3‑10

3 Information System Digital Media

Improvement of Web Content Accessibility
for Competition Results Distribution
YAMAMOTO Shinya

The competition results distribution system is the most widely used system in the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 The users include athletes broadcasters spectators athletic organizations press and staff At the Olympic
and Paralympic Games Sydney 2000 visually impaired people from Australia complained to the organising committee thatthey could not use the results delivery system This was the worldʼs first lawsuit regarding Web accessibility The Olympic
and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will place even greater emphasis on Web accessibility than in the past Games In thedevelopment of the results distribution system where it is challenging to ensure Web accessibility we conducted expert
tests that were taken by visually impaired people We identified more than 100 issues that did not conform with theaccessibility guidelines and worked to improve them This article describes the outline of the initiatives and solutions to theissuesKeywords：Accessibility Competition results User testing WCAG JIS X 8341‑3

developed so that people with disabilities can use them”

1．Introduction

Web

Advances in technology allow people to collect the
information they want anytime
various ways

Howeveranywhereand innot all people can takeaccessibility

also

benefits

peoplewithout

disabilities (Note 1) Accessibility is essential for people withdisabilities and is helpful for everyone in various
situations

advantage of this convenience Particularly for people

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has identified

with disabilities technology has the power to make“diversity and harmony” as one of the basic concepts ofthings possible that they might otherwise have given up

the Games (Note 2) In line with this concept the accessibil-

Nevertheless some technology services are still inacces-

ity of the Gamesʼ technology services was to be improved

sible to people with disabilities

to ensure that information is accessible to everyone

Web creator Tim Berners Lee says “The power of the
Web is in its universality

Access by everyone

regardless of disability is an essential aspect” Theregardless of race color gender sexual orientation
language religion politics disability or other disadvantages

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) founded by Tim

Under these circumstances the Tokyo 2020 Organis-

Berners Lee explains “Web accessibility means that

ing Committee worked to improve the Web accessibility

websitesof the results distribution system for the Tokyo 2020

tools

and technologies are designed andOlympic and Paralympic Games (hereinafter referred to

YAMAMOTO Shinya
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 174‑181 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

174(Note 1) W3C Accessibility
https://www w3 org/standards/webdesign/accessibility(Note 2) Conference Visionhttps://www tokyo2020 jp/ja/games/games‑vision/index html

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as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) which is the system with the22most users

Games Result Distribution Service and Web
Accessibility

Among the functions of the results distribution

2．The Olympics and Web Accessibility
21

system developed by the global partners and provided
at each Olympic and Paralympic Games the results

Litigation Case in the Sydney 2000 Games

pages in particular are used not only by the media and

The Olympic and Paralympic Games and Webother Games officials but also by viewers around theaccessibility are closely related : In 2000 a user withworld through the official website and mobile applica-

visual impairment in Australia sued the Sydney 2000

tions To provide easy‑to‑understand information to a

Olympic Games Organising Committee

The userwide range of viewers regardless of disabilities theclaimed that the inability to use the official website of thecontent of the competition results distribution system

Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with screen readers andmust be updated in real time This had to be done using a

Braille displays was a violation of the Disability

large amount of non‑textual content such as complex

Discrimination Act (DDA) The lawsuit was the worldʼstables and graphs to provide numerical data such as

first web accessibility lawsuit (Note 3) The visually im-scores and times which are actual competition data

paired plaintiffs demanded the following three items by

This data must be accessible to viewers with andthe time of the Games (September 2000)

without disabilities This is a characteristic that makes it
hard to ensure Web accessibility()

Provide alternative text for all images()

Ensure access from the Schedule page to theIndex of Sports()

Ensure access to the Results Tables on thewebsite during the Games

3．Tokyo 2020 Web Accessibility Policy
31

Web Accessibility Guidelines

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has
established the “IPC Accessibility Guide” (Note 4) which

The Sydney Organising Committee responded as

the Olympic and Paralympic host cities and Organising
Committees must follow The Guideʼs 7 5 10 Communi-

follows :cation requires that websites meet the W3C accessibility()

Alternative text for images was being progressively implemented as part of continual develop-

(

The

Web

Content

Accessibility

Guidelines

ment(WCAG) (Note 5) of this W3C Recommendation include)

three levels :Access from the “Schedule page” to the “Index
of Sport” was possible by inputting the required

A : A minimum required level to secure accessibility

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the web

AA : A level required for public organizations in otherbrowser directly(

guidelines)

Access to the Results Tables would cause therespondent unjustifiable hardship to comply as
the site had already undergone “substantial

countries
AAA : It is not recommended to set AAA as a targetlevel
W3C recommended WCAG 2 0 in 2008

which

implementation” and planning The resolution forchanged to ISO/IEC 40500 : 2012 and JIS X 8341‑3 : 2016that would cost an estimated 150 million yen over

The contents of these three guidelines are all identical

368 working days
In the judgment the plaintiffʼs request was fully
approved The Organising Committee was ordered tomake all improvements before the start of the GamesIn the end the Organising Committee compensatedthe plaintiff because only partial improvements could bemade before the start of the Games(Note 3) Minimize Legal Risk
https://www w3 org/WAI/business‑case/#minimize‑legal‑risk(Note 4) IPC Accessibility Guide
https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/IPC%20Acce
ssibility%20Guide%20-%204th%20edition%20-%20October%202020̲0.pdf(Note 5) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 1
https://www w3 org/TR/WCAG21/

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175

32

Tokyo 2020 Accessibility Guidelines and Poli-

validations

cies

Games were handed over to the Organising Committee

Based on the IPC Accessibility Guide the Tokyo 2020

The issues remaining from the current

for the next Games

Organising Committee developed the “Tokyo 2020
Accessibility Guidelines” (Note 6) which were approved by

42

the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) The

While extracting issues through heuristic diagnostics

Guidelinesʼ 2 4 3 Website Criteria states that the website

and proceeding with the improvement we conductedshould be developed to include all people as users anduser tests twice to check from the userʼs perspective It

Accessibility User Test

meet the requirements of the W3C Accessibility

was to determine if there were any omissions

Guidelines The W3C Accessibility Guidelines are theimprovement was sufficient and if users with visual

most important guidelines for the Tokyo 2020 Games

impairments could use the assistive technology tools

ifUnder this policy the competition results distribution(screen reader and magnifier) without any issues The

system to be made available on the official website

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has conducted two

during the Games was also designed to comply with theuser tests with screen readers and magnifiers The

AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee hoped to gain

(WCAG) 2 1

knowledge and insight into the digital tools used bypeople with disabilities and encourage the participation

4．Validation of Web Accessibilityof the younger generation in the Tokyo 2020 Games The
test subjects were students with visual impairments

Web accessibility of the competition results distribu-

enrolled at the Tsukuba University of Technology (thetion page was evaluated using two methods : ʻHeuristic

first national university in Japan to make visuallyDiagnosticsʼ method which is a process where experts

impaired and hearing‑impaired students a condition foruse a thumb rule to measure the accessibility of user

admission)interfaces in independent walkthroughs and report

language test websites for the Olympic and Paralympic

The test subjects were two Japanese‑

issues and ʻAccessibility User Testʼ method in which

Games results distribution system The test scenarios

actual users verify the operation of the system underwere the Olympic and Paralympic Games where 12

development This is because some issues may not betasks were set for eachnoticed only by heuristic diagnostics

students were employed as testers for the first and ten

Seven visually impaired

for the second The test environment consisted of using
41

Heuristic Diagnostics

Accessibility experts conducted the following diagnostics based on their experience :their PCs and their screen readers (NVDA PC‑Talker
JAWS) magnifiers (Windows standard) and high‑contrast displays (inverted black and white) Since theuser test and heuristic validation are evaluated from()

Checklist creation : A checklist of 30 items forLevel A and 20 items for Level AA was createddifferent perspectives the number of questions wascounted independently for eachfor the achievement criteria()

Selection of target screens : 53 screen templates

421

November 2020)

were selected for the competition results distribution system(

Results of the First User Test (Conducted in

There were 33 issues of which 18 required improve-

Validation and issue definition : 103 issues thatments excluding minor issues The breakdown of these

did not conform to the success criteria were18 issues to the WCAG success criteria is as follows :)extracted(

Creation of improvement plan and instructions･

1 3 1 (A)“Info and Relationships” : 2 issues

for improvement : Present the impact cause and･

1 3 2 (A)“Meaningful Sequence” : 2 issues

specific improvement plan to the developer and･

2 4 4 (A)“Link Purpose” : 1 issue)

give instructions for improvement
The 103 issues in March 2020 were reduced to 8 issues
in December 2020 through repeated improvements and176(Note 6) Tokyo 2020 Accessibility Guidelines
https://www.tokyo2020.jp/ja/organising-committee/accessibility/
index.html

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･

2 4 5 (AA)“Multiple Ways” : 6 issues･

2 4 6 (AA)“Headings and Labels” : 5 issues･

3 2 4 (AA)“Consistent Identification” : 2 issues

These issues which all tester students indicated theywould like to see fixed are presented in 5 1 10
422

Results of the Second User Test (Conductedin March 2021)

There were 39 issues (the number of issues increased

Figure 1

Issue of Medal Identification in the Competition Results
Display

Figure 2

Improvement of Medal Identification in the Competition
Results Display

512

Text Alternative is Not Provided for Medalfrom the first round because there were three moretesters and some test scenarios were changed) except
for minor issues three issues that required improvements The breakdown of the three cases that did notmeet the WCAG success criteria is as follows･

1 3 2 (A)“Meaningful Sequence” : 2 issues･

3 2 4 (AA)“Consistent Identification” : 1 issue

Among these issues the issue that many of the testers
indicated that they would like to see fixed was theinability to find the desired event This was because
there were too many choices in the menu for event
selection

This issue needed to be addressed as

described in 5 2 below

Images［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 1 1“Non‑text Content”(Level A)］
Because no alternative text (alt attribute) is set for

5．Major Web Accessibility Issues andImprovements

the medal image (img element) the screen reader reads

As mentioned above more than 100 issues required

user cannot obtain the medal information (Figure 3)“medal1 png” as the image file name The screen reader

improvements due to non‑compliance with WCAG 2 1
Level A and Level AA accessibility requirements The→We improved the medal image (img element) toprovide a text alternative such as alt=“gold medal”

major issues and improvements among these issues aredescribed below

513

There is No Heading for the Competition Icons［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1
51

Major Issues and Improvements“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

Below is a list of significant issues identified during
validation and testing and their remedies

The text “live” was not marked up as a heading so
users could not understand that the competition was live
when they read the competition name on the competition

511

Color is Used as the Only Visual Means ofConveying Information

icon (Figure 4)→Improvements made to mark up the text “live” with

［Nonconformance with WCAG Sucess Criterion 1 4 1

heading elements and set supplementary information“Use of Color”(Level A)］(title attribute)

Users who have difficulty distinguishing between
colors cannot distinguish between gold

silverandbronze medals because the medals are identical in shape(Figure 1)→Improvements were made to add text information
within the image of the medals (Figure 2)

514

Semantic Elements and Attributes Not Being
Used in the Detailed Competition Results
Table［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

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177

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Issue of Medal Images in the Event Result Display

Issue of Heading in the Competition Schedule Display

Issue of Reading Out Numbers in the Detailed Competition Results Table

Because heading and data cells are not correctly

515

associated with each other using the <th> element andLabels Not Being Provided for Competition
Result Scores

scope attribute screen reader users cannot understand［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1

what the numbers are or which athleteʼs information“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

they are about because only the numbers are read out
continuously (Figure 5)→Improvements were made to associate heading cellswith data cells using the <th> element and scope
attribute

Since no headings or labels are provided for the scores
screen reader users cannot understand the meaning of
the numbers read out (i e which teamʼs score)(Figure
6)→The score section was improved to include the teamnames such as title=“final score of Japan”

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Figure 6

Figure 8

Issue of Notation in Page Title

Figure 9

Correction of Page Title Notation

Issue of Reading Out Competition Results Score

Figure 7

Issue of Reading Out the Winner in the Competition
Results

516

The Order of Code Description in the Competition Result Score Not Being Appropriate［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］
The screen reader reads “Iran Winner” to read the

Figure 10

Issue of Not Being Able to Find Links

Figure 11

Issue of Not Being Able to Find Links

HTML source code in the order of its description
This misinforms the screen reader user that Mexico isa Winner when it is not a Winner (Figure 7)”→The relevant information was improved in thesource code to be written in sequence without separating
them
517

Page Title Not Written Properly［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 2“Page Titled”(Level A)］
The screen reader first reads the page title The
screen reader user cannot understand that this is anarchery page unless the text of the page is read out aswell (Figure 8)→The page title has been improved to include thename of the competition (Figure 9)
518

Inability to Recognize the Link Destinationfrom the Link Text

［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 4“Link Purpose”(Level A)］
The name of the country athlete and sport is a link

Figure 12

Issue of Not Noticing Submenus

but users cannot tell what page the link will take them toby just looking at the link text (Figure 10)
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→The link text has been improved to set thedestination pageʼs title using the title attribute (Figure
11)519

The Existence of Submenus Going Unnoticed［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 5“Multiple Ways”(Level AA)］
Screen reader users do not notice the existence ofsubmenus because they are placed above the h1 heading(Figure 12)→This issue affected all pages and was difficult tocorrect due to development resource and schedule
constraints so it was addressed with the alternative
measure “accessibility help” described below
5 1 10

The Competition List Not Being in the Orderof the 50‑character Kana Syllabary on theJapanese Page

［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 2“Meaningful Sequence”(Level A)］
Screen reader users cannot select the desiredcompetition from the competition list because thecompetition list is not in the order of the 50‑character
Figure 13

Issue with Competition Names Not Listed in Alphabetical Orderkana syllabary (Figure 13) Since no specific requirements were initially presented

the order of thecompetition names on the Japanese page was numerals
katakana and kanji in the JIS code The English page

Figure 14

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Accessibility Help

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was in alphabetical orderopinions of visually impaired users and were set at→The order of the competition names was improved

three levels : high medium and low These areso that they were in the order of the 50‑character kanasyllabary combining kana and kanjidifferent from those stipulated in the project()

The developer was presented with specificHTML source code improvement solutions and52

Alternate Solutions for Issues That are Difficult
to Fixscreen images of the improvements()

Indicate the issues to the developer when they

Among the issues identified in the user test large‑

are non‑compliant with the success criteria of thescale improvements that would affect the entire system

WCAG and any areas where the users will have

could not be implemented due to constraints on

issuesdevelopment resources and schedule As an alternative
we implemented a help page “Accessibility Help” forusers who use assistive technologies (e gscreenreaders)(Figure 14)

We believe these points will make it easier to proceedwith Web Accessibility improvements
We are confident that the significant improvements in

The following four items are included on the help
page :

Web accessibility achieved in the competition results
distribution system based on the testing and proposed
improvements proactively conducted by the Tokyo 2020()

How to use a pull‑down menu at the top of apage

Organising Committee will be carried over to future
games

(

)

How to find an event schedule

Finally we would like to thank the faculty staff and()

How to find a ʻlive nowʼ event

students of the Tsukuba University of Technology for()

How to find Baseball or Softballtheir cooperation as testers and NTT Claruty Corporation for their cooperation as facilitators in the user test

6．Wrap‑up
The factors that contributed to the success of theTokyo 2020 Organising Committeeʼs Web accessibility
improvements can be summarized as follows :()

Conducting user testing･The authentic voice from users resonates wellwith developers･

Problems are found that the experts were
unaware of()(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 31 2022)

YAMAMOTO Shinya
Senior Expert at NTT DATA Corporation
Public and Infrastructure Business Development Department He graduated from Osaka
Kyoiku University in 1992 and joined NTT
DATA Corporation in the same year In 2012
he received the “Certified Human Centered
Design Professional” certificate from the Human Centered Design Organization He engaged in web accessibility improvement for the
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee from 2019
to 2021 He is from Gamagori City Aichi
Prefecture

Represent an ordering of priority for each
issue

Priority levels were set based on the㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

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