Usability evaluation of academic websites using automated tools

In a bid to reposition the universities in Nigeria, the management of various universities in the country has been embarking on various technology innovations aimed at increasing and improving the web presence of their institutions. This involves re-designing of websites using the latest state of the art technology so as to improve its usability. This research was conducted in order to know the usability level via accessibility evaluation of the federal universities in Nigeria. The automated tools used are Web Accessibility checker, HERA and WAVE. The tools inspected the conformity of the websites with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0 and 2.0) by reporting violations in forms of errors and problems. Results show that all the websites have a number of accessibility errors hence they are not in total compliance with WCAG. Recommendations for improvement on the websites are included.