Accessibility design issues with UK e-government sites Joanne M. Kuzma Faculty of Computing, University of Worcester, UK abstract article info Available online 13 January 2010 Keywords: Accessibility Disability E-government Accessibility guidelines (WCAG) U.K. Disability Discrimination Act The research seeks to provide the audience and web designers with a higher level of awareness about the level of accessibility problems within the e-government sector, specifically a sampling of 130 sites of the UK members of Parliament. The study applies the results of an online accessibility testing tool to analyze the compliance levels of both UK disability law and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The research also show which guideline errors are the most prevalent among the sites and raises awareness about the issues of access in e-government. Although the UK's Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995 provides equality in access of websites to people with disabilities, the results of this study show that total openness of sites to these customers is not widespread and the vast majority of sites display similar non-compliance errors among the guidelines. For each of these issues, there are published methods that web designers can implement to improve the accessibility rankings of their sites and provide greater openness to users with disabilities. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction After decades of discrimination and a digital divide between individuals with and without disabilities, several initiatives have been implemented in the past decade to allow these people greater access to web content. First, international standards groups such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have created design checkpoints and standards to developers to use when creating their site content. Second, in 1995 the UK enacted the DDA law to provide users with disabilities the same ability to access web content as those consumers without disabilities. The DDA law incorporates some guidelines developed by the W3C group into the legal mandate. However, even with the combination of laws and standards, fully accessible e- government sites remain rare. Most sites do not meet certain common guidelines, yet some of these factors can be easily implemented by web designers during initial site design or even retrofitted into sites that have already been developed. The overall goal of this study is to determine the most common accessibility issues and to address some methods site owners can take to ensure sites meet accessibility compliance. 2. Literature review related to accessibility needs The research for accessibility covers a wide range of issues including legal issues, industry standards, and other accessibility studies. Some countries do have internal laws which specify legal protection and frameworks for site owners to consider when designing their sites. However, it should be noted that laws differ considerably from country to country, and it cannot be assumed that legal protection always leads to compliance among websites. Along with legal mandates, global industry standards do exist that promote effective accessibility design, and site owners should strive to achieve at least minimum checkpoint standards. Finally, other studies in this area have shown that in general, e-government and industry sites usually fail to meet the needs of their disabled constituents. 2.1. Legal framework With the increasing number of people, including those with disabilities, accessing government websites, these sites have the potential to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by providing more political participation and making government information more available (Rubaii-Barrett & Wise, 2008). The UK Office for Disability Issues estimates there are over 5.7 million people of working age in the UK who have some form of physical impairment and of this number, 42% of disabled people are currently or have used the web in the past (Williams, Copestake, Eversley, & Stafford, 2007). This is a sizable number of people with disabilities who could benefit from using websites that are properly designed for accessibility, and would make a significant difference in their lives. Therefore, governments should ensure that as many people as possible have equal access to their sites. There are two methods that are used to provide better accessibility for disabled web consumers: legal mandates and industry guidelines. Friedman and Bryen (2007) indicate that individual countries should not merely rely on guidelines and industry standards. Instead, individual countries need to enact their own standards or legislation Government Information Quarterly 27 (2010) 141–146 E-mail address: j.kuzma@worc.ac.uk. 0740-624X/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2009.10.004 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Government Information Quarterly journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/govinf