Accessibility of Norwegian Municipalities Websites: A Qualitative System Dynamics Approach Ahmed A. Abdelgawad 1 , Mikael H. Snaprud 1 , and John Krogstie 2 1 University of Agder Department of Information and Communication Technology Jon Lilletunsvei 9, NO-4879 Grimstad, Norway ahmedg@uia.no , mikael.snaprud@uia.no 2 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Computer and Information Science Sem Sælandsvei 7-9, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway krogstie@idi.ntnu.no Abstract. Access to all public websites is crucial to assuring equal opportunities for all citizens to participate in society. Several studies have been carried out to analyse the accessibility of websites. However, we have not been able to find any studies on the factors (other than technical) affecting website accessibility. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explore different factors prior to the web page development that may have an influence on the accessibility of municipal websites in Norway. This is achieved through reviewing relevant literature and performing a set of in-depth interviews with web-masters and web-editors from various Norwegian municipalities. The findings from these sources were compiled into a Causal Loop Diagram. Several leverage points to enhance public websites accessibility were discovered by ex- ploring the Causal Loop Diagram: • Increasing the budget devoted to the workforce, paying more attention to the se- lection process while recruiting and retaining the experienced workforce mem- bers. • Keeping the desired development rate at a level lower than the capacity of the available workforce. • Training the workforce in HTML and WCAG, in addition to updating techno- logy, are possible long-term investments. Key words: Accessibility, Web-accessibility, eGovernment, Public Websites, and Qualitative Sys - tem Dynamics. Introduction Accessibility of a website refers to the ability of all people to use this website irrespect- ive of their disabilities or the terminals they use to access internet (W3C 2008). Web- sites should be designed in a way that complies with certain set of rules and guidelines to be accessible. It is an important aspect of websites in general, and of public websites in particular, to be able to serve all citizens equally. For example if a webpage is de- 1