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Research Proposal Mckayla Meskill
Research Proposal Mckayla Meskill
Professor Gonzalez
ENC 1102
29 January 2023
Project Title
Can’t Find the Home Page: An Analysis of the Accessibility and Conventions of Websites Over
Time
Research Questions
How has the use of conventions and accessibility changed over time in the web design field and
how does this influence people’s longevity for staying on social media websites?
Statement of Significance
This research is important because we are in the generation where everything is accessed
online. With that, it is essential that everyone can view and use the websites that are on it.
Without the standard conventions and accessibility rules, a whole part of our population will be
left out, for an example, people with disabilities. Things like, font size, colors, locations of items,
alternate text on pictures, and so much more, are very important to keep in mind when
creating a website. I care a lot about this research because in high school I took some web
design classes that made me really interested in the field. I love the coding aspect of it and
being able to have creative freedom with my designs. While taking these classes, I learned
about accessibility and how important it is. With this research project, I wanted to explore more
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about it and see how it has changed over the years, more specifically with social media
websites.
I plan for my main focus of research to be through observations. I will look at different
screenshots of social media websites from various time periods using the website, Internet
Archive. On there, I will use the Wayback Machine feature that will give me the pictures
of the websites. The Internet Archive is a website that acts as a digital library, saving
websites from more than twenty-six years ago. These observations will allow me to see
how accessible the websites were from a long time ago, up to the present. I can learn about
the different conventions and design patterns that are commonly used through this as well.
Another form of research that I will conduct is having 2 participants use websites that are
accessible and ones that aren’t. I will then interview them to find out what the pros and
cons were of each site and see how long they interacted with the website for. Some of the
things I will ask them are, was it easily readable, were you able to navigate through the
site, and if there was anything confusing while using it. This will inform me about the
things I should be looking for in the future when using a website to determine if they use
the proper rules and layouts that will make it easily usable for all types of people.
Secondary Research
Works Cited
Chukwuere, Joshua. “Social Media Accessibility: Opportunities and Challenges for Rural
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Hanson, Vicki, and John Richards. “Progress on Website Accessibility?” ACM Transactions on
Hollier, Scott. “The Growing Importance of Accessible Social Media: 16: Disability and Social
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315577357-16/growing-
importance-accessible-social-media-scott-hollier.
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1937364095?pq-origsite=summon.
Kahle, Brewster, and Bruce Gilliat. “Wayback Machine.” Internet Archive: Wayback Machine,
Peters, Cara, and David Bradbard. “Web Accessibility: An Introduction and Ethical
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1011912539/fulltext/2856B5690A454009PQ/1?
accountid=10003.