Investigating the Web Site Accessibility of Major, Investor-owned Utility Providers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia

The availability of web-based technology provides the public with convenient and alternate forms of obtaining information and communicating with essential service providers (such as electric utilities). No previous studies on web site accessibility have focused specifically on web site access to consumer utilities information resources. This study investigated the web site accessibility of eight electric utility providers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The results of the accessibility evaluations revealed multiple accessibility problems with these web sites that could prevent consumers with certain disabilities from having full access to the information and services available on these sites. The lack of accessibility on these web sites could prevent access to things such as emergency outage information and the ability to read and pay bills online, yet the accessibility problems highlighted in this study would primarily require only minor modifications to the web site interfaces.