Re: letters to organisations

Hi all

A UK organisation has just reported the results of a 'mystery shopper'
approach to a complaint about accessibility to a web site.

I have left on the header and footer of the newsletter in case you wish
to follow-up -  if quoting please see the copyright notice.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:dan@headstar.com] 
> Sent: 19 March 2009 14:23
> To: eaccess@headstar.com
> Subject: [SPAM: 153.085] E-Access Bulletin: Issue 111, March 2009
> 
> ++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
> Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
> - ISSUE 111, March 2009.
> 
> A Headstar Publication.
> http://www.headstar.com/eab/ .
> 
> Sponsored by:
> Ford Motor Company
> ( http://www.ford.co.uk ).
> 
> Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details at
the
> end). We conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN)
> Standard:
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> 
> 
> 
> +03: Private Sector Slow To Address Access Queries.
> 
> A 'mystery shopper' test which sent emails to a range of UK local
> council and private sector websites requesting information on their
> accessibility to blind users has uncovered a pattern of poor
responses,
> with around one in five sites not bothering to respond at all.
> 
> The exercise, carried out by the local government Society of IT
> Management as part of its annual 'Better Connected' review of council
> websites (
> http://fastlink.headstar.com/so6 ),
> found local government websites performed better than sites in other
> sectors.
> 
> The test featured an anonymous email claiming to be from a blind
> person who was having difficulty using the website, with a request for
> help in accessing services. The same message was sent to all UK
> councils, plus a sample of 20 household name companies from the
> finance, travel and retail sectors.
> 
> Some 52% in local government sent back a satisfactory response,
> compared with just 27% of websites from other sectors. Additionally,
> in 13% of cases with websites from other sectors, an email address
> could not even be found, while there were no instances of this with
> local government sites. However, local government did perform
> marginally worse or similar to the public sector in some regards: some
> 20% of council sites failed to reply at all, compared with 18% from
> other sectors, and 43% of the other websites contacted sent a reply
> within two days, compared to 42% of council sites.
> 
> The report claims that "Generally, the differences in the quality of
> replies imply a lower level of awareness of website accessibility in
> other sectors," although the large difference in sample sizes between
> the two sectors (around 500 compared with just 20) should be taken
> into account.
> 
> Elsewhere in the Socitm report, general accessibility testing found a
> picture of low compliance with international standards, and little
> improvement on accessibility levels found a year previously. For a
full
> report see Section Four, this issue.
> 
> 
> Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at:
> dan@headstar.com .
> 
> Copyright 2009 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
> The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including this
> copyright notice are included, and as long as people are always
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> inform the editor when you are reproducing our content. Sections of
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'taken
> from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter', and our web
> site address:
> http://www.headstar.com/eab
> is also cited.
> 
> +Personnel:
> Editor - Dan Jellinek.
> Reporter: Tristan Parker.
> Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey.
> 
> ISSN 1476-6337.
> 
> [Issue 111 ends.]
> 
>

Received on Thursday, 19 March 2009 17:02:21 UTC