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WSIS Forum 2017 will be held from 12–16 June 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. More info.

WSIS Forum 2016 › Agenda › Session 142

The Role of Web Accessibility in Digital Inclusion

European Internet Inclusion Initiative

Benchmarking results and practical solutions

The rapid pace of development towards e-government has created new digital divides, such as the ability to use online services in terms of basic web accessibility. Web accessibility, and indeed accessibility to ICT tools in general, is important for countries, organisations and individuals to be able to achieve the new 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Without easily accessible and usable, as well as affordable and high quality access, one of the major development tools will be denied to millions of people.

In particular, people with disabilities, such as sight impairment, depend on properly designed websites in order for screen readers to read the content to them in a way that can be understood. However, only 10% of Europe’s government websites are fully accessible, according to a study carried out for the European Commission (EC). Against this background, the EC has proposed a new directive to assure accessibility of public sector bodies' websites in order to monitor progress and to find good practices regarding automated tools.

This workshop will build on a session organized for WSIS 2015, which provided an overview of the EIII project. Now, however, the international consortium is able to provide the open source tools and the results from automated testing based on 1,065 European public sector websites.

In addition, the session will discuss the role of tool support in public policies and highlight the demonstrated possibilities of combining automated tests with a user testing tool, which has also been developed by the EIII with the potential to eventually cover all web accessibility tests, to the benefit of governments and users alike. In fact, the EIII web accessibility checker is now referred to by the United Nations for checking their websites (see http://www.un.org/webaccessibility/validation.asp). It will also highlight the MAUVE tool, which can validate a set of guidelines on websites - including dynamic ones - and that can be extended with limited effort; available at http://hiis.isti.cnr.it:8080/MauveWeb/

NB: The initial automated benchmarking results, which cover about 20% of all web accessibility tests, can be found here:
http://checkers.eiii.eu/en/benchmarking/testrunresults/a6bc0b1d-598d-4c00-af2c-a0a073124c64

Moderator

Mr Kim Andreasson, Managing Director, DAKA advisory

Speakers / panellists
  • Mr Shadi Abou-Zahra, Activity Lead, WAI International Program Office W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
  • Mr Donal Rice, Senior Design Advisor ICT, National Disability Authority Ireland
  • Mr Mikael Snaprud, CEO, Tingtun
  • Mr Martijn Houtepen, Web Accessibility Expert, Accessibility Foundation
  • Mr Fabio Paternò, Research Director, C.N.R.-ISTI

 

Link to WSIS Action Lines
  • C1. The role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
  • C3. Access to information and knowledge
  • C4. Capacity building
  • C6. Enabling environment
  • C7. ICT Applications: E-government

The rapid pace of development towards e-government has created new digital divides, such as the ability to use online services in terms of basic web accessibility. Specifically, people with disabilities, such as sight impairment, depend on properly designed websites in order for screen readers to read the content to them in a way that can be understood.

Link to the Sustainable Development Process
  • Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
  • Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
  • Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all
  • Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
  • Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
  • Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
  • Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies

The session will highlight the demonstrated possibilities of combining automated tests with a user testing tool, which has also been developed by the EIII with the potential to eventually cover all web accessibility tests, to the benefit of governments and users alike. In fact, the EIII web accessibility checker is now referred to by the United Nations for checking their websites (see http://www.un.org/webaccessibility/validation.asp).

WSIS Forum 2016 | WSIS Action Lines: Supporting the Implementation of SDGs
2–6 May 2016, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
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WSIS Forum 2016