Council websites face Socitm report

Public sector IT managers body Socitm is to add an accessibility supplement to its annual report on local authority websites, due out on 3 March.

In previous years, Socitm's Better Connected annual reports have carried lists of council websites achieving Level A of the WCAG1.0 web content accessibility standard.

Last year, the report pointed out that the number of council websites achieving this standard had not increased for three years, despite the government stipulating five years ago that all government websites should achieve Level AA, and the Priority Service Outcomes initiative in 2005 expecting the same of all local authorities in England.

Additionally, in October last year, the Central Office of Information reminded every public sector organisation that failure to achieve Level AA by the end of 2008 might, in extreme cases, lead to withdrawal of their .gov.uk web domain.

Socitm has invited the Public Sector Web Managers Group (PSWMG), formed last year, to help develop content for its web accessibility supplement.

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