A Survey of Accessibility Errors on
Homepages of Official Government
Websites
Peter Major
(Member of the Dynamic Coalition on
Accessibility and Disability – DCAD)
4th Internet Governance Forum
15-18 November, Sharm El Sheik
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
Objectives of the survey
Resources
Methodology used
Data sampling and statistics
Conclusion
Objectives
• Check accessibility compliance of official
government websites
• Restrict survey to websites of signatory
countries of UN Convention
• Check home pages only and with respect to
WCAG 1.0
• Compile statistics
• Give recommendations based on findings
Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
Convention, guidelines, recommendations
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities
Web Access Initiative Guidelines (WAI)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
Section 508
Evaluation tools
WAVE , Cynthiasays
Report
United Nations Global Audit of Web Accessibility
Methodology
• Identify all signatory countries of the UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (as of 26/09/2009)
• Find the official websites of signatory countries
• Check for accessibility errors of home pages,
use semi automatic tools:
WAVE
Cynthiasays
• Compile statistics for sites of signatory countries
Data Sampling
• UN Convention of the rights of persons with
disabilities:
144 signatory/ratifying countries
(end of September 2009)
136 official government websites
• Accessibility snapshots of home pages
(end of September 2009)
• 40 European, 38 African, 32 Asia-Pacific and
26 American sites
Statistics – World
23
16
14 13
8 7 9
6
5
2 2
2
4
2
4
2 1 2
4 5
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
21
31
41
50
More
Number of countries
Histogram of accessibility errors
136 signatory countries
Number of errors
Accessibility errors on homepages of
136 signatory countries
more than
40 errors
21%
no errors
12%
between 1
and 5 errors
23%
between 16
and 40
errors
23%
between 6
and 15
errors
21%
Statistics – Europe
Histogram of Accessibility Errors
40 European Signatory Countries
Number of countries
12
6
4
3
3
2
1
2
2
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
Number of errors
1
0
0
0
0
Accessibility errors on homepages of 40
European signatory countries
More than
40 errors
15%
between 16
and 40 errors
13%
between 6
and 15 errors
17%
no errors
30%
between 1
and 5 errors
25%
Statistics – Africa
Histogram of the accessibility errors
38 African signatory countries
9
9
Number of Countries
10
9
8
7
7
6
6
5
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
10
Number of errors
20
40
More
Accessibility errors on homepages of 40
African signatory countries
More
than 40
errors
18%
No errors
3%
between 16
and 40
errors
29%
between 1
and 5 errors
16%
between 6
and 15
errors
34%
Statistics – Asia-Pacific
Number of countries
Histogram of the accessibility errors of 32 Asia-Pacific
signatory countries
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
9
9
40
More
4
3
2
1
1
1
1
0
1
2
3
1
4
5
10
Number of errors
20
Accessibility errors on homepages of
32 Asia-Pacific signatory countries
More
than 40
errors 28%
between 16
and 40
errors
31%
no errors
3%
between 1
and 5
errors 25%
between 6
and 15
errors 13%
Statistics – American Countries
Number of countries
Histogram of the accessibility errors of
the sites of 26 American signatory
countries
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
2
3
3
3
2
2
1
1
0
0
4
5
0
0
1
2
3
10
Number of errors
20
30
40
More
Accessibility errors on homepages of
26 American signatory countries
more
than 40
errors 15%
no errors
8%
between 1
and 5 errors
31%
between 16
and 40
errors 23%
between 6
and 15
errors 23%
Accessibility errors on home pages of
signatory/ratifying countries of
the UN Convention
Europe
Africa
country
Asia-Pacific
%
country
America
%
country
All
error country
%
%
country
%
0
12
30
1
3
1
3
2
8
16
12
1-5
10
25
6
16
8
25
8
31
32
23
6-15
7
17
12
34
4
13
6
23
28
21
16-40
5
13
11
29
10
31
6
23
32
23
> 40
6
15
8
18
9
28
4
15
28
21
Total
40
100
38
100
32
100
26
100
136
100
Conclusion
• Situation slightly improved since the end of
2006 (publication of United Nations Global
Audit of Web Accessibility by Nomensa)
• 12% of all homepages are error free
23 % with few errors (between 1 and 5)
• Situation is uneven: best in Europe
(30% error free, 25% few errors)
• Typical errors: missing alt text for an image
form label missing or empty
empty link,
linked image with no alt text
Conclusion (cont’d)
• Retrofit “legacy” websites and/or
• Redesign and apply accessibility rules
• Raising awareness
if there is a will – there is a way
• Important step towards e-government
• Capacity building/assistance
Contact:
Peter Major
Dynamic Coalition on
Accessibility and Disability
peter.major@ties.itu.int
+4122 733 72 68
or
DCADsecretariat@itu.int