AMAri: A Reporting Interface for Accessibility Evaluations
Silvia Mirri, Matteo Casadei, Ludovico A. Muratori, Matteo Battistelli, Paola Salomoni · 2012 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A) · doi:10.1145/2207016.2207035
Summary
This short paper presents AMAri (Accessibility Monitoring Application Reporting Interface), an open-source web-based tool designed to make large-scale accessibility evaluation data understandable and actionable for distributed web authoring and editorial teams. AMAri sits on top of the VaMoLa accessibility validator and the AMA monitoring system, both developed at the University of Bologna, which together perform automated and periodic accessibility evaluations across large numbers of URLs. The core problem AMAri addresses is that accessibility monitoring generates enormous volumes of raw validation data that are difficult for non-specialist editorial staff to interpret and act upon. AMAri solves this by providing a personalized, widget-based dashboard where each user can configure custom views of the data through charts (pie, histogram, timeline, density) paired with equivalent data tables. The tool itself is built with PHP, HTML, CSS, and AJAX, and was designed and developed according to WCAG 2.0 and ARIA guidelines — practicing what it preaches by ensuring the reporting interface is itself accessible, with table alternatives provided for every chart.
Key findings
AMAri provides five configurable dimensions for creating personalized accessibility report widgets: (1) time — single date or interval, with auto-updating to show the most recent evaluation; (2) scope — individual website or groups of sites, with category-based comparisons; (3) standards framework — results can be viewed against WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0, Italy's Stanca Act, or mapped to accessibility barriers grouped by affected disability (blindness, low vision, color blindness, deafness, movement impairments, cognitive disabilities, photosensitive epilepsy); (4) geography — comparing accessibility levels across different regions; and (5) chart type — automatically suggested based on the data dimensions selected. A wizard guides users through widget creation, and a persistent options summary panel allows reconfiguration. Each user's home page becomes a customized dashboard of saved widgets, enabling different stakeholders to focus on the accessibility dimensions most relevant to their role.
Relevance
AMAri addresses a practical gap in accessibility practice: the disconnect between automated evaluation output and the people who need to act on it. Most accessibility tools produce technical reports aimed at auditors or developers, not the content editors, project managers, or regional administrators who often need to understand and respond to accessibility status. The widget-based, multi-dimensional approach — letting users slice data by time, geography, guideline set, or barrier type — anticipates the kind of accessibility dashboard thinking that has become more common in enterprise accessibility programs. The geographic dimension is particularly notable, reflecting AMAri's deployment context in Italian public administration where regional comparisons drive policy. As a two-page demo paper, it describes the tool's design rather than evaluating its effectiveness, so there is no user study or evidence of impact on editorial workflows.
Tags: accessibility monitoring · accessibility evaluation · data visualization · accessibility tools · reporting · accessibility dashboards
Standards referenced: WCAG 1.0 · WCAG 2.0 · WAI-ARIA · Stanca Act