Cash hurdles for official websites

Websites should be accessible by all

Government plans to make official websites accessible by anyone could be hit by a cash shortfall.

In late July the UK Government released detailed specifications spelling out what official webmasters must do to make net sites usable by everyone.

The document lays out just how webmasters should design and test sites so they are easy to use and cater for people with physical disabilities.

But the cost of making the changes could mean that few sites become more usable.

Look and learn

The Quality Framework for UK Government Website Design was drawn up by the Office of the e-Envoy and aims to remove the barriers stopping people using public sector websites.

The document sets out the design process that webmasters should go through when designing a site and the cycle of testing they must undertake to ensure that no-one is excluded.

Catriona Campbell, chairperson of the Usability Company and one of the experts consulted for the framework document, said it set out clear advice for anyone creating a website.

But, she said, that the government's good intentions could founder because there was little cash to fund the re-design of the 800 or so official websites.

"The real problem is budget," she said, "it's not cheap to test for accessibility and usability."

Usability is about making it easy to click

The two disciplines of accessibility and usability were very different, said Ms Campbell.

Accessibility was about catering for people with disabilities but usability was all about building a site that works with human psychology and is easy to navigate around and understand, she said.

The government should make the cash available to carry out the redesign and testing of sites, she said.

An added problem was the fact that many local government sites were produced by in-house teams that may be unaware of best practice on usability and accessibility.

The government has a stated aim of putting all government services on the web by 2005 but has said little about how easy those websites should be to use.

If official websites do not take accessibility and usability seriously, they could leave themselves open to legal action.

The Disability Discrimination Act demands that websites are as accessible for people with physical disabilities as those without.

The Disability Rights Commission is currently investigating the websites of about 100 private sector firms to see how accessible they are. The commission has not ruled out taking legal action against firms that have websites which contravene the law.