Government sites fail web accessibility and standards test

Government websites are continuing to ignore mandatory standards and basic guidelines aimed at making information more easily available and accessible, according to a new study.

Key departments and agencies, including the Cabinet Office, Home Office, the e-Envoy and UK Online all failed to comply with metadata standards that make it easier to manage and find information on a website.

The website performance testing was carried out by Business2www at the end of January on 61 central government sites. The study measured compliance with the government's own electronic metadata standard (e-GMS), along with page download speed, accessibility and errors.

Only 10 sites had any of the mandatory metadata, such as 'creator' and 'title', while 45 failed to comply at all - including most of the key central government departments, such as the Home Office and the DTI.

Only seven were in full compliance with Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines - which aim to ensure that people with disabilities are not prevented from accessing information on the website - although this is an improvement on the previous study back in November. The e-Envoy, UK Online, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission all scored top marks here.

Overall, the study tested the top 250 pages of each site, and the rest of the results show that 35 agencies failed basic metadata tests for their home page, while the MoD had the fastest overall server response (0.068 seconds per page) compared to UK Online for Business, which had the slowest (9 seconds per page).

In the overall rankings, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website for local authorities, www.localegov.gov.uk came top again, with the Child Support Agency second, UK Online fourth and the e-Envoy in 11th place.

Among those propping up the rankings in the 'must do better' category were UK Sport, the Treasury, UK Online for Business and the Home Office.

Sol Saad, director of corporate strategy and development at Business2www, said central government needs to follow the example of local authorities in this area.

"We have seen a dramatic increase in performance in the local government sector," he said. "But if things are not up to standard, it affects the user experience and the delivery of content information."