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Professor Samantha Gonzalez

ENC 1102

30 April 2023

Can’t Find the Home Page: An Analysis of the Accessibility of Websites Over Time

Introduction

With the world becoming more technology based, there has been a major issue that has

occurred because of it. Websites are not requiring the proper features to make it so that everyone,

including people with disabilities, are able to view it. The font may be hard to read, there isn’t

any captions on videos for those who may be visually impaired, the layout of the site could be all

over the place making it very confusing, and so much more could happen. Having accessible

websites is vital to have because it allows everyone to be able to access the internet and be able

to do things online since that is where everything is now. There have been many studies made

that discuss this issue and share their research, but for this paper, I will be looking at how

accessibility has changed over time specifically for social media websites and how this affects

people’s longevity for staying on the website. I have found five scholarly articles that I will be

using to compare my own research to and use them as a way to help back up my findings.

After reading through my sources, a common topic that was talked about in them is that

they described examples of how website accessibility has changed over the years. In “Progress

on Website Accessibility”, they specifically looked at government and topsites and examined

how they have changed according to accessibility over 14 years (Hanson and Richards 2).

However, in “The Growing Importance of Accessible Social Media”, it looks at a few social

media apps and sees how accessible they have gotten over the years (Hollier 6). The results of
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both studies included that there have been some improvements with the websites becoming more

accessible, but there are still issues that are being made. Something that was different about these

two sources is that they had contrasting main ideas. In Hanson’s and Richard’s article they

focused on the different guidelines that websites must follow to ensure that they are accessible

(2). While in Hollier’s article, he mainly focused on the importance of disabled people being able

to use social media (3).

Another main topic that is shown in multiple sources is that they think it is important to

create awareness on the subject because it will get more people to understand how essential

website accessibility is and encourage them to speak out about it. In “Social media accessibility:

Opportunities and challenges for rural communities”, it shares that people in rural communities

think that social media can be hard to use, so they try to avoid it. However, the author believes

that getting people aware of social media can help increase its accessibility (Chukwuere 3).

“Also, according to Web Accessibility: an introduction and ethical implications”, out of 26 web

authors that they reached out to, 11 said that they do not work with website accessibility when

designing websites (Peters and Bradbard 18). This shows how little people are aware of

accessibility and it needs to be something that is talked about more. When more people are aware

of it, businesses will have to make their sites accessible giving everyone an equal opportunity to

use them.

Something only one of my sources talked about is how some of the accessibility issues

that occur on social media is due to the users itself, not the platform. In “Social media

accessibility and inclusion is a crucial consideration”, the author goes into details about how

users can make what they post more user-friendly on specific social media platforms. This

includes providing captions on videos on “YouTube”, using hashtags on “Twitter”, and making
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the layout simple on blogs (Philip 1-4). Doing these things can help social media become a place

where people with disabilities can easily use it like everyone else can.

The difference in content in these sources allowed me to learn more about website

accessibility and social media, which will be able to help me when conducting my own research.

Each of them had an element that was useful in helping me get a better understanding of the

current discussion on these topics. I want to be able to continue these ideas in my research, but I

will be specifically looking at popular social media websites and analyzing how they have grown

according to accessibility over the years. I will also be looking at how bad accessibility and good

accessibility affects how long a person interacts with a social media website for. With my

findings, I believe that my research can help continue the conversation of website accessibility

and be able to help influence it to become a more well-known thing.

Method

For my research, I will be doing an observational study of different popular social media

websites from various time periods. The social media websites that I will be analyzing are

“Twitter”, “YouTube”, and “Facebook”. In order to look at what these sites looked like in the

past I used a website called, “The Internet Archive”, which acts as a digital library and keeps

records of websites from more than twenty-six years ago. I took screenshots of each site from

two different time periods, 2007 and 2023. I then examined how accessible they were from the

past and the present, looking to see if they hit certain criteria that are essential for websites to

have. I used my results to determine some of the common elements I saw and how they have

progressed over time. I also used this to determine how this affects how long someone will

actively use the website for.

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Results

“Twitter”

Figure 1: Screenshot of the “Twitter” website from 2007. Figure 2: Screenshot of the “Twitter” website from 2023.

The “Twitter” website from 2007 is displayed with very light and bright colors. The logo

is also made in a similar color to the one of the background, making it blend into its

surroundings. Another thing that I noticed is that all of the text is using a very small font size and

the pictures are small as well. Usually, websites will have customization options in their settings

that can allow the users to change the font size and color, but they did not have that either.

Something that is very essential when it comes to website accessibility is having alt text on

images. Alt text is used when coding websites when there is a non-text item, like an image, on

the page. The coder will provide a short description of that image so that someone who uses a

screen reader will be able to know what is going on in that image. In 2007, “Twitter” did not use

any alt text for any of the images that were displayed. Something positive that the site had in

terms of accessibility is that it was well organized and not all over the place.

In 2023, the “Twitter” website has made many improvements. The whole layout is really

simple and very well organized. I was able to find where everything was easily and had no issues

with actually using the site. The site has a plain, white background with black text, making the
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content very readable. I found that there is an option in their settings that allows the user to be

able to change the font size of the text and be able to put the site in dark or light mode. This

makes it so that the user can change the look of the website based on the impairment or

preferences that they have. There is also a feature that allows users to add alt text to images that

they post and there are auto captions provided on the videos.

“YouTube”

Figure 3: Screenshot of the “YouTube” website from 2007. Figure 4: Screenshot of the “YouTube” website from 2023

In 2007, the layout of the “YouTube” website is very cluttered with many different

sections taking up the whole page. The disorganization made my experience confusing and made

it challenging to figure out where everything was. Unlike “Twitter”, it uses contrasting colors

that differentiated the content from the background. It also had a top navigation bar that allowed

me to explore different sections of the website with ease. The font size is very small and there

are no customizable features in order to change this. The videos do contain auto captions that

display the words being said at the same time as the video is playing, so that you are able to read

them.

“YouTube” in 2023 also has improved many of its accessibility issues that were made in

the past. The text is much larger now and the display of the thumbnails is significantly bigger
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than what it used to look like. The website is still using the same contrasting colors for the

background of the page and the font color. The videos also still have auto captioning on them,

but there is now a feature that allows the creator to type in their own captions on the videos to

make sure that they are accurate as well. The layout of the website is much more organized, with

a side bar navigation that contains everything that is needed for using the site. “YouTube” also

has keyboard shortcuts that users can use to be able to do certain tasks easily.

“Facebook”

Figure 5: Screenshot of the “Facebook” website from 2007. Figure 6: Screenshot of the “Facebook” website from 2023

The “Facebook” website in 2007 also used very contrasting colors like how “YouTube”

did. The website is well organized with not much going on in the page which kept me from being

distracted by unnecessary elements. Similar to the other social media sites from 2007,

“Facebook” uses a very small text font that made it hard for me to read the content. The website

only has a bottom navigation which I found to be frustrating, and it was also really small. None

of the images on the page use alt text, causing those who use screen readers to not be able to

view that content.

In 2023, “Facebook” has also enhanced its website by fixing many of the accessibility

problems and adding more accessibility elements to their site. The font size is much larger now
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and there are customizable features that allow the user to change the font size as well. The

images are also bigger and uses alt text for people with screen readers. Like “YouTube”,

“Facebook” has a side navigation bar that is very simple and large, making it very easy to use.

There are also keyboard shortcuts that can be used, so that people who may have a hard time

using a mouse can use that. When someone posts a video, there are also auto captions that are

displayed for people to read.

Discussion

Based on all of the data that I have collected; social media websites have greatly

improved in terms of accessibility. In the past, they all had really small fonts, there weren’t any

captions or alternative text for images, there were no keyboard shortcuts, and the layout tended

to be a little bit confusing. However, as of currently, these sites have fixed most of these

problems. They have adjustable font sizes, captions for videos, pictures have alt text, they use

contrasting colors, and the layout is well organized. These fixes make it easier for people with

disabilities to be able to use social media just as easy as anyone else can. I did notice that some

of the websites did still have some accessibility issues. For an example, sometimes the captions

on the videos did not accurately portray the words that were actually being said. I also noticed

that some of the accessibility issues have to do with the users itself. When they post something,

they have to be the ones to include accurate captions and alt text onto the images. This means

that it isn’t just the social media company’s fault for the issues, but it is also the people using the

website’s fault too.

Everyone being able to access and use social media websites is important because it is a

way for people to stay connected with their friends and families, and it is where a lot of people

get their information on what is happening in the world. Not only does having an accessible
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website make it easier for disabled people to be able to use it, but it influences people to stay on

your site for longer. If someone were to use one of these social media websites from 2007, they

would have a hard time navigating through the pages and get frustrated quickly because of how

hard it is to do something on it. This would cause the user to stop using the website and most

likely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone they know. However, if the website was very accessible

like the websites from 2023, users would have a happier experience with the site and be on it for

much longer. This means it is essential for websites to be accessible because it will also

influence the users to stay and interact with the site for an essential amount of time.

A limitation I had when doing my research was that on the “Internet Archive” website,

there isn’t a way to fully interact with the websites from the past. There were some links to site

pages that did work, but there wasn’t a way for me to access certain things, like videos, profiles,

and more. If I was able to access these, I could have found even more possible accessibility

issues. For future studies of research, I think researchers should explore accessibility issues for

other types of websites because I am sure that there is more progress to be made on the subject.

With more technological based things being created, more research should be made to ensure

that everyone would be able to use it. I also think that there should me more research on website

accessibility in terms of mobile devices or another type of device that has a different screen size

than a computer. Making websites adaptable to different screen sizes is very important since

mostly everyone uses a smart phone.

Conclusion

By finding how accessibility has changed over the years through social media websites, I

was able to get a deeper understanding of how important accessibility is and the technological

advancements that have been made in order to make the Internet available for everyone. Not only
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is having accessible social media websites crucial but having every other type of website be

accessible is just as important. It is essential to hold companies accountable to make the changes

needed to allow everybody the same equal opportunities for being able to use websites. I am

hoping that my research can help get more people aware of this type of problem and for them to

be able to learn something from it.

Works Cited

Chukwuere, Joshua. “Social Media Accessibility: Opportunities and Challenges for Rural

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

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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.