Amar Ranjan Dash

Web portals have served as an excellent medium to facilitate user centric services for organizations irrespective of the type, size, and domain of operation. The objective of these portals has been to deliver a plethora of services such as information dissemination, transactional services, and customer feedback. Therefore, the design of a web portal is crucial in order that it is accessible to a wide range of user community irrespective of age group, physical abilities, and level of literacy. In this paper, we have studied the compliance of WCAG 2.0 by three different categories of Indian web sites which are most frequently accessed by a large section of user community. We have provided a quantitative evaluation of different aspects of accessibility which we believe can pave the way for better design of web sites by taking care of the deficiencies inherent in the web portals.

CPU scheduling is one of the most crucial operations performed by operating systems. Different conventional algorithms like FCFS, SJF, Priority, and RR (Round Robin) are available for CPU Scheduling. The effectiveness of Priority and Round Robin scheduling algorithm completely depends on selection of priority features of processes and on the choice of time quantum. In this paper a new CPU scheduling algorithm has been proposed, named as CSPDABRR (Characteristic specific Prioritized Dynamic Average Burst Round Robin), that uses seven priority features for calculating priority of processes and uses dynamic time quantum instead of static time quantum used in RR. The performance of the proposed algorithm is experimentally compared with traditional RR and Priority scheduling algorithm in both uni-processor and multi-processor environment. The results of our approach presented in this paper demonstrate improved performance in terms of average waiting time, average turnaround time, and optimal priority feature.

With the increase in number of electronic services being delivered through web portals, a lot of emphasis is being given to ensure the quality of web portals in terms of contents and associated design aspects. This has led to studies investigating various requirements of web users and to guidelines for quality enhancement in order to make web portals accessible to all irrespective of one's age, physical challenges, ethnicity, and level of literacy. In this chapter, the authors address the accessibility issues of web portals based on ongoing research. They analyze the accessibility in three levels (i.e., at the levels of authoring tool, web component, and user-agent). The contents of this chapter can throw light on the design aspects of web portals, web browsers, and media players to make them more suitable for users in general.

Web portals are being considered as excellent means for conducting teaching and learning activities electronically. The number of online services such as course enrollment, tutoring through online course materials, evaluation and even certification through web portals is increasing day by day. However, the effectiveness of an educational web portal depends on its accessibility to a wide range of students irrespective of their age, and physical abilities. Accessibility of web portals largely depends on their userfriendliness in terms of design, contents, assistive features, and online support. In this paper, we have critically analyzed the web portals of thirty Indian Universities of different categories based on the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. The purpose of this study is to point out the deficiencies that are commonly observed in web portals and help web designers to remove such deficiencies from the academic web portals with a view to enhance their accessibility.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 2 table

Over the years, there has been steady increase in tele-density of developing countries which has enabled citizens to access digital services offered by their governments. This has not only reduced the digital divide but has become instrumental in realizing m-Governance to a large extent as more and more people have access to cell phones at an affordable cost. In keeping with the \"Digital India\" campaign to empower the citizens by ensuring that government services are made available through online infrastructure and Internet connectivity, a plethora of digital services are being delivered through government portals. But, this can have a real impact when common people can access government portals easily, irrespective of their age, culture, disabilities, literacy level etc. The accessibility of web portals largely depends on the design of portals as well as the web-browsers being used for the purpose. In this paper, we have critically analyzed the accessibility features of fifteen commonly used web browsers for android mobile phones with respect to the UAAG 2.0 international standards. The findings thereof, can guide the designers to improve upon the design of cell phone browsers by taking care of the deficiencies. The overall objective is to develop user-friendly web browsers for cell phones enabling diverse user groups to access a wide range of m-Governance services with ease.

Web portals have become widely accepted and convenient means of electronic presence for organisations, businesses, and governments. As a result, a plethora of information services are now being delivered by organisations be it government, business firms, or academic institutions across the world. This has raised concern for accessibility of such web services by users belonging to different age groups, physical challenges, ethnicity, and levels of literacy. In order to enhance web accessibility, one must consider the accessibility of both web portals and web browsers. Towards this end, in this paper, we have studied the accessibility compliance of some popular web browsers with respect to User Agent Accessibility Guideline (UAAG 2.0). We have provided a quantitative evaluation of different aspects of accessibility of web browsers which we believe can help in the better designing of web browsers by taking care of the deficiencies inherent to them.