Ennis Information Age Services (EIAS), a company that specialises in accessibility, usability and on-line marketing services, published the survey. The report provides an analysis of the standards of accessibility achieved by the Web sites of Irish Government organisations. The report assessed the Web sites of 30 randomly selected government departments and agencies and found that poor design and lack of knowledge made Web site usage difficult for individuals with disabilities, but also difficult for the greater population.
"Some of the owners have been in touch and have been surprised that they're not doing as well as they thought," said Michael Byrne, CEO of EAIS, speaking to ElectricNews.Net. "They stated in their tender documents that they wanted their site to be accessible and have been told by the Web developers that the site was accessible."
He said that this indicates either that accessibility has disimproved with changes in Web site content, or that developers are not designing Web site to the accessibility standards required.
In 1999 the Department of the Taoiseach published recommended guidelines for public sector organisations, which referred specifically to the issue of accessibility and making Web sites easy for everyone to use.
The study used eight criteria, all part of achieving Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) compliance. Of the 30 sites examined by EIAS, only one Web site was AA compliant. Under the WAI system, sites are ranked as A, AA, or AAA compliant.
Twenty-four of the 30 sites indicated an awareness of the WAI guidelines and 24 of the 30 sites achieved a score of 65 percent or greater under the system. However, only three sites display the WAI logo and two of these did so inappropriately, as they were found to be non-compliant.
EAIS is not publishing the results of the survey, but will provide results to the agencies concerned.
Quelle: Electric news Net, 13.05.2004
