‘Operation Deconstruction’
Operation Deconstruction aims to pull-apart at the accessibility and web-standards compliance of websites belonging to Virginia school divisions. In addition, commentary on usability will accompany the analysis of each site examined. But why?
Under the belief that better sites are based upon web standards and are easily accessible to each user, I have started this research project aimed to see how many sites are living up "to their potential." The aim, for sure, is not a subjective examination of "best sites," nor mere criticism of others' websites; the aim is to expose areas for improvement. I hope to show in my research that much needs to be done to better the use of web standards across Virginia's school division websites. This research works hand-in-hand with a research paper that is currently in progress.
Procedure
The procedure for investigating websites started at the Virginia Department of Education's list of school divisions. From there, I visited school division websites, examined the markup for the first page of the site (homepage), viewed the webpage in a text-only browser (Lynx), and then ran the page through the W3C's markup validator (to test for compliance to HTML or XHTML if so-declared), and finally an accessibility validator was consulted for accessibility compliance on selected sites. The results of these examinations have helped me develop numerical data to track trends, and as time allows, sites are also critiqued for usability concerns, noting design elements which could use improvement—citing justification to support accessibility or web standards.
The cross-platform Mozilla 1.4 browser was used to test all pages. In some cases, pages were viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2 Macintosh to test for Microsoft-specific code validation. Mozilla was chosen because it is cross platform and a forerunner in the interpretation of XHTML, CSS, and web standards.
When snap-shots of sites are included, the pictures are color-coded to denote areas of navigation (blue), content (orange), and identification and copyright (green). I have included full-size PNG snapshots that have been sized-down in HTML to accommodate my column width. If you wish to view the page in detail, you may choose to view the picture at full size without downloading another version. You can, of course, visit the actual site.
Scope
This project was begun in August, 2003 and was completed in October, 2003. This research was done for a paper written for the Virginia Society for Technology in Education, published by their journal. Access dates accompany each deconstructed website. The 34 sites used for the paper "Usability and Accessibility in Virginia School Division Websites" are included below.
The Sites
Choose below to read notes on each of the sites reviewed for this research project. The analysis (data) findings on this research, when complete, will appear in a paper I am authoring. I may choose to share this data on the site at a future time, when complete.
- Albemarle County
- Amelia County
- Arlington County
- Augusta County
- Bland County
- Buena Vista
- Charlottesville City
- Colonial Heights
- Dinwiddie County
- Fauquier County
- Frederick County
- Fredricksburg City
- Gloucester County
- Hanover County
- Harrisonburg City Public Schools
- Henrico County
- King William County
- Manassas City
- Manassas Park
- Martinsville City
- Northumberland County
- Patrick County
- Portsmouth City
- Prince George County
- Radford City
- Roanoke County
- Rockbridge County
- Surry County Public Schools
- Suffolk County
- Virginia Beach
- Warren County
- Williamsburg-James City County
- West Point
- York County
A Point of Comparison
Copyright © 2003-04 by John G. Hendron. All Rights Reserved.