Barry McMullin

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Barry McMullin

• Director, eAccess Laboratory
• Dublin City University, Ireland

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e-Accessibility of European Online Public Services
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What is e-Accessibility?

• Access to products and services
• People with disabilities
• Older people
• Via Information Communication Technologies
  (Web, TV, phone etc.)
• but our study focusses on the Web
• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG
  1.0)

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WCAG 1.0 Levels

• Level A
• Minimum
• Otherwise, one or more groups find access
  impossible
• Level Double A
• Good Practice
• Otherwise, one or more groups find access
  difficult

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WCAG and the EU

• European Commission Communication (2005)
• Member States have committed themselves to make
  their public websites accessible according to
  international guidelines WCAG
• European Parliament resolution (2002)
• for websites to be accessible, it is essential
  that they are double-A compliant

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The Study

• Commissioned by
• European Public Administration Network (EPAN)
• UK Presidency of the European Council 2005

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Objectives

• Establish Policy Context
• Member States
• European Commission
• Evaluate eAccessibility
• EU-wide
• Web-based
• eGovernment
• Recommendations for Action

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Project Team

• Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) UK
• AbilityNet (UK)
• Socitm Insight (UK)
• Dublin City University (Ireland)
• Also supported by
• Royal National Institute for Deaf People
  (RNID) UK
• e-Government Unit, UK Cabinet Office
• Greytower Technologies, Sweden

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Methodology

• Policy Survey
• Completed by Member States, EC
• National strategy
• Legal frameworks
• Monitoring arrangements
• Awareness, training and tools
• Other issues

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Methodology

• Accessibility Evaluation
• 436 Sites investigated in total
• Automated spidering
• Automated evaluation to subset of WCAG
• Manual evaluation of 32 sites
• Validation of automated checks
• Evaluation of non-automatable checks
• Extrapolation to full sample

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Outcomes
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Outcomes
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Recommendations

• Public policy-makers at European Union level
• Clear target
• All EU public sector websites to conform with
  WCAG 1.0 Level Double-A by 2010
• Co-ordination/best practice exchanges
• Track progress
• Standards, certification, qualification
• Leverage procurement

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Recommendations

• Public policy-makers in Member States
• Public Plan with measurable commitments
• Cross-governmental bias for action
• Common practice guides
• Incentives
• Leverage procurement

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Recommendations

• Web Content Managers and Developers in Public
  Sector Organisations
• Detailed realisation of accessibility commitments
• Clear public milestones and timetable
• Implement media alternatives
• Discontinue obsolete technologies (frameset)
• eXtreme accessibility?
• Build competence and expertise
• Leverage procurement

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Recommendations

• Web Tool Developers
• Produce authoring tools conforming to the
  Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
• Produce browsers, plugins, players, viewers
  conforming to the User Agent Accessibility
  Guidelines (UAAG)
• Build competence and expertise

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But Finally

• Designate a champion for e-Accessibility in each
  Member State with the responsibility and
  authority to deliver Level Double-A for all
  government websites by 2010.

http//www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
egovernment/eaccessibility
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