MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Below are the results of the MeAC eAccessibility status measurement for the United Kingdom.

Websites

The MeAC survey assessed the accessibility of a similar sample of 12 key websites in each of the EU Member States, as well as the USA, Canada and Australia. These included 6 key public websites (national government, national parliament, and key ministries such as social, employment, health and education) and 6 key sectoral/commercial websites (e.g. railways, TV, newspapers, retail banking). All websites were evaluated against WCAG 1.0 Level A criteria, including both automatic and manual evaluation. (For methodological details see Annex II of the project report).

The results for the UK, as measured in 2008, were as follows:

• 4 out of the 6 selected public websites passed the automatic evaluation, whereas 1 out of 6 passed both the automatic and manual evaluations
• 1 out of 6 of the sectoral/commercial websites passed the automatic evaluation, but none passed both the automatic and manual evaluations

Telecoms

Utilization of telecoms services and equipment can pose a variety of accessibility challenges for different disability groups. For the purposes of the MeAC study the availability of a number of selected accessibility provisions was surveyed in each of the 27 countries. In the UK the following situation was identified in 2008:

• The main emergency number (112 or other) was accessible by means of text telephones
• A text relay service was available. A video relay service was not available
• Of the two main mobile telephony operators, both provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via their websites. Both of them also offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channels
• Of the two main landline telephony operators, both provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via their websites. Both also offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channels

Broadcasting

To ensure that people with disabilities can access and enjoy TV broadcast programs in the same manner as everyone else, a variety of accessibility provisions need to be made available, including subtitling and sign language interpretation for people with hearing impairments and audio description for people with vision impairments. As regards their availability in the UK, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main public TV channels (provided by the same broadcaster), in 2007
  • both provided national language programs with subtitling. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 97,5% and 97,2%, respectively, of their overall national language programming
  • both provided programs with signing. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 5,2% and 5,4%, respectively, of their overall programming
  • both provided programs with audio description. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 14,6% and 5,4%, respectively, of their overall programming
• Of the two main commercial TV channels, in 2007
  • both provided national language programs with subtitling. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 97,6% and 90,6%, respectively, of their overall programming
  • both provided programs with signing. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 5,2% and 90,6%, respectively, of their overall programming
  • both provided programs with audio description. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 16,2% and 10,3%, respectively, of their overall programming

Self- service terminals

The utilisation of standard self-service terminals can pose various accessibility challenges to different groups. In the banking sector, for instance automatic teller machines (ATMs) which are designed to meet the needs of vision impaired people are now being manufactured. Usually referred to as “talking” ATMs, such machines have a voice output option via headphones and/or external loud speakers.

As regards the availability of such banking terminals in the UK, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main retail banks operating in the country, neither had installed any talking ATMs
• Some other banks had deployed at least some “talking” ATMs in the UK at that time

To avoid SPAM-abuse of the e-mail address the ‘@’ sign was written as ‘a t’ and each dot ‘.’ as ‘d o t’.
Please change the recipient address of your message accordingly. We apologize for this inconvenience.