Web accessibility and beyond in eGovernment: does web accessibility ensure accessibility to administration's websites?

Abstract

The undeniable progress in Web Accessibility can be contrasted with the scant impact on its application to the real Web world. This problem is especially serious when the Web is the only way to obtain specific services. In some countries, fundamental procedures such as interaction with Administration, health services, or banks, can exclusively be accessed through the Web. This issue became even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a significant sector of the population that does not have access to the Internet experienced important barriers to manage their situation. In addition to the technical problems, the digital and gender divide, which have a decisive effect on accessibility and condition the exercise of civil rights, are often disregarded by Web Accessibility studies. In this talk we will present our work on the accessibility of Administration's websites and, in addition, we will discuss the need of considering non-technological accessibility barriers to find ways to alleviate them.