Measuring Accessibility of Government Web Sites

Web accessibility has become an important issue since the dramatic rise in the use of the Web. Web accessibility deals with overcoming barriers users with disabilities face when trying to access information on Web sites. The U.S. has passed laws relating to Web accessibility to improve the usability of the Internet for disabled users. Technical advancements have improved assistive tools such as page readers for users with disabilities, but accessibility requires more than assistive tools. Web page design causes many accessibility problems. This study examines the accessibility of the home pages of the official government Web sites of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on the assumption that government Web sites should be an example for other organizations to follow regarding Web accessibility. However, nearly a third of the home pages tested did not meet the most fundamental requirements for Web accessibility. Fixes for many of these accessibility problems require rather minor adjustments to underlying page code.