FW: E-GOV Studies Release by Brown University

Apropos of our "write clearly" guideline

Gregg

 

 

TWO BROWN UNIVERSITY E-GOV STUDIES RELEASED

 

In September, Brown University released its annual E-Gov studies on State
and Federal and Urban websites in the United States.  To test the
accessibility of the websites in each of these studies, researchers used two
different standards of disability accessibility: compliance with the
Priority Level One standard recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium

(W3C) and compliance with the legal requirements of Section 508 of the U.S.
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Sites were judged to be either in compliance or
not in compliance based on the online "Bobby" test that evaluates disability
accessibility.

 

a.

STATE AND FEDERAL E-GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 2003

 

The fourth annual e-government study conducted at Brown University finds
that most state and federal government websites are written at too high a
grade level for average American users.  In addition, only about one-third
of sites examined satisfied recognized standards for accessibility by users
with vision or hearing impairment.  This year's study rated 1,603 state
sites and 60 major federal sites in terms of online service delivery,
privacy, security, and accessibility, among other things.

 

b.

U.S. URBAN E-GOVERNMENT, 2003

 

Most government websites maintained by America's 70 largest cities fail to
meet basic disability access standards for the visually and
hearing-impaired, according to a new urban e-government study by researchers
at Brown University.  This year's study analyzed 1,933 sites maintained by
city governments. The researchers examined an average of 27.6 websites in
each city, including homepages for the Mayor, City Council and major
departments and agencies.

 

To view copies of the press release and full report for both studies,

access: www.InsidePolitics.org <http://www.InsidePolitics.org
<http://www.insidepolitics.org/> >.