| Ministers | Govt. | Govt. | Other | University |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen | Lords | Home Office | Heretic Press | UCL |
| Defence | gov.uk | London police | UK Surgeons | Oxford |
| No 10 Downing St. | UK Direct | Post | RNIB | Cambridge |
| Treasury | UKe-gov | Privy Council | Edinburgh | |
| Trade | Education | Courts | ||
| Foreign |
Page created 16th March 2006. Last updated 30th August 2007. Related pages: Web Survey design. USA sites. Australian. : University. Survey Results
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Contact Heretic Press for an accessibility audit of your website. Audits will help you identify current accessibility problems and provide guidance for compliance with international W3C standards and accessibility laws.
The snapshots below were taken of pages between the 13th and 28th of March 2006. Check if any of these webpages, have improved since 16th March 2006.
Please contact the Webmaster, if you have any concerns that your site has been unfairly represented. London pictures
royal.gov.uk
W3C test the Queen's homepage
Verified File Name: Queen
FAILED validation, 35 errors Date 21 March 2006
FAILED validation, 33 errors Date 22 September 2006
FAILED validation, 33 errors Date 19 April 2007
FAILED validation, 27 errors Date 30 August 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: Queen
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
FAILED Accessibility Verification S.508.
Validation Error Score www.royal.gov.uk 35
Page accessibility features www.royal.gov.uk 4
This webpage is not hand coded, it has been written with software called NetDevPlus V1.1. It needs a good edit to define the HTML version and meta tags to include creation and content modification dates.
The Queen's homepage contains the necessary !DOCTYPE definition, but it is incorrectly declared.
Badly labelled tables are used to position items on the page. It needs to use Headings elements (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) to structure the page. Header elements also help organise the page and relative importance, the level one heading (H1) usually being at the top of the page.
A lot more HTML errors than the average (19 error average per UK page) UK site, the Privy Council's webpage, is also made with NetDevPlus V1.1. Both have more than the average number of W3C validation errors for UK sites. Other pages made with NetDevPlus V1.1, such as the Privy Council's webpage, are very close to having the same number of W3C validation errors. The Privy Council page has 37 errors. NetDevPlus does not seem to correctly declare a document type. There are other common defects, such as insufficient meta tags, incorrect use of Javascript and the use of deprecated HTML elements like bgcolor.
The Privy Council's and the Queen's webpages, do not use headings or paragraph tags, everything is structured in tables. Some better search engines, prefer headings to structure the relative importance of keywords in documents.
The onmouseover Javascript events, need to be matched by onfocus events, the blind do not have a mouse, onfocus lets them have the same information, although in this case the onmouseover event changes colours which could be handled by the stylesheet and is not much help to a blind person.
The Queen's website does use an external stylesheet which is good, but it also uses the deprecated attribute: body bgcolor. Some images and pictures have no ALT image tags or long descriptions, a description of the jewelled crown with rubies perhaps?. Table elements are used extensively for layout, but the rows and columns are undefined.
There is a lot of English history and reference material on this website, it should be validated as HTML and made accessible. As well as error correction, some further accessibility improvements might include a skip navigation option and accessibility features like Tab indexes and keyboard shortcuts.
Parliament homepage.
Parliament House of Commons homepage
W3C test of UK parliament
Verified File Name: English Parliament
Result: FAILED validation, 42 errors Date 21st March 2006
Result: FAILED validation, 39 errors Date 19th April 2007
Result: FAILED validation, 40 errors Date 30th August 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK parliament
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
PASSED Accessibility Verification S.508.
Validation Error Score www.parliament.uk 42
Page accessibility features www.parliament.uk 11
This webpage is written in HTML 4.00 Transitional and it contains a lot of deprecated HTML tags like font bgcolours. It needs more meta tags to include creation and content modification dates. It does use two external stylesheets, one for printing, which is better than the Queen's offering of one. Tables rows and colums need to be labelled, they have been extensively used for layout instead of headings and paragraphs.
The UK parliament is serious about providing accessibility, they have acted on reviews from the Royal Institute of the Blind, RNIB, See it Right consultants. An accessibility information page is available. This page has two extra features, not often used. It has an alert subscription, so you can be notified of page updates. You can also listen to live sound broadcasts from the UK parliament.
House of Lords homepage.
Parliament House of Lords
W3C test of UK House of Lords
Verified File Name: English Parliament House of Lords
Result: PASSED validation, No HTML errors Date 21st March 2006
Result: PASSED validation, No HTML errors Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK Lords
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
PASSED Accessibility Verification priority 1, 2 and 3 AAA.
Validation www.lordsappointments.gov.uk No Errors
Accessibility features www.lordsappointments.gov.uk 23
This is one beutifully written webpage. It also has a link to an accessibility page which lists keyboard shortcuts and has information on browsealoud, a free download to control voices, word pronunciations and speech highlighting. Fantastic work House of Lords, one of the best government webpages in the USA, UK or Australia.
The only pernickety criticism I could find was the lack of long descriptions of images, which is probably unnecessary in a page mostly of text. The best government website. Well done House of Lords, best website of 80 government websites surveyed in three countries.
10 Downing Street.
No 10 Downing Street
W3C test No 10 Downing Street
Verified File Name: No 10 Downing Street
Result: PASSED validation, No HTML errors Date 21st March 2006
Result: FAIL validation, 3 HTML errors Date 19th April 2007
Result: PASSED validation, No XTML errors Date 10th October 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: No 10 Downing Street
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
PASSED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.number-10.gov.uk No Errors
Accessibility features www.number-10.gov.uk 18
10 Downing Street's webpage is written in XHTML 1.0 Transitional, but it contains deprecated HTML tags like image border and background colour (bgcolor). It has comprehensive META data tags as all the British pages seem to have. One break with the general accessibility focus is opening windows for links in a new window, but it does give warnings that new windows will be opened. No 10 uses external stylesheets. Some images and pictures could do with long descriptions. Not much is required for No 10's webpage to be AAA accessible as it already passes S.508 and Priority one accessibility validation. A few small improvements, not much compared to the Australian Prime Minister John Howard's webpage.
Some extra improvements would include a skip navigation option and accessibility features like Tab indexes and keyboard shortcuts.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
W3C test of Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Result: FAILED validation, 74 errors
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
FAILED Automated Accessibility Verification S.508.
Validation www.fco.gov.uk 74 Errors
Accessibility features www.fco.gov.uk 10
An older UK page from 2002, Includes keyboard shortcuts.
Trade and Industry Lord Sainsbury.
Trade and Industry Minister
W3C UK Trade and Industry
Verified File Name: UK Trade and Industry Minister
Result: FAIL validation, 28 errors Date 26th March 2006
Result: FAIL ERROR 404 validation, Sainbury gone Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK trade
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
FAILED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.dti.gov.uk 28 Errors
Accessibility features www.dti.gov.uk 8
A text only version is available of the minister's homepage for the BBC Education Text to Speech Internet Enhancer (Betsie).
UK Treasury.
UK Treasury
W3C UK Treasury
Verified File Name: UK Treasury
Result: FAIL validation, 1 minor HTML Date 21st March 2006
Result: FAIL validation, 1 minor HTML Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK Treasury
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
FAILED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.hm-treasury.gov.uk No Errors
Accessibility features www.hm-treasury.gov.uk 11
Uses tables to layout the page, could do with heading and paragraph tags.
W3C test UK e-govt Cabinet Office
Verified File Name: UK e-govt Cabinet Office
Result: PASSED validation, No HTML errors Date 21st March 2006
Result: FAIL validation, 1 HTML error Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: Cabinet Office e-government
Date and Time: 3/13/2006 13:07:00 PM
PASSES Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Ian Watmore
Validation www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk No Errors
Accessibility features www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk 19
This webpage is written in XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN but it contains deprecated HTML tags like image border, which if corrected would make it validate as AAA accessible. Again, it has comprehensive META data tags. The e-government Cabinet Office uses external stylesheets. A few small improvements like getting rid of older HTML elements is almost all that is required for AAA accessibility.
Congratulations to the UK government Cabinet Office, you have made one of a few webpages that allows users to navigate through a page, without using a mouse. They use Tab indexes and also have keyboard shortcuts.
Another great English webpage, including keyboard navigation, keyboard shortcuts and browsealoud, a free download to control voices, word pronunciations and speech highlighting. Compare your IT quality design with the equivalent example of your department in Australia, which fails validation very badly and is totally inaccessibile. AGIMO.
UK Ministry for Defence Minister for Defence.
W3C test UK Defence
Result: FAILED validation, 1 error Date 13th March 2006
Result: FAILED validation, 1 error Date 19th April 2006
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK Ministry for Defence
Date and Time: 13th March 2006
PASSES Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation http://www.mod.uk 1 Error
Accessibility features http://www.mod.uk 13
Privy Council Privy Council Office.
W3C test Privy Council
Result: FAILED validation, 37 errors Date 13th March 2006
Result: FAILED validation, 41 errors Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: UK Privy Council
Date 13th March 2006
FAILED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.privy-council.org.uk 37 Errors
Accessibility features www.privy-council.org.uk 6
A lot more HTML errors than the average UK site, made with web software NetDevPlus V1.1 Other pages made with NetDevPlus V1.1, such as the Queen's webpage, are very close to having the same number of W3C validation errors. The Queen's page has 35 errors. NetDevPlus does not seem to correctly declare a document type. A check on errors in websites made with NetDevPlus, such as the Queen's website shows other common defects, such as insufficient meta tags and the use of deprecated HTML elements like bgcolor.
Another common element between the privy Council's and the Queen's webpage, is that NetDevPlus plus does not use headings and paragraph tags, everything is structured in tables, but some better search engines prefer headings to structure relative importance in documents.
Constitutional Affairs Constitutional Affairs.
W3C test Constitutional Affairs
Result: PASSED validation, No errors Date 3rd April 2006
Result: FAIL validation, One error Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: Constitutional Affairs
Date 3rd April 2006
PASSED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.dca.gov.uk No Errors
Accessibility features www.dca.gov.uk/ 18
Royal Mail Royal Mail.
W3C test Royal Mail
Result: FAILED validation, 100 errors Date 3rd April 2006
Result: FAILED validation, Cannot Check Date 19th April 2007
Cynthia Says® - Web Accessibility Report
Verified File Name: Royal Mail
Date 3rd April 2006
FAILED Accessibility Verification priority 1 S.508.
Validation www.royalmail.com 100 Errors
Accessibility features www.royalmail.com 8