. This paper presents a demonstrator simulation model, built using System Dynamics methodology. The model focuses on accessibility of Norwegian Municipal websites, and is intended to be used as a decision support tool, mainly for managers responsible for website development and maintenance. To build the underlying model we have used information collected from in-depth interv…

A Survey of Current Measurement Methods for eGovernment User-Satisfaction

A survey on eGovernment user-satisfaction measurement methods was conducted to enable a comparison among them and to facilitate a discussion on good practices. The collected information is related to the methodology properties, tools, followed practices, implementation stage and challenges. The main findings are that the surveyed methods rarely refer to any established relevant standards, they are not regularly updated, and most of them do not have an open process for maintenance. We also note that software vendors are mostly not included in the intended group of users of the measurement results. A revision of methods and their maintenance processes can increase their accountability and ena…

Project report : Methodology for terminology harmonisation

A common understanding of language and concepts used is essential for any meaningful communication. For large rescue operations effective communication is crucial to save lives. Such operations can require cooperation among first responders from several sectors with a different understanding of terms and concepts. Redningshåndboka (the National Rescue handbook) provides a common glossary for use across all sectors for their communications in training and practice. However, today each sector maintains their own glossaries, acronyms and jargon, causing potential misunderstandings in joint operations. In this report we propose a way to apply the Norwegian Public Management Standard from the No…

Better Access to Terminology for Crisis Communications

International audience; Crisis management depends on efficient communications with professional staff and with people who are affected by the crisis. The correct interpretation of general language and technical terms is crucial to take good actions and to save valuable time. To reduce the risk of misunderstandings we need a well-established crisis management terminology. Several collections of terms have been prepared for hazard areas such as pollution, radiation, fire safety, and dangerous goods. Today such terminologies can be provided on different websites, depending on how the national crisis management is organised. This distribution and a variation of different formats and user interf…

Evolving e-government benchmarking to better cover technology development and emerging societal needs

Many international e-government benchmarks seek to measure progress towards various versions of a digital society, and in this endeavor include a component of e-government. But because comparable international e-government data are scarce, most reports rely on the United Nations E-Government Development Index, specifically its Online Service Index as a benchmark. However, this assessment only captures national level initiatives at a broad level and does not link evaluation to outcomes and impacts, i.e. e-government performance relative to investment.This paper briefly reviews the current UN framework and assesses how it can evolve to meet new demands, such as calls to better connect investm…

Sharing Incident and Threat Information for Common Situational Understanding

This paper presents the INSITU research project initiated to provide a systematic approach for effective sharing, integration and use of information from different sources, to establish a common operational picture (COP) and shared situational understanding among multiple actors in emergency response. The solution developed will provide an interactive map display, integrating harmonisation of terminology and collaboration support for information sharing and synthesis. The enhanced COP will also support evaluation and learning from exercises and incidents. The project involves close collaboration with emergency management stakeholders in Norway, for requirements analysis, participatory desig…

Disabled People from Welfare to Jobs: A Decision Support Tool

Despite repeated statements from successive governments in Norway, disabled people employment rate remains unchanged since 2000. A range of studies to describe and analyse the situation qualitatively and quantitatively have been performed, however we have not been able to find any study containing a decision support tool focusing on this issue. This paper presents a simulation model, built using the System Dynamics methodology. The model focuses on enabling disabled people to move from welfare to work, incorporating attitudes of disabled people and employers. The model is designed to cover selected factors that are believed to enable and encourage disabled people to take up jobs. It is inte…

Project report: Requirements specification

The SAMRISK project “Sharing incident and threat information for common situational understanding“ (INSITU) commenced in May 2019. The INSITU project develops solutions for establishing a common situational understanding in complex operations requiring collaboration between several agencies. This involves systematic analysis of existing information sources and defining the information elements that are critical to share in different phases of a crisis situation. In addition, the project will develop procedures and related tool support for efficient collection and integration of information. As part of this work, the project contributes to harmonisation of terminology across agencies to secu…

Accessibility of eGovernment Web Sites: Towards a Collaborative Retrofitting Approach

Published version of a chapter from the book: Computers Helping People with Special Needs.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14097-6_75 Accessibility benchmarking is efficient to raise awareness and initiate competition. However, traditional benchmarking is of little avail when it comes to removing barriers from eGovernment web sites in practice. Regulations and legal enforcement may be helpful in a long-term perspective. For more rapid progress both vendors and web site maintainers are willing to take short-term action towards improvements, provided that clear advise is available. The approach of the eGovernment Monitoring pro…

A Public Barrier Tracker to Support the Web Accessibility Directive

In this paper we propose the Public Barrier Tracker (PBT) – a comprehensive solution that supports both filing and handling of user feedback on web accessibility. We give an overview of some existing approaches for gathering user feedback on accessibility barriers and outline the PBT functionality. The PBT can also offer further support for the implementation of the WAD: The collected data could be useful for monitoring and reporting as well as the enforcement mechanism.

Simulation models in eGovernment using system dynamics: A literature survey

System Dynamics (SD) is a method to build simulation models using computers, to study the behaviour of systems, and apply what-if scenarios aiming at achieving optimal policy design. To have an overview of the current state-of-the-art of SD use in the eGovernment field; we have surveyed related literature. Our main goal is to uncover the possibilities for future research by clarifying the shortages. The identified literature is not very large. In most of the literature, SD models use was limited to SD practitioners. We discovered low usage of Group Model Building and workshops despite their usefulness in involving non-SD practitioners in the model building process. Additionally, there is a …

Monitoring Accessibility of Governmental Web Sites in Europe

Web accessibility is an important goal of the European i2010 strategy. Several one-off surveys of eAccessibility have been conducted in the past few years. In this paper, we describe an approach to supplement the results of such surveys with automated assessments, that can easily be repeated at regular intervals. The software basis is provided by the European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO). We analyse how the data collected by EIAO can be compared to other surveys.

Project report : Evaluering av INSITU skogbrannøvelse

Rapporten presenterer resultater fra evaluering av en digital tabletop-øvelse arrangert av INSITU-prosjektet i april 2021, der scenarioet omfattet 3 samtidige skogbranner i Agder. Hensikt med øvelsen var å gi erfaring med hvordan situasjonsbilde kan deles fra innsatsleder til sentrale myndigheter med bruk av felles digital kartstøtte. Øvelsen involverte ca. 70 deltagere fra 20 etater og organisasjoner, i tillegg til prosjektgruppen fra INSITU.

A Socratic E-Learning Approach

Using questions to elaborate knowledge, is widely used in learning today. In this position paper we argue that there are new benefits to reap from using ICT in a learning process based on the Socratic method, and outline practical steps of an approach for collaborative e-learning using questions.

Accessibility of Norwegian Municipalities Websites: An Interactive Learning Environment Experimental Investigation

Accessibility is an important aspect of websites generally and public websites particularly. Many ways could be proposed to enhance accessibility, however the impact of selected actions is hard to predict due to diversification and contradiction, in addition to the existence of the time factor. A System Dynamics simulation model including factors affecting the accessibility of Norwegian municipal websites was encapsulated in an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). As the model promised to be able to change how users think and take decisions, this ILE was tested by users in an experiment. We have conducted a#x03B1;, a#x03B2;, and a#x03B3; change analysis on the results of this experiment.…