6 April 2007

There is a clear link between the accessibility of a website and the level of satisfaction it offers to users, new data has revealed.

A piece of research called the Website Take up Service, conducted by the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), discovered that the 13 local authorities which had complied with level A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines outperformed their peers for satisfaction.

"This finding is in line with one of the key tenets of inclusive design - that things designed to be accessible to the disabled are also more usable for everyone," asserted Socitm.

Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager for Socitm Insight, said that a recorded fall in the overall level of satisfaction with council websites is possibly attributable to a rise in users' expectations of quality.

Socitm's data on which websites comply with accessibility standards was compiled in the Better connected 2007 survey, which incorporated assessments from the Royal National Institute of the Blind.

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