The best local authority web sites are still failing disabled users, according to the latest survey by the Society for Information Technology Management (Socitm). Whilst this type of survey is incredibly important, an evaluation of local authority web sites should also consider more fundamental issues, such as the digital divide.

The survey was carried out in conjunction with New Media Award’s finalists, Usability Exchange who gathered a group of disabled test users. The users were asked to perform the same two tasks on each top 20 council website; the first was to find the relevant switchboard telephone number and the second was to report an abandoned car. Unfortunately, users encountered problems on every one of the sites tested. Specific problem areas included using non-standard areas of the page and ‘click here’ links.

Since local authority web sites exist to help people access very important services, this is dissapointing. Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm, believes that local authority web sites exist to perform this very function. However, the majority of local authorities represent diverse communites, where many residents will not own computers or have access to services such as broadband. Local authorities are surely responsible for all of their residents, not one specific group.