Dr Vivienne Conway, Founder, Web Key IT Pty Ltd

Qualifications

Vivienne Conway has completed a PhD at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. Her field of research is website accessibility, particularly as it relates to the National Transition Strategy for Website Accessibility (NTS) introduced by the Australian Federal Government. Vivienne’s thesis is available from: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1405/

Vivienne is a member of  a number of W3C working groups including the Research and Development Working Group, the WCAG Working Group, the Education and Outreach Working Group and the Evaluation Methodology Task Force.  Web Key IT Pty Ltd is now a full member of the W3C, one of only ten member organisations in Australia.

Previously Vivienne completed a First Class Honours Degree where she examined the accessibility of the public library websites in Western Australia. The websites audited were those attached to local government websites where there was an online link to the public library services.  It is perhaps not too surprising that the research indicated that no public library in WA adhered to Level A of WCAG 1.0 when the research was completed in 2010.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) awarded the Twila Ann Janssen Award for Disability Services to Vivienne in 2010 for her work with website accessibility in the WA public libraries.

In 2011 Vivienne won a Google award to travel to Hyderabad, India to present her proposed PhD research into website accessibility at the W4A 2011 Conference. This was a co-located conference with the World Wide Web Conference in March 2011. Presenting at this conference has provided an increased awareness of the efforts of people around the globe who are making the web an inclusive place for everyone.  Vivienne is now a member of the W4A Conference Committee as well as the bid committee who will be hosting the WWW 2017 / W4A 2017 Conference in Perth W.A.

Vivienne launched Web Key IT Pty Ltd in July 2011. This business initiative specialises in website accessibility auditing, training, and consulting. Services include technical auditing services along with extensive user testing by a group of experienced usability testers, all of whom have a disability and are assistive technology users.

Vivienne has been one of the judges of the Australian Web Industry Association awards, principally judging the nominated websites for accessibility.  In addition, she regularly presents at conferences and forums on the subject of accessibility most recently for the Australian Computer Society, Department of Agriculture and Food, Department of Health, and the Australia/New Zealand Testing Board.

Vivienne would say that helping to ensure website become more accessible for people with disabilities is why she gets up each morning!

Journal Publications

Conway, Vivienne. Website Accessibility in Western Australian Public Libraries [online]. Australian Library Journal, the, Vol. 60, No. 2, Jun 2011: 103-112. Availability: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=989784414383943;res=IELHSS  ISSN: 0004-9670.

Conway, Vivienne; Brown, Justin; Hollier, Scott; and Nicholl, Cam. Website accessibility: A comparative analysis of Australian National and state/territory library websites [online]. Australian Library Journal, the, Vol. 61, No. 3, Aug 2012: 170. ISSN: 0004-9670.

Brown, J. A., & Conway, V. L. (2012). Web Accessibility in Corporate Australia: Perceptions versus Reality

Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Internet Computing (ICOMP2012). (pp. 157-163). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. CSREA Press.

Vigo, Markel; Brown, Justin; & Conway, Vivienne. (2013). Benchmarkng web accessibility evaluation tools: measuring the harm of sole reliance on automated tests. Paper presented at the W4A 2013 co-located with 22nd International World Wide Web Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Technical paper

Honours Thesis

Conway, V. Website accessibility issues in Western Australian public libraries. 2010, Thesis (B.I.T. (Hons)) Edith Cowan University, 2010. Available from: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1405/

Conference papers

Conway, Vivienne. Accessibility Evaluation Methodologies, tips and tricks for all. Presented at OZeWAI 2011, LaTrobe University

Conway, Vivienne. How to use the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM). Presented at OZeWAI 2012, LaTrobe University

Conway, Vivienne. How accessible are Australian bank websites? Presented at Edge of the Web, Perth WA, March 2013

Magazine and non-refereed publications

Conway, V. (2010). Web Accessibility Issues with Blackboard at Edith Cowan University. eCULTURE, 3(1).  Retrieved from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/eculture/vol3/iss1/2

Conway, Vivienne. Disability and the Web: Why website Accessibility Matters. Presentation for INFOSCI@ECU Seminars. Available at http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cinfosci/1/

Conway, Vivienne. One Web for All [online]. Incite, Vol. 32, No. 6, Jun 2011: 13-14. Availability:  http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=362779245821040;res=IELHSS
ISSN: 0158-0876.