A Survey of Accessibility Errors on Homepages of Official Government Websites

1
A Survey of Accessibility Errors on Homepages of
Official Government Websites

• Peter Major
• (Member of the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility
  and Disability DCAD)
• 4th Internet Governance Forum
• 15-18 November, Sharm El Sheik

2
Outline

• Objectives of the survey
• Resources
• Methodology used
• Data sampling and statistics
• Conclusion

3
Objectives

• Check accessibility compliance of official
  government websites
• Restrict survey to websites of signatory
  countries of UN Convention
• Check home pages only and with respect to WCAG
  1.0
• Compile statistics
• Give recommendations based on findings

4
Resources

• Convention, guidelines, recommendations
• UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
  Disabilities
• Web Access Initiative Guidelines (WAI)
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Section 508Evaluation tools
• WAVE , Cynthiasays Report
• United Nations Global Audit of Web Accessibility

5
Methodology

• Identify all signatory countries of the UN
  Convention on the Rights of Persons with
  Disabilities (as of 26/09/2009)
• Find the official websites of signatory countries
• Check for accessibility errors of home pages,
  use semi automatic tools WAVE Cynthiasays
• Compile statistics for sites of signatory
  countries

6
Data Sampling

• UN Convention of the rights of persons with
  disabilities144 signatory/ratifying countries
  (end of September 2009) 136 official government
  websites
• Accessibility snapshots of home pages (end of
  September 2009)
• 40 European, 38 African, 32 Asia-Pacific and 26
  American sites

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Statistics World

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Accessibility errors on homepages of 136
signatory countries
9
Statistics Europe
10
Accessibility errors on homepages of 40 European
signatory countries
11
Statistics Africa
12
Accessibility errors on homepages of 40 African
signatory countries
13
Statistics Asia-Pacific
14
Accessibility errors on homepages of 32
Asia-Pacific signatory countries
15
Statistics American Countries
16
Accessibility errors on homepages of 26 American
signatory countries
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Accessibility errors on home pages of
signatory/ratifying countries ofthe UN Convention
Europe Europe Africa Africa Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific America America All All
error country country country country country
0 12 30 1 3 1 3 2 8 16 12
1-5 10 25 6 16 8 25 8 31 32 23
6-15 7 17 12 34 4 13 6 23 28 21
16-40 5 13 11 29 10 31 6 23 32 23
gt 40 6 15 8 18 9 28 4 15 28 21
Total 40 100 38 100 32 100 26 100 136 100
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Conclusion

• Situation slightly improved since the end of 2006
  (publication of United Nations Global Audit of
  Web Accessibility by Nomensa)
• 12 of all homepages are error free 23 with
  few errors (between 1 and 5)
• Situation is uneven best in Europe (30 error
  free, 25 few errors)
• Typical errors missing alt text for an image
  form label missing or empty empty link,
  linked image with no alt text

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Conclusion (contd)

• Retrofit legacy websites and/or
• Redesign and apply accessibility rules
• Raising awareness if there is a will there is
  a way
• Important step towards e-government
• Capacity building/assistance

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• Contact Peter Major
• Dynamic Coalition on
• Accessibility and Disability
• peter.major_at_ties.itu.int
• 4122 733 72 68
• or
• DCADsecretariat_at_itu.int