Connect the dots: Accessibility, readability and site ranking – An investigation with reference to top ranked websites of Government of India

Assessment of Hypertension Self-Care Behaviors and Self-Efficacy Among Men in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Hypertension is rapidly increasing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), particularly among men. Assessment of hypertension self-care behaviors is a critical step to promoting blood pressure control. This study aimed to evaluate the Hypertension Self-Care Profile (HBP-SCP) among Saudi men in KSA.

METHODS

The HBP-SCP self-efficacy and behavior scales were translated into Arabic and tested on a convenience sample of 160 Saudi men with hypertension. Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis were conducted using SPSS.

RESULTS

Internal consistency of the Arabic HBP self-care and self-efficacy scales was 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. Factor loading ranged from 0.25 to 0.70 for HBP self-care behaviors and from 0.28 to 0.77 for HBP self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

The Arabic HBP-SCP is acceptable in its reliability and validity for measuring HBP self-care behaviors and self-efficacy among Saudi men with hypertension.

The Complexity of Mental Health App Privacy Policies: A Potential Barrier to Privacy

Background

In 2017, the Supreme Court of India ruled that privacy is a fundamental right of every citizen. Although mobile phone apps have the potential to help people with noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and mental illness, they often contain complex privacy policies, which consumers may not understand. This complexity may impede the ability of consumers to make decisions regarding privacy, a critical issue due to the stigma of mental illness.

Objective

Our objective is to determine whether mental health apps have more complex privacy policies than diabetes apps.

Methods

The study used privacy policies extracted from apps. The apps pertained to diabetes or mental health, and were all of Indian origin. Privacy policy reading complexity was compared between the two types of apps using a series of 15 readability measures. The universe of applicable apps on the Google Play store, as viewed between May and June 2017, was considered. The measures of readability were compared using chi-square tests.

Results

No significant difference was found between the privacy policy readability of the diabetes apps versus the mental health apps for each of the measures considered. The mean Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 13.9 for diabetes apps and 13.6 for mental health apps; therefore, the mean policy grade level for both types of apps was written at a college level. Privacy policies in the 25th percentile of complexity were also written at a college level for both types of apps.

Conclusions

Privacy policy complexity may be a barrier for informed decision making.

Multi-tool accessibility assessment of government department websites:a case-study with JKGAD

PURPOSE

Nature of being accessible to all categories of users is one of the primary factors for enabling the wider reach of the resources published through World Wide Web. The accessibility of websites has been analyzed through W3C guidelines with the help of various tools. This paper presents a multi-tool accessibility assessment of government department websites belonging to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. A comparative analysis of six accessibility tools is also presented with 14 different parameters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The accessibility analysis tools used in this study for analysis are aChecker, Cynthia Says, Tenon, wave, Mauve, and Hera. These tools provide us the results of selected websites accessibility status on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 and 2.0.

RESULTS

It was found that there are variations in accessibility analysis results when using different accessibility metrics to measure the accessibility of websites. In addition to this, we have identified the guidelines which have frequently been violated. It was observed that there is a need for incorporating the accessibility component features among the selected websites. This paper presents a set of suggestions to improve the accessibility status of these sites so that the information and services provided by these sites shall reach a wider spectrum of audience without any barrier. Implications for rehabilitation The following points indicates that this case study of JKGAD websites comes under Rehabilitation focused on Visually Impaired users. Due to the universal nature of web, it should be accessible to all according to WCAG guidelines framed by World Wide Web Consortium. In this paper we have identified multiple accessibility barriers for persons with visual impairment while browsing the Jammu and Kashmir Government websites. Multi-tool analysis has been done to pin-point the potential barriers for persons with visually Impaired. Usability analysis has been performed to check whether these websites are suitable for persons with visual impairment. We provide some valuable suggestions which can be followed by developers and designers to minimize these potential accessibility barriers.Based on aforementioned key points, this article helps the persons with disability especially Visually Impaired Users to access the web resources better with the implementation of identified suggestions.