E-government standards demand equal access to disabled users online
Government information professionals working towards the Implementing e-Government (IEG) standards need to be addressing accessibility, experts say. Users with eyesight, hearing or learning difficulties must be able to easily access online government information by April 2006 as part of IEG compliance.
Local authority services such as schools admissions, vote registration, planning applications, government information, and council tax administration have to be online by December 31, 2005. By April 2006 government bodies will have to achieve a second IEG deadline of ensuring that all their website information complies with the e-government metadata standard and be accessible to the AA standard set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organisation for internet standards.