E-Accessibility: from content-centric approach to communicative approach

It is argued that traditional accessibility standards have a content-centric perspective and proposes, in response, a communicative approach of e-Accessibility where the interface is a mean of communication and action. The communicative approach finds its theoretical foundations in significant models from the Human Computer Interaction field; particularly in those that adopted Semiotics and Activity Theory as a basis for studying interface design. Its originality lies in integrating the discursive dimension to the accessibility model. A portal that offers massive open online courses (MOOC) is taken as a case study. Considering the accessible design solutions proposed for this particular case study, a comparison between the content-centric perspective and the communicative approach is made in order to show that the latter can complement the former in pursuit for a more complete communicative accessibility.