Municipal sites still not developed for people with disabilities

Municipal websites are still not friendly enough for people with disabilities. Despite the efforts of municipalities, it is often impossible to make the sites fully accessible. While the vast majority think it's okay. This is the conclusion of Eric Velleman, accessibility expert, who reviewed 69 municipalities

. Today, he hopes to promote the subject at the University of Twente. In his research, Velleman discovered a relationship between the accessibility of a website and the processes within an organization. "People think it's a technical problem, but it's an organizational problem," he said. hearing, visual, motor or intellectual impairment or who are, for example, color-blind. This is the result of a European directive of 2016. The Dutch municipalities have adopted these directives.

Nevertheless, the implementation is lagging behind. According to Velleman, this is mainly due to a lack of control. "A website builder receives a list of requirements, something is delivered and then not checked by anyone, no one checks: does it really meet our requirements?"

This is not false because of technology problems, but because municipalities are not sufficiently aware that their sites must be accessible to all. This is not in the policy plans and management is not involved in making it accessible. Hence the finding of Vellemans that it is an organizational problem

Municipalities often incorrectly believe that they are following the guidelines correctly. "I asked the municipalities: do you think your website is accessible to the blind, visually impaired, hard of hearing, hard of hearing and mobility impaired?" 88% said "yes". "