Accessibility Special: UK Council Sites found to make false Claims

Almost a quarter of UK council websites are making false claims about their accessibility to people with disabilities, research by E- Government Bulletin has found.

Accessibility is measured against the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/WAI). These specify three levels of
compliance: 'A', 'AA' and 'AAA'.

Research into the accessibility of council sites by the Royal National Institute of the Blind, published in March by the local government Society of IT Management, found that of the 468 UK council websites, just 62 met level 'A' standards, and none achieved higher levels.

However, subesequent research by E-Government Bulletin into a sample of 68 sites found widespread claims of 'A', 'AA' and 'AAA' accessibility, by the display of official WCAG logos on the sites, contradicting what the RNIB's expert testers had found.

Nine councils in the sample claimed 'AAA' accessibility for part or all of their sites at the time of testing, even though the RNIB found that seven of these sites did not even reach single 'A' accessibility, and the other two were are only single 'A' sites. A further three claimed 'AA' where RNIB found them to not even meet 'A', and six claimed 'A' status where only two were entitled to do so - a total of 16 false claims in the sample, or 23.5%.

E-Government Bulletin cites Donna Smillie, who heads the RNIB's web accessibility team, as saying: 'The biggest problem is that it devalues the logos - if a site is claiming a certain level people won't trust it, because more often than not they don't comply.' She said one possible reason for the discrepancies could be that councils are simply running automated checks for accessibility, when additional manual checks are needed to ensure a site qualifies.

Six Metrics for Managing UI Design
Source: Russell Wilson, 28 August 2008
 
A proposal of six metrics to be used for managing a user interface design department.

Don't Judge a Form by its Cover
Source: Formulate Information Design, 27 August 2008
 
The saying "don't judge a book by its cover" reminds us that looks are deceptive. It turns out that this idiom applies to forms too.

Beijing Olympics - special State of the eNation report
Source: www.abilitynet.org.uk, 26 August 2008
 
In this special report AbilityNet asked disabled users to try out the Beijing Olympics website in our interaction lab.

It's Who You Know (Or Don't)
Source: Stanford Magazine, 23 August 2008
 
Online social networks are powerful and ineffectual all at once.

Winning Considerations for Interactive Content
Source: UXMatters, 22 August 2008
 
Rich options for interactively presenting content also come with a challenge.

Microsoft sees end of Windows era
Source: BBC, 20 August 2008
 
Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

News you can Use
Source: Gerry McGovern, 18 August 2008
 
When the homepage is dominated by news you are not necessarily communicating more.

Feeling Through your Computer
Source: Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science, 16 August 2008
 
A newly designed device lets computer users feel the texture and movement of what they are seeing in front of them.

User interviews - A basic Introduction
Source: Webcredible, 15 August 2008
 
It's surprising how few people have a real understanding of who's using their site.

Helping Visitors find Information
Source: UN, 13 August 2008
 
A new report outlines the key findings from surveys that explored factors which influence the quality of online experience.