The aim of the study is to determine the current situation with regard to the accessibility of community websites for people with disabilities and for older citizens.
16 websites at the federal level and of federal-related companies, 26 websites of the cantons and 8 others of the public sector were tested. The Internet offerings were reviewed by people with disabilities and by experts in accordance with the federal guidelines for the design of accessible websites (P028) and the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0).
None of the 50 websites tested meets all requirements and is truly “barrier-free”. The degree of accessibility achieved varies greatly.
The greatest accessibility is achieved by the websites of the central federal administration, which were adapted as part of the changeover of the federal government’s “corporate design” with the R013 and P028 standards. This result is very pleasing and complies with the legal requirements and deadlines. Since January 1, 2007, all websites of the central federal administration must by law be barrier-free.
Compared to the departmental websites, the cantons perform significantly worse. With the exception of a few good examples, the cantonal websites are not suitable for people with disabilities. The same situation was observed with the testing of five websites in the largest Swiss cities.
