Improving Federal Policy on Website Accessibility

This paper provides an abstract for a proposed poster. The poster will present preliminary findings of research conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation effort. This paper conducts a policy analysis of the current United States federal policy on website accessibility. Website accessibility means “making the web useable by everyone whatever their ability or disability” [1]. Previously, web accessibility meant the providing of equal access and equal opportunity to the Internet for people with disabilities. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. The problem this study addresses is to determine how well federal health care websites comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. §794d.). The purpose of this research study is to improve accessibility of federal (United States government) healthcare websites. The intent of this study is to develop a better understanding of the accessibility of federal health care websites and to determine what information policy barriers may prevent attaining full accessibility. Research Questions:  Are federal health care websites compliant with existing legislation on website accessibility?  Do current laws articulate a clear and consistent federal policy on web accessibility? This study is a multi-method approach which includes a literature review plus two methods of policy analysis. The first method is a case study of a distinct category of federal websites. This examination provides an indication as to the degree of success attained by the legislative acts that intended to establish website accessibility. The second method of evaluation is a classical policy analysis approach that performed a side-by-side analysis of the two legislative acts that most closely relate to federal web accessibility policy. The information policies examined are the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by Section 508 in 1990. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used extensively in information technology related areas, and has been successfully used to as a conceptual framework supporting web accessibility research [2][3]. The TAM provides a framework for understanding how users adopt and use new technologies [3][4]. TAM lends itself to the study of web accessibility as it captures its innate complexity, as it is a topic that contains aspects of policy issues, technical considerations, and integrates issues that are user centric [2]. Jaeger studied federal website accessibility, selecting a modified TAM model as the most relevant model to explore as an appropriate conceptual framework for this type of investigation. Jaeger offered observations about the value to the modified TAM as a conceptual framework for web accessibility applications. Jaeger’s study indicated the possible need to incorporate four more factors or influences into the modified TAM framework. Those factors were: user feedback; education and training; monitoring and enforcement; and political climate. The research performed in this study will determine the appropriateness of including those factors in the TAM model for application to web accessibility research. This study could extend the TAM framework by addressing three of the four areas identified by Jaeger’s work: education and training; monitoring and enforcement; and political climate. This study will assess the value of those areas towards the incorporation of those three factors into the modified TAM conceptual framework, with an intended outcome of further developing and improving the TAM model for use in conducting theory based web accessibility research. The case study of a distinct category of federal websites provided an indication as to the degree of success attained by the legislative acts that intended to establish website accessibility. The case study examined all the healthcare related websites provided by the official federal government portal website (WWW.HEALTHCARE.GOV). Of the 35 website homepages examined, 8 had accessibility errors. The finding is that 23% of these websites failed to be fully accessible as mandated by current web accessibility legislation. This evaluation indicates that the intent of federal web accessibility policy has not been fully achieved. The side-by-side analysis of the legislative acts (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) revealed significant differences in the ways these acts attempt to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The most significant difference was in how these acts portrayed the intended recipient of these civil protections. The Rehabilitation Act perspective was that of accommodating an “individual with a handicap,” versus the ADA perspective of providing universal accessibility to “individuals with a disability. This evaluative comparison helped to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each act, and provided indication for improving these legislative efforts towards attaining web