Abstract
This paper seeks to establish the nature and extent of errors in e-commerce websites as diagnosed by two automated evaluation tools and how the websites of tourist organisations from South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda compare with those based in Europe. A total of 318 websites from various sectors of the tourism industry were accessed and rated for content accessibility and usability using the automated tools Bobby and LIFT. Although the errors detected did not affect the great majority of e-commerce users, they hinder the usability and accessibility by people with disabilities. It was found that the African web sites were comparable with their European counterparts in terms of their Bobby and LIFT rating. It is recommended that the African countries put in place their own web accessibility and usability regulations, which would ensure accessibility for all users, as this may give them the competitive edge they need.
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Maswera, T., Dawson, R., Edwards, J. (2005). Analysis of Usability and Accessibility Errors of E-Commerce Websites of Tourist Organisations in Four African Countries. In: Frew, A.J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2005. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-211-27283-6_48
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-211-27283-6_48
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-24148-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-211-27283-1