Regulatory Compliance and Web Accessibility of UK Parliament Sites

This research seeks to review whether web accessibility and disability laws lead to strong compliance among UK e-government web sites. This study samples 130 sites of the UK members of Parliament using an online accessibility testing tool and determines if the site design complies with disability laws and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Awareness is raised about issues disabled users face when attempting to use UK e-government sites. A discussion of UK and international disability law is reviewed in light of web accessibilty: the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995 and the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Disabled. Although these mandates aim to provide equality in access to web sites for people with disabilities, the results of this study show that total openness of these sites is not widespread and the mere existance of laws does not guarantee compliance

The role of intermediaries in facilitating e-government diffusion in Saudi Arabia

Recent studies of e-government activity have highlighted adoption and diffusion issues as important subjects for rating e-government success. However in developing countries inadequate resources and limited citizens’ capabilities regarding new e-government have resulted in low diffusion and adoption of e-government services. This paper examines the role of intermediaries, which can be played by a third party; in bridging the gap between e-government implementation and social reality, and looks at the roles a third party can add within the e-government services mechanism. This paper uses a case study approach in order to reflect e-government progress within the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as one developing country. The result of this paper shows that intermediaries play an important role in the diffusion of e-services in relation to improving the availability, accessibility and enhancing privacy and security

Usability and Accessibility Model for E-Government Websites in Ethiopia

The development of websites and portals are main components of the e-Government strategy implementations for the last nine years in Ethiopia. However, services optimizations with usability and accessibility are key issues of Ethiopia e-Government services development.Therefore, the ultimate goal of this study is creation of usable, accessible and sustainable Ethiopian eGovernment websites with four stage of research analysis, through proposed model. The investigations results are used to provide a clear picture of what needs to be improves from management and user point of views and also from other stakeholders of e-Government services. This study applies mixed methods of data collection and analysis, that integrating quantitative and qualitative data, using questionnaires’ and interviews to identify the key usability and accessibility issues of Ethiopia e-Government websites services. The data collection and analysis are primarily from management and users’ point of views are analyzed and discussed and also interpretations of the data are presented using factor analysis and other analytical techniques. Afterward, expert based e-Government website evaluations are presented and discussed using heuristics evaluation principles’. Finally, automatics accessibility evaluation based on WCAG 2.1 guidelines using online WAVE Accessibility Tool assessment results are analyzed, presented and discussed

A comparison between e-government practices in Taiwan and New Zealand.

Few studies have focused on comparing the state of e-government in Western- and Non-Western settings, where the political, social, economic, and cultural environments can be markedly different. This paper compares the views of local authority policymakers in Taiwan and New Zealand, in order to judge the sophistication of their e-government initiatives via the formal and informal policies underpinning website development. Good level of agreement were observed between the Taiwanese and New Zealander respondents for the high levels of significance they attached to 3 key issues, which the authors argue are critical for successful e-government: Accessibility, Security and Privacy. Similarly, the policymakers agreed on a medium level of significance for the 7 key issues: E-procurement, Digital Divide, Private Sector, Taxation, Cultural Obstacles, IT Workforce, and Social Effects (and on a low level of significance for E-Tailing). It was concluded that government policymakers in both countries, in an era of commercial online social networking, are continuing to favour pushing(what they deem to be important) information to citizens, rather than creating collaborative service channels with citizens, contractors and suppliers or integrating separate service processes to satisfy all stakeholders. An attendant lack of commitment to promoting heightened (e-)democracy was also noted, especially in New Zealand

Governance puzzles

About the book: Developing hand in hand with e-Business in its use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-Government emerged in the 1990s with the promise of a more accessible, efficient, and transparent form for public institutions to perform and interact with citizens. The successes–and some critics say, general failures–of e-Government initiatives around the world have led to the development of e-Governance–a broader, more encompassing concept that involves not only public institutions but private ones as well. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this book explores e-Governance in theory and practice with an analytical narrative from heterodox perspectives. Covering such essential issues as global governance of the internet, the European Knowledge Economy, the transformative promise of mobile telephony, the rise of e-Universities, internet accessibility for the disabled, and e-Governance in transition economies, the book draws on contributions from experienced academics and practitioners with an expertise in an emerging field. In addition, each chapter includes such features as discussion of key issues that draw on case studies in order to facilitate significant discussion questions

Cognitive User-centred Design Approach to Improve Accessibility for Blind People during Online Interaction

The use of internet and other communication technology has become predominantly common in the life of normal sighted users. In order to have a fair level of equality in the society, blind people must also be able to use these facilities with equal ease and effectiveness Many governments decided to implement e-Government applications to enhance the delivery of information and services to its citizens, residents and businesses. These e-Government applications were carefully designed with the help of international standards to serve the whole group of population and especially people with disabilities. However, recent studies showed that the acceptance rate of these e Government applications among the community, especially between people with disability, is not up to the expectations. The aim of this research is to investigate the accessibility issues faced by blind people while interacting with online services like e-Government portals Owing to the nature of content and the importance of information which is to be delivered to the whole country, the accessibility standards of such portals are of paramount importance. It is this idea of evaluation of such websites for special category of blind people that has been the main focus of this thesis. The main aim of this doctoral research is to discover any accessibility problems that could be faced by people with blind users during online interaction and not covered in accessibility standards. A real example of online interaction is the e-Government portals. This research followed a rigours tri-staged evaluation process for a selected e-Government portal (Saudi Arabian portal) to analyse the accessibility issues faced by blind people. The aim of this evaluation process is to understand the cognition and perception of a blind user while interacting with a web-based environment. The first step of the evaluation process was to verify the level of adherence of the selected portal to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The second stage includes a detailed experimental exercise with a number of blind people following the task- oriented approach. The third step of the evaluation process was a detailed interview with web designers to analyse the problems faced by blind participants in the experimental exercise. Thereafter, cognitive-based solutions were proposed to improve the accessibility of online interaction for blind users and fill the gap in the accessibility standards. The introduction of navigational landmarks and the insertion of virtual map description improve the navigation and hence the performance of blind users. The proposed solution has been tested with a separate group of blind users to validate the research findings and to ensure the desired level of accessibility of the e-Government portals is achieved

Web accessibility compliance for e-Government websites in the Gulf region

The World Wide Web is a digital platform that helps people access and retrieve information in an accessible and equitable manner. However, people with disabilities can face a number of challenges when it comes to using the Web and accessing content on websites. According to Henry, web accessibility means “that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web” (2005, para.1). While different countries across the globe tackle issues of equitable access to the web via policy and legal instruments, not all countries and regions have shown progress in terms of meeting the requirements of the internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). This research aimed to evaluate web accessibility and practice in e-government websites in three Arabian Gulf countries. The study sought to identify accessibility issues and discover levels of conformance to the WCAG 2.0 web accessibility standards, while also eliciting awareness and knowledge of web accessibility in practice. Exploratory research methods were applied in this study, including case studies of nations. Automated website assessments, manual assessments and document analysis were amongst the instruments used within this research. In terms of web evaluation, the findings from the evaluation conducted on e-government websites in relation to ten different sites from each of the three selected countries indicated that there was no clear evidence of an even minimal levels of accessibility features for people with disabilities. Furthermore, the webpages that were tested showed accessibility problems across nearly all aspects of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. In terms of accessibility awareness for the organisations e-government websites examined in this study, document analysis showed that none of the government websites of Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar made specific reference to web accessibility standards, or where they did, they were not implemented. The results showed that laws and policies did exist for people with disabilities, but did not seem applicable in terms of government run e-services or content. In fact, this interpretation revealed a lack of awareness within the websites examined, despite the existence of laws and policies designed to protect and support people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to understand the role that web accessibility plays in gulf nation egovernment services, and whether citizens of these nations are being supported in relation to access to online digital resources and services. Whilst other nations have seemed to recognise the need to make government services available to all citizens, including those with disabilities, this research finds that whilst Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar enshrine the rights of people with disabilities into law, these rights do not yet seem to have found their way to the digital domain

Devolution, accountability, and service delivery : some insights from Pakistan

This paper studies the relationship between devolution, accountability, and service delivery in Pakistan. It examines the degree of accessibility of local policy-makers and the level of competition in local elections, the expenditure patterns of local governments to gauge their sector priorities, and the extent to which local governments are focused on patronage or the provision of targeted benefits to a few as opposed to providing public goods. The main findings of the paper are three-fold. First, the accessibility of policy-makers to citizens in Pakistan is unequivocally greater after devolution, and local government elections are, with some notable exceptions, as competitive as national and provincial elections. Second, local government sector priorities are heavily tilted toward the provision of physical infrastructure - specifically, roads, water and sanitation, and rural electrification - at the expense of education and health. Third, this sector prioritization is in part a dutiful response to the relatively greater citizen demands for physical infrastructure; in part a reflection of the local government electoral structure that gives primacy to village and neighborhood-specific issues, and in part a reaction to provincial initiatives in education and health that have taken the political space away from local governments in the social sectors, thereby encouraging them to focus more toward physical infrastructure.E-Government,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,E-Government,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Transport Economics Policy&Planning

Accessibility of Cypriot University websites in Cyprus

Abstract: Access and equity in higher education is a complicated discipline related to social, economical, technological and political developments in a country. This paper is a work in progress and it aims to discuss issues of accessibility in Higher education regarding equal opportunities in the use of technology for students with disabilities. Accessibility to technology and with technology, especially in the internet era, includes different types of physical and digital design. These not only refer to specialised interface devices often referred to as assistive technology, but also to the accessibility of the web itself (Zaphiris & Zacharia, 2001). Examining access in higher education from the point of view of technology, this paper aims to: 1. briefly present and discuss the provisions of the current Cyprus and European legislation regarding the use of accessible technology and access to technology (and the use of the web) in higher education for students with disabilities. 2. investigate the ways universities respond to the needs of their students with disabilities regarding the use of accessible technology and access to technology 3. analyze the accessibility of the Cyprus universities’ web sites Data collection involves: (a) analysis of Cyprus and European documentation, (b) interviews with officers of the student affairs and welfare departments of each university and (c) expert accessibility evaluation of the websites of all universities in Cyprus. The educational system in Cyprus is highly centralised and policies of funding, administration and pedagogy are centrally developed by the government (Symeonidou, 2002). Education is compulsory until the age of 15, and almost 100% of the students continue their education in the lyceum or technical school, and the majority continue in further and higher education, in Cyprus and abroad. With the establishment of 3 public and 4 private universities in the country the numbers of student continuing in higher education are highly increase in the last 4 years, including an important number of students with disabilities. Provision for the education of students with disabilities is traditionally called by the 1999 Education Act for the Education of Children with Special Needs (MOEC, 1999), which was formally implemented in 2001. Preliminary data and information from previous studies evidenced that among others, the legislation is covering general issues of accessibility (cognitive, physical and communication), which also may imply technology, without though providing any specific guidelines (Mavrou, 2011). In addition, it provides relevant directions for higher education, but mainly poses the responsibility to the higher educational institutions. Hence, issues of accessibility and technology do not seem to be officially directed by legislation or regulations and guidelines by the Cyprus government, at any level of education or other sectors, even if the country have signed relevant EU conventions and documentation. Accessibility for information on the Web has been well regulated in the United States (U.S.) and the European Commission (DRC, 2004; Section508, 2011). The European approach to ensuring the availability of accessible information on public Web sites is encapsulated in the eEurope Action Plan 2002 which emphasises that, “Public sector web sites […] must be designed to be accessible to ensure that citizens with disabilities can access information and take full advantage of the potential for e-government” (EU Commission, 2000). Unfortunately the Cypriot legislature is not yet in line with the European action plan on the issue of web accessibility. There are no specific legislative or regulatory measures regarding eAccessibility for public or private websites in Cyprus (eInclusion). However, Article 16 of the new EU Structural Funds regulations is expected to have an impact on eAccessibility and as Cyprus has signed the Convention, now Article 9 sets forth the obligation of the country to ensure accessibility to the Internet (but it is not a legislation). As per eInclusion in Cyprus, it was planned that within 2010, these sites would be further enhanced based on WCAG 2.0, level AA (EU. 2010). To our knowledge, only one previous study has analyzed Cypriot web sites with respect to accessibility via automated testing on WCAG1.0 (Zaphiris & Zacharia, 2001). The results showed that the Cyprus websites, including academic websites, were ranked very low in terms of accessibility (only 20% of them were Bobby approved). The present study, aims to investigate the accessibility of new technologies, especially the web, of universities, 10 years after the first study, as well as after Cyprus joined the EU where signed relevant conventions and documents