scholarly journals Web Site Accessibility, Quality and Vulnerability Assessment: a Survey of Government Web Sites in the Turkish Republic

Author(s):  
Yakup Akgul
2011 ◽  
pp. 2643-2656
Author(s):  
Genie N.L. Stowers

This article examines the user help and service navigation features in government Web sites and compares them across levels of government. These features are critical to ensuring that users unfamiliar with government are able to successfully and easily access e-government services and information. The research finds clear patterns in the use of similar help and navigation features across governments, leading to a conclusion that these features are diffusing in the public sector Web development field. The article concludes by stating that Web developers should work to overcome a second digital divide, one of a lack of knowledge of Web site organization and government structure. Users need to be actively assisted to find information by Web developers.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1371-1378
Author(s):  
Carmine Scavo

San Carlos, California (www.cityofsancarlos.org) claims to have developed one of the earliest local government Web sites in the world, posted on May 10, 1994 (San Carlos, 2006). From this early effort, United States (U.S.) cities moved rapidly onto the Web. Norris and Moon (2002), for example, report that some 4.4% of U.S. cities in a 2000 survey by the International City Management Association (ICMA) reported developing Web sites before 1995; 27.1% reported developing their Web sites in the 1995-’96 time period, and 68.5% reported their Web site developed after 1997. San Carlos’ original Web site comprised one page; its current Web site now contains some 8,000 pages and uses some of the Web’s most modern technology available, such as really simple syndication (RSS) and Flash Paper.1 This article uses the example of San Carlos’ Web site, along with two surveys of local government Web sites in the U.S., to illustrate the experience that U.S. local governments have had in developing and using Web sites in the pursuit of bettering governance. The article examines four local government Web applications—bulletin boards, promotions, service delivery and citizen input—and assesses their use by U.S. local governments. The article then addresses current issues of outsourcing Web site design and maintenance, and future issues of privacy, security, the digital divide and the possible effects of increased local government Web sites on U.S. civil society.


Author(s):  
M. Henderson ◽  
F. Hogarth

The right of a citizen to petition Parliament is arguably one of the fundamental ways individuals can engage in democratic processes, by providing their views on what governments should do and requesting action on a particular issue. In 2000, the Scottish Parliament agreed to a trial of an e-petitioner system whereby members of the Scottish public are able to lodge, sign and view petitions to the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Committee using the internet. Originally developed and hosted by the International Teledemocracy Centre, constituents can now place petitions on the Scottish Parliament Web site in a format that offers a discussion forum for each petition. In 2002, the Queensland government (Australia) launched an e-democracy policy framework that introduced three digital democracy initiatives, including e-petitions. This particular initiative is presented in the case study below. A second Australian state (Tasmania) commenced a 12-month trial based on the Queensland model in July 2004. These three parliaments are the only parliaments to allow e-petitions as at October 2004, although the Canadian, Basque, European parliaments and the German Bundestag have apparently shown an interest in Scotland’s e-petitioner system (MacIntosh, 2004). Although these are only three parliaments that accept electronic petitions, online petitioning is also being used for engaging with governments and elected members. For example, in the United Kingdom, the prime minister’s office accepts electronic petitions and lists those with more than 300 genuine signatures on the number 10 Downing street Web page, together with a link to the government’s response to the petition. However, petitions are not hosted on that site and a separate Web site must be established to explain the purpose of the petition and to collect signatures. Fourteen petitions on a range of diverse issues were listed on the site for the period between April 2001 and July 2003, ranging from 306 to 83,440 signatures per petitioned issue. There are also non-government Web sites providing information about, and tools for, creating online petitions. For example, www.petitiononline.com (Artifice, Inc, 2004) provides a privately sponsored free online hosting service for public petitions that includes an automatic formatting system for the Web petition; collects, displays and maintains petition signatures; automatically rejects duplicate signatures and confirms receipt to signatories; and allows for electronic delivery through e-mailing the petition URL to the target recipient. In mid 2004, the site claims over 20 million signatures have been collected on a range of topics.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faouzi Kamoun ◽  
Mohamed Basel Almourad

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which accessibility is taken into account in the assessment and ranking of e-government web sites through the lens of a specific study related to Dubai e-government. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers a case study related to Dubai e-government and it evaluates the accessibility of each of the 21 Dubai e-government web sites, based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and using an automated accessibility testing tool. A bivariate correlation analysis is performed to assess the correlation between web site ranking and accessibility score. Findings – The research reveals that contrary to common intuition and some earlier studies, there is a weak correlation between e-government web site ranking score and web site accessibility. Research limitations/implications – The paper uses an accessibility metric that is a proxy indicator of web accessibility and is not a real assessment of accessibility as experienced by a person with disability. Practical implications – When re-examined through the lens of Rawls's moral theory, this research suggests that accessibility should be given a higher priority in the general evaluation and ranking of e-government web sites. Social implications – The paper promotes universal accessibility to e-government information and services. Originality/value – The paper uses ethical arguments to highlight the need to comprehensively consider accessibility as a major criterion in the assessment and ranking of e-government web sites.


Author(s):  
Sivaporn Wangpipatwong ◽  
Wichian Chutimaskul ◽  
Borworn Papasratorn

This study empirically examines Web site quality toward the enhancement of the continued use of e-government Web sites by citizens. The web site quality under examination includes three main aspects, which are information quality, system quality, and service quality. The participants were 614 country-wide e-citizens of Thailand. The data were collected by means of a web-based survey and analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that the three quality aspects enhanced the continued use of e-government Web sites, with system quality providing the greatest enhancement, followed by service quality and information quality.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1312-1327
Author(s):  
Ferne Friedman-Berg ◽  
Kenneth Allendoerfer ◽  
Shantanu Pai

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Human Factors Team - Atlantic City conducted a usability assessment of the www.fly.faa.gov Web site to examine user satisfaction and identify site usability issues. The FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center uses this Web site to provide information about airport conditions, such as arrival and departure delays, to the public and the aviation industry. The most important aspect of this assessment was its use of quantitative metrics to evaluate how successfully users with different levels of aviation-related expertise could complete common tasks, such as determining the amount of delay at an airport. The researchers used the findings from this assessment to make design recommendations for future system enhancements that would benefit all users. They discuss why usability assessments are an important part of the process of evaluating e-government Web sites and why their usability evaluation process should be applied to the development of other e-government Web sites.


Author(s):  
Genie N.L. Stowers

This article examines the user help and service navigation features in government Web sites and compares them across levels of government. These features are critical to ensuring that users unfamiliar with government are able to successfully and easily access e-government services and information. The research finds clear patterns in the use of similar help and navigation features across governments, leading to a conclusion that these features are diffusing in the public sector Web development field. The article concludes by stating that Web developers should work to overcome a second digital divide, one of a lack of knowledge of Web site organization and government structure. Users need to be actively assisted to find information by Web developers.


Author(s):  
C. Scavo

San Carlos, California (www.cityofsancarlos.org) claims to have developed one of the earliest local government Web sites in the world, posted on May 10, 1994 (San Carlos, 2006). From this early effort, United States (U.S.) cities moved rapidly onto the Web. Norris and Moon (2002), for example, report that some 4.4% of U.S. cities in a 2000 survey by the International City Management Association (ICMA) reported developing Web sites before 1995; 27.1% reported developing their Web sites in the 1995-’96 time period, and 68.5% reported their Web site developed after 1997. San Carlos’ original Web site comprised one page; its current Web site now contains some 8,000 pages and uses some of the Web’s most modern technology available, such as really simple syndication (RSS) and Flash Paper.1 This article uses the example of San Carlos’ Web site, along with two surveys of local government Web sites in the U.S., to illustrate the experience that U.S. local governments have had in developing and using Web sites in the pursuit of bettering governance. The article examines four local government Web applications—bulletin boards, promotions, service delivery and citizen input—and assesses their use by U.S. local governments. The article then addresses current issues of outsourcing Web site design and maintenance, and future issues of privacy, security, the digital divide and the possible effects of increased local government Web sites on U.S. civil society.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document