06.06.16
Local authorities improve mobile and disability web accessibility
More councils than ever have made their websites more accessible for mobile phone users, the final results of the annual Socitm Better Connected survey show.
The survey found that 80% of councils now have websites specially purposed for mobile phones.
Of these, 68% were rated as providing a good or very good experience, compared to 31% in the 2013-14 survey.
The report also said that a side-effect of making websites simpler and less cluttered, in order to make them easier to use on mobiles, was that they were more accessible for disabled people.
The Digital Accessibility Centre carried out a series of assessments of sites’ accessibility, which 59% passed, compared to 43% in 2015 and 26% in 2014.
However, only 44% of council sites were rated good or very good overall, with only 52% achieving top marks in the search test.
The Better Connected survey is based on a series of surveys of different functions for council websites, and has found consistent areas of concern, including planning applications and library services.
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