Report claims federal government websites fail to deliver accessibility to all Australians

Staff Writers
Thursday, 05 February 2009 17:15

IT Industry - Market

A new report released today by usability company, UsabilityOne has revealed that 12 Australian Government websites do not meet even the lowest level of accessibility required by the latest guidelines.

UsabilityOne's report used the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) to test 12 Australian federal government websites for their compliance to the minimum level of conformance, and according to the report most of the websites did not even comply with the outdated WCAG 1.0 guidelines, which had been in place for over nine years.

The report states that some of the accessibility shortcomings of the federal government websites include not making key details of a website (such as PDF documents and form field names) available to assistive technologies such as Braille displays and screen readers; the lack of appropriate alternative text for images; and the lack of fully accessible keyboard functionality (including forms and navigation).

UsabilityOne says that, as Government websites often provide important information to the general public, it is critical that they offer fully updated accessibility for all users, as recommended in the new guidelines.

UsabilityOne's Senior Accessibility Reviewer, Emanuela Gorla, said, "We have identified some common mistakes, which, if rectified, could vastly improve the accessibility of these government websites, providing better availability for the Australian public."

According to Ms Gorla "with Government websites often setting a benchmark in accessibility for web development in general, they have a responsibility to make the necessary updates in order to set the standard of accessibility according to the guidelines."

Usability says its report follows the findings of the Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, where he claimed that he was ready "to start naming Government publishers that are not taking the effort to make their documents sufficiently accessible for people with disability."

The report asserts that there are various techniques which can alleviate accessibility issues and enable websites to be fully accessible to all Australians, including members of the public using assistive technologies.