An Evaluation of Web Accessibility: The Context of Tanzanian Public Websites

Abstract

Inaccessible websites tend to present a big challenge to users, particularly in the electronic government era. Inaccessible websites tend to segregate disabled and other people from accessing online public contents. The Tanzania government is currently using electronic government strategy that involves the use of websites, among others, to disseminate public information and services to stakeholders. However, the issue of web accessibility has been given little attention. This study assessed the web accessibility status of 21 public websites under the auspices of Tanzania National Portal and Ministries by using WCAG 2.0 Level A conformance guideline. Manual and automatic evaluations were used to evaluate homepages for selected websites. A-checker and Cynthia-Says were used in the automatic evaluation process. The result shows that none of the evaluated websites homepage is accessible, yet with a variation in the inaccessibility levels. This study provides a more holistic understanding on the importance of web accessibility on public website, shades lights on various web accessibility guidelines, provides status of public websites in terms of web accessibility, and lastly gives recommendations for improvement to allow more people to access public web contents in Tanzania.