29 January 2007

A number of governmental web accessibility initiatives begin in Europe this month as part of the Access to e-Government Services Employing Semantic Technologies (Access-eGov) project.

Access eGov has been created with the goal of "increasing the accessibility of public administration services for citizens and business users", with schemes taking place in Slovakia, Poland and Germany in the next six months.

The pilots form part of a two-year research project, led by a consortium of 11 universities and organisations spanning five countries, eGov Monitor reports.

Access-eGov states: "Special attention is paid to the e-inclusion criteria to guarantee that Access-eGov will be accessible also to disadvantaged groups of users, for which the system can be considerably beneficial."

In total, the scheme, which began in January 2006, will run for 36 months, with a budget in excess of £1.5 million - the majority of which was provided by funding from the European Commission.

© Adfero Ltd

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