Report Calls For More Accessibility For Government Web Sites

A study conducted by the University of Southampton indicates that a majority of government Web sites in the United Kingdom suffer from HTML errors and are designed in ways that restrict access to users with disabilities. According to the study, 60 percent of government sites contain errors, and 61 percent do not meet accessibility standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium. Adam Field, who oversaw the study and is with the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the university, said he was surprised at the number of HTML problems but somewhat encouraged that nearly 40 percent of sites did meet accessibility standards. HTML errors are relatively easy to fix, he said, but addressing the accessibility issues, which are more complicated, is more important. Field noted that users with disabilities are more likely than others to turn to the government for a variety of services; the government therefore has a greater obligation to make those services accessible over the Internet.

BBC, 30 March 2006