Accessibility of Scottish Political Party web sites

A review has just been completed of the accessibility of Scottish political
party web sites, and found that many disabled voters are likely to have
significant difficulty accessing on-line policy and manifesto information,
limiting their ability to use the web to help them make an informed choice
when they vote.

The 2003 election for the Scottish Parliament takes place on May 1st. Recent
UK legislation - the Representation of The People Act - has helped to ensure
that the process of voting will be more accessible than ever (for example
through wheelchair-accessible polling stations, large print and Braille
voting cards, and provision of assistance to help voters). 

What is disappointing is that parties seem to have failed so far to grasp
the potential of the Web as an efficient way of making their policy and
manifesto information easily available to the widest audience, regardless of
access needs.

The report can be found at http://www.dmag.org.uk/election/

David

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David Sloan
Project Lead
Digital Media Access Group
Division of Applied Computing
University of Dundee
DUNDEE
Scotland, UK
DD1 4HN

tel +44 (0)1382 345598
fax +44 (0)1382 345509
web: http://www.dmag.org.uk
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Received on Saturday, 26 April 2003 12:12:07 UTC