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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.

Research Design/Description of Study

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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Communities.” International Conference on Emerging Technology and Interdisciplinary

Sciences, 2021, https://conferences.jozacpublishers.com/index.php/icetis/article/view/1/1.

Hanson, Vicki, and John Richards. “Progress on Website Accessibility?” ACM Transactions on

the Web, 1 Mar. 2013, https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2435215.2435217

Hollier, Scott. “The Growing Importance of Accessible Social Media: 16: Disability and Social

Media.” Taylor & Francis, Taylor & Francis, 10 Nov. 2016,

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315577357-16/growing-
importance-accessible-social-media-scott-hollier.

Jenkinson, Philip. “Social Media Accessibility and Inclusion Is a Crucial Consideration –

ProQuest.” ProQuest, 2017,

https://www.proquest.com/docview/1937364095?pq-origsite=summon.

Kahle, Brewster, and Bruce Gilliat. “Wayback Machine.” Internet Archive: Wayback Machine,

10 May 1996, https://archive.org/web/.

Peters, Cara, and David Bradbard. “Web Accessibility: An Introduction and Ethical

Implications.” ProQuest, 2010,

https://www.proquest.com/docview/1011912539/fulltext/2856B5690A454009PQ/1?
accountid=10003.