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Analysis of U.S. Senate Web Sites For Disability Accessibility

Kuzma, Joanne, Weisenborn, G., Philippe, T., Gabel, A. and Dolechek, R. (2009) Analysis of U.S. Senate Web Sites For Disability Accessibility. International Journal of Business Research, 9 (6). pp. 174-181. ISSN 1555-1296

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Abstract

U.S. federal government web sites have increased significantly the level of services and information offered to various internal and external stakeholders. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which complemented the intent and aims of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As a result, federal agencies and departments were mandated to provide disabled stakeholders with access to key information from federal web sites. However, since this enactment, some federal web sites still do not meet fully the legal requirements to accommodate users with disabilities. Additionally, web sites of members of the U.S. Congress technically do not fall under regulation. Without regulation, non-adherence to accessibility standards by congressional web sites may result in poor or ineffective utilization by citizen consumers or other stakeholders with disabilities. The purpose of this study is to examine the accessibility statistics for a pseudo-random sample of 50 web sites of U.S. Senators. The main web page of each site was evaluated with an online web site analysis software tool – Truwex. Three factors were used to gauge the level of accessibility: criteria based on Section 508, WCAG 1.0 standards, and WCAG 2.0 standards. Results suggest that the vast majority of the U.S. Senate web sites do not meet the federal legal guidelines that otherwise are imposed on other U.S. governmental agencies and departments. Many of the sites contain consistent patterns of non-compliance, and some minor changes could result in increased accessibility for disabled stakeholders.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), U.S. Senate, W3C, Truwex, e-government, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Workforce Investment Act, Section 508, Rehabilitation Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
K Law > KF United States Federal Law
Divisions: College of Business, Psychology and Sport > Worcester Business School
Depositing User: Joanne Kuzma
Date Deposited: 03 Dec 2009 15:21
Last Modified: 08 Jun 2021 09:24
URI: https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/785

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