The internal report was compiled by the Office of the e-Envoy (OeE), the Cabinet Office unit responsible for improving the accessibility and usability of government websites. A spokesperson said they were not in a position to disclose further details of the audit report, but admitted it was a matter of concern. The e-Envoy's Office report draws upon the findings by the National Audit Office investigation, which examined the accessibility of 65 central government websites and concluded that nearly all were potentially excluding users.
The OeE has now warned the web design industry that future government contracts will demand that companies deliver websites that conform to international web accessibility standards. Current responsibility for adopting these standards rests with individual government webmasters, not designers, and compliance is not centrally monitored.
Despite a commitment by the e-Minister Patricia Hewitt in February 2001 that all new government websites should be accessible, many public sector bodies are failing to meet these standards. The cost of the redesign work has not yet been made public but is expected to run into millions of pounds. The Office of the e-Envoy has said confirming that each site is compliant will require a combination of automatic checking, expert review and possibly also user testing. eGov monitor Weekly forecasts that to rectify the problems, government departments could need to spend at least 10 to 15 per cent of their website's total annual budget. Web accessibility specialist Nancy Perlman stressed this may be a "conservative estimate".
"For some websites front-end changes may be enough. Others may need a serious re-thinking of the infrastructure's rationale.
"Usable and accessible design need to become fundamental to website development, rather than a feature to be added if there is time and money in the budget. The difficulty is cultural. Organisations both public and private will have to change the way they go about their business. It will take a massive shift of mindset within both government and industry to turn theory into practice.
"Another problem is finding the people qualified to influence and implement these changes. The most challenging part of the equation remains the dearth of professionals available to train teams and to implement viable, efficient solutions."
In a statement, the Office of the e-Envoy said: "The Government is aware of the need to make its websites accessible to all. In February 2001 the E-Minister announced that all new Government websites should be accessible and in May 2002 'Guidelines for UK Government Websites' was published by the Office of the e-Envoy to offer guidance and best practice for website design.
"Although the Office of the e-Envoy is aware and concerned that many Government websites need redesigning in order to make them more accessible, responsibility lies with individual departments."
Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager of Socitm Insight commented: "Accessibility issues of website design have been well promoted by the RNIB and others for at least four years. Nobody in government circles can really plead ignorance of the issue.
"However, as far as local government is concerned, we have been tracking the issue over that period, and have noted clear improvements from our 2000 survey when we found that around one-third of the better websites in need of drastic redesign. The standard of accessibility of local authority websites appears to be substantially improved."
Useful links
- Links by Country
- Yell.com
- Radiocommunications Agency
- ABC Electronic
- Internet Service Providers
- Companies House
