Persons with disabilities are still facing a number of difficulties in accessing the websites, even though it has become mandatory for public organizations to provide web accessibility from April 11, 2009, the forum on ‘Disability Discrimination Act and the Way to Ensure Web Accessibility’ concluded.
The forum, organized by the NHRCK on November 16, was to get rid of confusion caused by an unclear standard in regulation, and to discuss further the direction for the standard and policy for web accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Director of Web Accessibility Division, Oh Jung-Hoon, of the Human Rights Forum of Persons with Disabilities in Korea, said, “Serviceability hasn’t been improved as much as accessibility has. Most persons with visual disabilities still have difficulties using websites of public organizations.”
According to the investigation of 65 websites from public organizations, conducted by the Forum, it takes 3 minutes 49 seconds for persons with visual disabilities to do an ordinary task, which is 3.2 times longer than those without visual disabilities.
Oh pointed out, “The problem is that the organizations think following the regulation is just enough.” “They need to provide a site that persons with visual disabilities actually can access and use the service.”
The Forum expects to raise awareness of web accessibility for public organizations and private companies, and share the examples of policies from other countries.
