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eAccessibility is an issue for all of us

The UK Cabinet Office today published eAccessibility of public sector services in the European Union, a comprehensive report on accessibility of government online services across the European Union (EU). The report was commissioned for the UK Presidency of the EU to help member states by undertaking an evaluation of eAccessibility and establishing the scope of public policy towards eAccessibility.

Highlighted examples of good practice are, Spain Social Security Administration (www.seg-social.es), UK Department of Health (www.dh.gov.uk) and European Central Bank (www.ecb.int). These websites show how good design features such as clear layout, simple background with good contrast and features that are linked from the Home Page can have a significant impact on accessibility and usability.

The report revealed that only 3% of the 436 online public service websites achieved a Level A rating which is considered to be the minimum standard under the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. A further 10% achieved limited level A and 17% marginal fail Level A. The remaining 70% were found to fail Level A. No websites tested reached the higher double A standard.

Analysis of the research demonstrated a number of common reasons for failure. Based on these the report recommends a six-step plan, Priority actions for improvement, that could be quickly and affordably implemented to result in a rise from 3% to 30% of websites achieving the Level A standard. These simple steps include providing effective text alternatives to images, ensuring the site works without a mouse and coding the content structures correctly. The report was published today on the day that EU Member States are meeting in Manchester , UK , to discuss how eGovernment can transform public services.'

Speaking on behalf of the UK Presidency, Jim Murphy, UK Cabinet Office Minister said:

‘I am encouraged by the excellent examples of good practice highlighted in this report but there are clearly widespread failings which must be addressed.

‘eAccessibility is an issue for all of us. We know that able and disabled people use online services more when they are designed to meet their needs. The main reason for investing in electronic service delivery is to enable people to access the service more easily. Making technology more inclusive is hugely important for the social and economic well-being of the EU, and that's why we are making digital inclusion a key issue at this conference today.’

The research was carried out by a partnership led by the Royal National Institute of the Blind and including AbilityNet, Dublin City University , the Royal National Institute of the Deaf and the Society for Information Technology Management.

Notes to editors

• The eAccessibility of public sector services in the European Union full report and Executive Briefing are available in HTML and RNIB tested Adobe accessible PDF from the Cabinet Office website http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/resources/eaccessibility/index.asp.
  Executive Briefing – a large print version is available and a Braille version will be shortly. The full report in accessible PDF together with the Adobe 7 Readers (for Mac and Windows) is available on CD-Rom. All available from the Cabinet Office eGU Technology Policy team, 3rd Floor Stockley House, 130 Wilton Road , London SW1V 1LQ.
• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are produced by the World Wide Web consortium and are available from www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php#version.
• Guidelines for UK Government websites (accessibility chapter) is available from http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/resources/handbook/html/2-4.asp.

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