Government website accessibility: a cross-country analysis of G7 and BRICS countries

Kesswani & Kumar studied the accessibility of government sites of both G7 and BRICS countries; they also discussed recommendations and barriers to success in this article. The authors compared national government sites as well as territorial (state, provincial, etc.) in each country. Using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines, comparisons of the home pages plus five ministries were completed. They used a variety of web testing tools to examine the accessibility following WCAG levels. Aside from outlining country standings for each of the four WCAG principles, the authors provide reasons for variations in rankings: technological access and abilities, laws and legislation governing accessibility rules for government sites, culture and attitudes towards disabilities and access, etc. They provided comparisons for desktop versus mobile access, including comparing the same mobile apps in Android and iOS versions. The authors provided a summary of recommendations for overall improvements at the end of the article.—AA