Accessibility and Usability Issues in Web Based Citizen Services in Pakistan

Abstract

The Internet has now become an integral aspect of people's lives. Everyone wants to access their required information with ease through the internet. Especially disabled people have the equal right to retrieve all the information that is publicly available. The government also provides information through websites that help their citizens to access it with ease but it affects mostly disabled people if it has accessibility issues. The objective of the paper was to identify accessibility issues in different online services. A framework is developed based on WCAG guidelines. The websites were evaluated on the basis of evaluation framework. The results of the study are useful for developers and policy makers in online service improvements. Accessibility and usability issues in web-based citizen services were identified. Each website was checked for loading time, Performance, Mobile-friendliness, General Errors, Contrast errors, Alerts and ARIA errors by using online testing tools. The findings reveal that the majority of websites are not developed in accordance with the standard which makes information inaccessible for disabled especially low vision persons.