The Internet is offering unprecedented government transparency, but many key federal Web sites are lacking accessibility features leaving Americans with disabilities in the dark.
Under federal law, government Web sites are required to include audio readers, Braille printing capability, photo and video captioning and other features to assist users with disabilities. But as the Obama administration has rolled out new sites like Recovery.gov and MakingHomeAffordable.gov, accessibility has been lagging. Even staples of the federal government like WhiteHouse.gov and Disability.gov have experienced problems, advocates say.
Improvements are being made to site accessibility, but not fast enough, advocates argue. For example, they say WhiteHouse.gov went from having three problems on each page to just one on average, reports Federal Computer Week. To read more click here.
Copyright © 2009 Disability Scoop, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated and will not appear until they are approved. All comments must be in compliance with the DisabilityScoop.com Terms and Conditions. Please stay on-topic, keep your comments brief and refrain from inserting links or using abusive language.
You must be logged in to post a comment. Click here to login or register.
You can’t expect perfection, but as long as they are working on it to promptly correct the problems it is ok. Those who need to can also usually call an 800 number ifthey need to. They may need some people with accessibility issues working on their staff to check out the websites, both physically and sensorily limited and people with learning/cognitive disabilities. I would like computers to come with built in accessibility for various assistive tech users, including those who use adapted switches for access those who need simplified vocabulary.
Disability.gov was completely redesigned at the end of July 2009 in order to make the site both more useful and more accessible to all of our users. We have conducted extensive accessibility and usability testing of the redesigned site on a variety of machines using various Web browsers, screen readers and other assistive technology. Our 508 specialists and other accessibility experts found Disability.gov to be fully compliant and accessible based on requirements of Section 508 and W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. We are truly committed to going above and beyond those standards.
If you experience any accessibility issues while using Disability.gov, please contact us at disability@dol.gov.
- Kevin Connors, Program Director, Disability.gov