PRESS CONFERENCE ON WEBSITE ACCESS FOR DISABLED PERSONS

 

Launched at a Headquarters press conference today was the first-ever global web accessibility survey, according to which 97 of the world’s leading 100 websites failed to meet the minimum accessibility level for people who are blind, have low-vision disabilities, or cannot use a computer mouse. 

Presenting the Global Audit of Web Accessibility on the International Day of Disabled Persons were Leonie Watson, Head of Accessibility, Nomensa -- a United Kingdom-based agency specializing in perfecting online experience; Nomensa’s Managing Director, Simon Norris; and Sarbuland Khan, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development.  The study was commissioned by the United NationsDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs and prepared by Nomensa.

Nomensa representatives explained to the press that using a combination of manual and automated testing against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, their company had examined the leading websites in five key areas for people going online in 20 countries, including the sites of the Head of State, a leading airline, a bank, a newspaper and a retailer.  The survey showed that just 3 of the 100 websites had achieved a basic level of accessibility.  Those were the sites of the German Chancellor, the Spanish President and the British Prime Minister.  The results were very similar across all countries, regardless of their socio-economic background, culture and level of technological development. 

“We are standing on the brink of an absolutely incredible journey,” Ms. Watson said.  Accessibility and the digital revolution needed everybody’s attention, but the results of the survey had clearly indicated that the world had a long way to go in terms of creating an accessible Internet where information was available to everybody.  Working shoulder to shoulder and nation by nation, the international community could ensure that the digital revolution did not leave people with disabilities behind.  It was important to look at the main obstacles and understand how to address them.

Among the key findings of the report, she highlighted the fact that 93 per cent of the companies examined did not provide adequate text descriptions for graphical content, causing problems for visually impaired people, including herself.  Some 73 per cent of the sites relied on “javascript” for important functionality, making it impossible for an estimated 10 per cent of Internet users to access key information.  As for the foundations of the sites, 98 per cent did not follow industry web standards for the programming code, “building a house on weak foundations”. 

Mr. Norris agreed that accessibility was a journey and said that, while the results so far were not as good as one would have expected, there was movement in the right direction.  In designing accessible sites, it was important to not only make sure that the foundations were in place, but also sustain the quality of the sites, designing the Internet experience around people.  Many of the sites his company had looked at had made the right initial steps, but had failed to sustain “the level of quality of experience” in which everybody could share.  It was necessary to have rules in place to sustain that quality.  Sharing experiences, training, education and motivation of designers was important in that regard. 

Putting the launch of the report in a broader context, Mr. Khan said that it had been preceded by a panel on website accessibility yesterday, as well as the launch of a special initiative for inclusive technologies by the Global Alliance in collaboration with the World Wireless Institute in Boston and several private sectors, civil society and international organizations.  That was a partnership to bridge the digital divide through legislative, regulatory and institutional aspects of e-accessibility, best practices and technological solutions, research, development, standardization and harmonization. 

The goal was to use ICT as a strategic instrument for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, he stressed.  Also, with almost 20 per cent of the world population suffering from disabilities, many companies and industry representatives recognized the need to address their needs.  However, their fragmented efforts needed to be brought together in a partnership to achieve concrete results.  He also noted significant progress in the work on the draft convention on the rights of people with disabilities, which was expected to be adopted by the Assembly in the near future. 

Asked whether the study had looked at the issues of developing countries’ access to the Internet, Ms. Watson said that the report had not looked at the digital divide problem.  Indeed, it was an important and far-reaching problem, but it had remained outside the scope of the study, which had looked at the issue faced by all countries -– web accessibility for people with disabilities.  Mr. Norris added that, while socio-economic challenges existed, the study had not looked at them.  The objective of the report was to see how well individual countries were performing in ensuring web access. 

To a question about access for blind people, Ms. Watson replied that many of them used Screen Reader software to convert information on screen into primarily electronic speech.  When confronted with an image, it would see if a text description was provided.  However, the programme could not interpret graphic images.

Regarding the difficulties with the javascript, she said that java was a programming language, which could be used on a web page to accomplish a variety of functions ranging from displaying a date in a window corner to making a graphic change every 20 minutes or so.  The problems for accessibility came when javascript was used for something absolutely essential for the running of a website.  In that case, people who used the Screen Reader or did not have the script enabled on their browser could not access the website information.  Some of the sites examined in the report relied on javascript for their navigation and that prevented access.  An analogy in that case would be coming to a department store and being unable to use any of its elevators to go to a different level.

Mr. Norris added that, for security reasons, some Government organizations might restrict or disable the use of javascript on all their browsers.  As a result, the users could not use websites relying on that script.  In designing websites, it was important to think how people would use the technology and ensure the quality of the experience.

Responding to a question about the accessibility of Russian sites, Mr. Norris said that, across the board, Heads of States were among the best performers.  The site of the President of Russia was among those closest to achieving minimal accessibility.  In general, Russian websites were not among the best, but also not among the worst performers.

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For information media • not an official record