The Accessibility of Municipal Government Websites

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Internet is increasingly being used by both citizens and governments for the transfer of information. There is a need to extend access to municipal websites to the portion of the population with disabilities. In 1998, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was amended by Congress to require federal government agencies and those agencies that receive funds from the federal government to ensure that their websites are accessible to the public. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the level of accessibility of the 100 largest municipalities' websites. Webmasters in these cities were surveyed to determine their awareness of accessibility issues and their plans to make their municipalities' websites accessible. The results of this study show that while a number of cities have accessibility statements, overall compliance with Section 508 is low. However, compliance with accessibility standards can only be expected to increase in the future as technology improves and city staff...