| The relevance of accessibility is measured in terms of social, economical and personal welfare for all the agents involved in the definition, development, exploitation and use of Internet services and products. Some years ago the Web was an optional service from which some users could benefit, but nowadays it is necessary for many daily activities.; In this new context, people with disabilities represent a large group of users with specific characteristics that have to be taken into account during the design of technological products. Moreover, their role is changing from users who are receptors of information to managers and administrators. It is in this new context where existing accessibility and usability guidelines do not cover the design needs for services like a Digital Resource Centre, if we want it to be managed by users with disability. Content managers have high interaction with the interface, which it is not usual in common commercial Web sites. They also manage a great amount of complex and interrelated information whose accessibility has not been previously studied in depth.; This PhD describes accessibility guidelines for interface design of a Digital Resource Centre that can be extended to other contexts with similar interaction characteristics. These guidelines complement existing ones and are oriented to people with visual disabilities.; This work also defines a digital resource type hierarchy, beyond HTML or Web content. That is why a set of metadata, or accessibility attributes, has been designed and attached to each resource type in the hierarchy. Their aim is to substitute the original digital resource in an accessible way, if it is not accessible for the user; provide some information when it is not possible to provide equivalent information in an accessible format; complement the information provided to improve the comprehension of the user with visual disability.; The results and contributions of this thesis have been obtained working in close contact with the final users with visual disability, using a Web questionnaire, telephone and email contact and user testing. These methods are very valuable to know the real needs of this group of users, the way they interact with the interface and how they use technology to carry out different tasks. |
