85 per cent of London borough web sites yet to achieve web accessibility

The Nomensa report says that 85% of London borough web sites have yet to achieve the web accessibility recommendations that have been defined by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Priority Service Outcomes Report. 6% of sites tested are meeting this standard, while 9% have exceeded the recommendation, and have achieved a triple-A rating as defined by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Web accessibility, a main concern for any organisation's online web strategy, is considered to be a priority for UK local authorities as it sets a standard for inclusivity and permits everyone in the community to have access to council services and information. However, with such minimal results in the ‘double A' and ‘triple A' standings, Nomensa believes there is significant scope for improvement.

Leonie Watson, Nomensa's Head of Accessibility states: 'In many cases, accessibility has not been given due recognition, putting fundamental barriers in the way of many people accessing local authority services online.'

Last month, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and the DTI in partnership with industry published a national strategy that will define the UK as a world leader in digital excellence. Highlighted in the report, ‘Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy', the Prime Minister emphasises online accessibility as a key action that will '…improve accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded.'

The Nomensa report is a detailed study that closely examines how London borough councils are achieving these targets, and identifies areas where they are failing. Measured against 10 best practice criteria for web accessibility, the evaluation process was a combination of manual and automated testing, with nine of the categories carried out through manual evaluation. The web sites were tested on two occasions, over a period of three months. This method reveals how sites have changed over time, allowing the reader to examine sustainability rather than just looking at single event analysis.

Key findings of the report are:
> A vast majority of London Borough web sites have yet to achieve the web accessibility recommendations defined by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Priority Service Outcomes Report. 85% of sites tested did not meet double-A compliance.

> 79% of sites tested are failing to code their web sites with valid HTML code as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

> A decrease by 8% in the number of sites providing text only alternatives shows that London councils are moving away from insipid text only sites to achieve accessibility

> From November 2004 to February 2005, a 14% improvement was made in the quality of links used by London borough councils.

> The top three councils in the February league table were Haringey, Barking & Dagenham, and Redbridge Council. The bottom three were Hammersmith and Fullham, Bromley and Barnet Council.

The Web Accessibility in London Borough Councils report, conducted by Nomensa, provides an accessibility analysis of the 33 London local authority web sites checked against 10 best practice criteria representing key accessibility principles.

The globally recognised benchmark for accessibility, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offer three grades of accessibility based on the successful fulfilment of different criteria. Basic accessibility is recognised by the ‘single A' grade, while ‘double A' is given to those attaining an intermediate level of accessibility and those attaining optimum accessibility gain ‘triple A' rating.

The results contained in the report are based on combined manual and automated accessibility testing carried out on two occasions, November 2004, and February 2005 respectively. The report identifies techniques used to evaluate each site, the overall score each site achieved and a detailed analysis of the results produced. The report also presents a league table of results on a site-by-site basis.

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