'The new accessibility panic': Remaining challenges to the achievement of Australia's National Transition Strategy

Denise Wood; Scott Hollier

doi:10.1145/2596695.2596710

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'The new accessibility panic': Remaining challenges to the achievement of Australia's National Transition Strategy

Conference paper

Peer reviewed

'The new accessibility panic': Remaining challenges to the achievement of Australia's National Transition Strategy

Denise Wood and Scott Hollier

W4A '14: Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference, pp.1-4

International Web for All (W4A) Conference, 11th (Seoul, Korea, 09-Apr-2014)

Association for Computing Machinery

2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2596695.2596710

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Abstract

information systems

World Wide Web

web applications

web services

design

human factors

standardization

web accessibility

National Transition Strategy

industry training

W3C WCAG 2.0

The Australian Government made a commitment in 2010 to ensure that all Federal, State and Territory websites would be accessible and meet World Wide Web (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) Level AA conformance [1] through its National Transition Strategy (NTS) by the end of 2014 [2]. However, as Wood and Hollier [3] foreshadowed in 2013, the recently released NTS 2012 Progress Report confirms that the targets for the first stage of the NTS implementation plan (Level A conformance by the end of 2012) proved unrealistic [4]. Moreover, the Chief Information Officer with the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), Glen Archer, acknowledges it is unlikely that the targets set for the final stage of the implementation plan (Level AA conformance) will be met by the end of 2014 [5]. This paper reports the findings from content analysis of postings to AGIMO blogs, and our reflections on the discussions of students enrolled in an online Professional Certificate in Web Accessibility Compliance course, to identify key factors that have contributed to the challenges experienced by government departments in achieving NTS targets. The final section of the paper explores the implications and proposes strategies that could assist in addressing the identified barriers.

Details

Title: 'The new accessibility panic': Remaining challenges to the achievement of Australia's National Transition Strategy
Authors: Denise Wood (Author) - University of South Australia
Scott Hollier (Author)
Publication details: W4A '14: Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference, pp.1-4
Conference details: International Web for All (W4A) Conference, 11th (Seoul, Korea, 09-Apr-2014)
Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery
Date published: 2014
DOI: 10.1145/2596695.2596710
Organisation Unit: Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students)
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99513798002621
Output Type: Conference paper

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