For the past few years, Sweden has worked towards digitalisation of the public sector, however without any legislated requirements for accessibility. In order to make public sector body websites and applications accessible to all users a new Swedish law, based on the Web Accessibility Directive, has been implemented. This new law dictates that public sector websites and applications need to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in September of 2020. This study explores factors influencing web practitioners when developing accessible websites, applications and services for the public sector. This is done through a survey and semi-structured interviews, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The new law does not provide guidance on methods or evaluations to develop products and services accessible for all users. Instead it has a main focus on compliance with WCAG 2.1. The result show that the close connection between the law and the guidelines removes the focus from the users in evaluations. Instead the focus is on measurable compliance with the law through the use of static checklists or automatic testing tools. As long as the method of using a checklist or automatic tool is presented as equally sufficient as user testing in terms of reaching compliance with the law, clients requesting accessible solutions will not change their priorities or allocate resources towards user testing. The findings are presented in a model representing the factors influencing web development and accessibility evaluation and how these factors are connected and dependent on each other.

Le Web est un environnement éphémère. Alors que de nouveaux sites Web émergent chaque jour, il arrive que certaines communautés disparaissent entièrement de la surface de la toile, ne laissant derrière elles que des traces incomplètes voire inexistantes. Face à la volatilité du Web vivant, plusieurs initiatives d’archivage cherchent malgré tout à préserver la mémoire du Web passé. Mais aujourd’hui, force est de constater qu’un mystère demeure : Pourquoi, alors qu’elles n’ont jamais été aussi vastes et aussi nombreuses, les archives Web ne font-elles pas déjà l’objet de multiples recherches historiques ? Initialement construites pour inscrire la mémoire de la toile sur un support durable, ces archives ne doivent pourtant pas être considérées comme une représentation fidèle du Web vivant. Elles sont les traces directes des outils de collecte qui les arrachent à leur temporalité d’origine. Partant de là, cette thèse ambitionne de redonner aux chercheurs les moyens théoriques et techniques d’une plus grande maniabilité du Web passé, en définissant une nouvelle unité d’exploration des archives Web : le fragment Web, un sous-ensemble cohérent et auto-suffisant d’une page Web. Pour ce faire, nous nous inscrirons dans l’héritage des travaux pionniers de l’Atlas e-Diasporas qui permit, dans les années 2000, de cartographier et d’archiver plusieurs milliers de sites Web migrants. Source principale de données à partir desquelles nous déploierons nos réflexions, c’est à travers l’angle particulier des représentations en ligne des diasporas que nous chercherons à explorer les archives Web de l’Atlas. / The Web is an unsteady environment. As Web sites emerge every days, whole communities may fade away over time by leaving too few or incomplete traces on the living Web. Facing this phenomenon, several archiving initiatives try to preserve the memory of the Web. But today, a mystery remains : While they have never been so vast and numerous, why are the Web archives not already the subject of many historical researches ? In reality, Web archives should not be considered as a faithful representation of the living Web. In fact, they are the direct traces of the archiving tools that tear them away from their original temporality. Thus, this thesis aims to give researchers the theoretical and technical means for a greater manageability of the Web archives, by defining a new unit of exploration : the Web fragment, a coherent and self-sufficient subset of a Web page. To that end, we will follow the pioneering work of the e-Diasporas Atlas which allowed, in the 2000s, to map and archive thousands of migrant Web sites. Main source of data from which we will unfold our reflections, it is through the particular angle of online representations of diasporas that we will explore the Web archives of the Atlas.

In recent years there has been an increased interest on the role of web-based simulations in student learning. I have conducted a preliminary study on the effectiveness of interactivity in 3-Dimensional simulations to help students learn the interference phenomenon. The study was based on a Pretest-Posttest design with the experimental and control groups completing different but equivalent web-based tutorials. The experimental tutorial was based on the use of highly interactive 3-dimentional simulations developed by the WebTOP project. The only difference between the control tutorial and the experimental tutorial is that the control tutorial used static images instead of simulations. The content of both tutorials addressed the common misconceptions students usually have about waves and interference as identified in previous physics education research. The results suggest that student learning from both tutorials was significant with no significant difference in learning between the two groups. The study also identified several factors that might have affected the results and that should be the subject of further study.

With increased use of the web in teaching there is growing interest in the effectiveness of web-based tools in facilitating student learning. I have conducted a case study on the effectiveness of web-based tutorial alternative. I designed a web-based homework tutorial about two-dimensional kinematics and conducted two experiments to evaluate its effectiveness. The evaluation focused on student?s performance and attitude. In Experiment 1, the experimental group and control group worked with the interactive web-based and regular homework respectively. Both groups worked at home. In Experiment 2, the experimental group worked with the interactive web-based homework used in Experiment 1 in a lab setting. The control group in Experiment 2 worked on the same homework problems as the control group of Experiment 1 but via computer in a lab. The evaluation indicated that the interactive web-based homework could be considered as an alternative to the general homework. Moreover it appeared to strengthen attitudes and encourage more students to complete the assignment.

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En esta Tesis se desarrolla el tema de la reusabilidad de software dentro del paradigma de Servicios Web. La principal motivación para ello es analizar el profundo impacto que tienen ambos conceptos en la Industria Informática e Ingeniería de Software. Entender y descubrir si los Servicios Web son el remedio para la enfermedad que inhibe a la Reusabilidad de Software es un problema todavía abierto en las Ciencias de la Computación. Se utiliza la temática relacionada con la integración de aplicaciones como eje conductor para explicar los conceptos de Servicios Web y Reusabilidad. Esta opción se fundamenta en comprender que los requerimientos de la integración concuerdan con los de reuso. Luego de desarrollar los conceptos de la tesis se puede concluir que existe una vinculación natural entre la Reusabilidad y los Servicios Web, especialmente potenciada por la integración de aplicaciones, de datos y de conocimiento. Se entiende que los Servicios Web y la Orientación a Servicios son fuertes paliativos para la falta de reusabilidad. Sin embargo la adopción de cada uno requiere un gran esfuerzo, que puede involucrar a transformaciones significativa en la infraestructura informática de una empresa. No se puede llegar a una conclusión definitiva respecto si los Servicios Web y la Orientación a Servicio son la cura a la falta de reusabilidad. Por un lado, es necesario que determinadas tecnologías maduren, como los Servicios Web Semánticos, para valorar su éxito en la automatización del reuso. Por otro lado, no se pude hablar de cura definitiva, ya que la complejidad de la reusabilidad, como se explicó, va generando nuevos requisitos y escenarios. En síntesis, los Servicios Web, y en especial su aporte a la integración e interoperatividad, favorecieron a brindar requerimientos realistas y soluciones viables a cuestiones sobre reuso. Ambos conceptos presentan una sinergia propia. A la luz de lo investigado, los Servicios Web y la Orientación a Servicios resultan tener altas probabilidades de éxito para la adopción y práctica de la Reusabilidad de Software. / In this Thesis the author intenteds to study in deep software reusability within the Web Services paradigm. The main motivation in the subjects choice has to do with the deep impact that has both concepts in the Computer Science and Software Engineering. It is motivating to understand and to discover if the Web Services are the remedy for the disease that inhibits to reusability. Application Integration is the thematic used to explain the concepts of Web Services and Reusability. This option is based on understanding that the requirements of integration agree with those of reuse. After to developing all concepts of the Thesis, it can be concluded that a natural entailment between Reusability andWeb Services exists, especially harnessed by the applications integration, data and knowledge. It is understood that the Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures are strong palliatives for the lack of reusabilidad. Nevertheless the adoption of each requires a concerted effort, that can involve big transformations in the computer science infrastructure of a company. Its not a definitive conclusion respect to whether Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures are both a cure to the lack of reuse. On the one hand, it is necessary that determined technologies mature, like the Semantic Web Services, to evaluate his success in reuse automatization. Besides, there isnt definitive cure, since the reusability complexity, is generating new requirements and scenes. Web Services, and especially their contribution to integration and interoperativity, has really favored to offer to realistic requirements and viable solutions to reuse. Both concepts present synergy. Hence, Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures turn out to have good chances of success for Software Reusability adoption and practice.