[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/ Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Assessing the usability, accessibility, and mobile readiness of e-government websites: a case study in india

  • Communication
  • Published:
Universal Access in the Information Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Government websites are intended to provide government services to every citizen of the country; therefore, these websites should be easily usable, readable, and equally accessible on desktop and mobile devices to all. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability, accessibility, and mobile readiness of Indian government websites. The analysis covered 164 government websites listed by government ministries for the delivery of e-services. Usability evaluation of websites was done on various quality parameters using automatic online tools. Compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0 was evaluated using the online tool TAW. Further, the mobile readiness of the websites was investigated using the MobileOK online tool. The results indicate that many government service websites had low usability, the majority of the website does not follow WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines, while none was usable and fully accessible on mobile devices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
£29.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (United Kingdom)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

References

  1. Al-Sobhi, F., Weerakkody, V., Kamal, M.M.: An exploratory study on the role of intermediaries in delivering public services in Madinah city: case of Saudi Arabia. Transform. Gov. People. Process. Policy. 4(1), 14–36 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1108/17506161011028786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Zhenmin, L.: United nations e-government survey 2018. https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2018 (2018)

  3. Nam, T.: Determining the type of e-government use. Gov. Inf. Q. 31(2), 211–220 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.09.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Heeks R.: eGovernment for development. http://www.egov4dev.org/success/index.shtml (2008). Accessed 01 Oct 2018

  5. WHO: World report on disability – summary. World. Rep. Disabil. 2011. no. WHO/NMH/VIP/11.01, 1–23 (2011). http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/report/en/

  6. Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, India: website Disabled person in india a statistical profile. mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication.../Disabled_persons_in_India_2016.pdf (2016)

  7. Fang, X., Holsapple, C.W.: An empirical study of website navigation structures’ impacts on website usability. Decis. Support. Syst. 43(2), 476–491 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2006.11.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, S., Koubek, R.J.: The effects of usability and web design attributes on user preference for e-commerce websites. Comput. Ind. 61(4), 329–341 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2009.12.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Ismailova, R., Inal, Y.: Website accessibility and quality in use: a comparative study of government Websites in Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey. Univers. Access. Inf. Soc. 16(4), 987–996 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-016-0490-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Chisholm W., Vanderheiden G.: Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0. https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ (1999). Accessed 10 Oct 2018

  11. Caldwell B., Cooper M.: Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/ (2008). Accessed 04 Mar 2018

  12. Kirkpatrick A., Connor J.O., Campbell A., Cooper M.: Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/ (2018). Accessed 10 Nov 2018

  13. National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India: Guidelines for indian government website. (2009)

  14. Ismailova, R.: Website accessibility, usability and security: a survey of government websites in Kyrgyz Republic. Univers. Access. Inf. Soc. (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-015-0446-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. AkgÜL, Y., Vatansever, K.: Web accessibility evaluation of government websites for people with disabilities in Turkey. J. Adv. Manag. Sci. 4(3), 201–210 (2016). https://doi.org/10.12720/joams.4.3.201-210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Abanumy, A., Al-badi, A., Mayhew, P.: e-Government website accessibility : in-depth evaluation of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Electron. J. e-Gov. 3(3), 99–106 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  17. S. Lujan-Mora, R. Navarrete, and M. Penafiel, “Egovernment and web accessibility in South America,” 2014 1st Int. Conf. eDemocracy eGovernment, ICEDEG 2014, pp. 77–82, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEDEG.2014.6819953.

  18. Al-Radaideh M., Nuser M., Wahbeh A.: Evaluating accessibility of Jordanian e-government websites for people with disabilities. (2011)

  19. Isa, M.: Assessing the usability and accessibility of Malaysia e-government website. Am. J. Econ. Bus. Adm. 3(1), 40–46 (2011). https://doi.org/10.3844/ajebasp.2011.40.46

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Kamoun, F., Almourad, M.B.: Accessibility as an integral factor in e-government website evaluation: The case of Dubai e-government. Inf. Technol. People. 27(2), 208–228 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-07-2013-0130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Adepoju, S.A., Shehu, I.S., Bake, P.: Accessibility evaluation and performance analysis of e-government websites in Nigeria. J. Adv. Inf. Technol. 7(1), 49–53 (2016). https://doi.org/10.12720/jait.7.1.49-53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Ismail, A., Kuppusamy, K.S., Nengroo, A.S.: Multi-tool accessibility assessment of government department websites:a case-study with JKGAD. Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2017.1344883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Olalere, A., Lazar, J.: Accessibility of U.S. federal government home pages: section 508 compliance and site accessibility statements. Gov. Inf. Q. 28(3), 303–309 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2011.02.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Rau, P.L.P., Zhou, L., Sun, N., Zhong, R.: Evaluation of web accessibility in China: changes from 2009 to 2013. Univers. Access. Inf. Soc. 15(2), 297–303 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0385-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Verkijika, S.F., De Wet, L.: Determining the accessibility of e-government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa against WCAG 2.0 standard. Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res. 13(1), 52–68 (2017). https://doi.org/10.4018/ijegr.2017010104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Kopackova, H., Michalek, K., Cejna, K.: Accessibility and findability of local e-government websites in the Czech Republic. Univers. Access. Inf. Soc. 9(1), 51–61 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-009-0159-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Dan, B.B., Nitzan, G.: The usability of Israel’s government websites. Int. J. E-bus. Dev. 3(4), 188–198 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Asiimwe, E.N., Lim, N.: Usability of government websites in Uganda. Electron. J. e-Gov. 8(1), 1–12 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Costa D., Fernandes N., Neves S., Duarte C., Hijón-Neira R., Carriço L.: Web accessibility in Africa: a study of three African domains. In: Lect. Notes. Comput. Sci. (including Subser. Lect. Notes Artif. Intell. Lect. Notes Bioinformatics). 8117 LNCS(1): 331–338 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40483-2_23

  30. Baker, D.L.: Website usability of the most populous counties in the United States. J. E-Gov. 3(3), 65–89 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1300/j399v03n03_04

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India: National government services portal. https://services.india.gov.in/ (2010). Accessed 10 Jul 2018

  32. Kuk G., Gow I.: Digital divide and quality of electronic service delivery in local government. Inf. Age. 1–8 (2002)

  33. Websitepulse: https://www.websitepulse.com/tools/ (2000). Accessed 04 Oct 2018

  34. Everts T.: Mobile load time and user abandonment. https://developer.akamai.com/blog/2016/09/14/mobile-load-time-user-abandonment (2016). Accessed 10 Oct 2018

  35. SolarWinds Worldwide: Pingdom website speed test. https://tools.pingdom.com/ (2018). Accessed 20 Sep 2018

  36. Oskoboiny G.: HTML checker. https://validator.w3.org/nu/ (2013). Accessed 10 Jan 2017

  37. Le Hégaret P., Smeman S.: W3C CSS validation service. https://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ (2009). Accessed 07 Aug 2018

  38. Karkin, N., Janssen, M.: Evaluating websites from a public value perspective: a review of Turkish local government websites. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 34(3), 351–368 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.11.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Grove J.: Dead link checker. https://www.deadlinkchecker.com (2013). Accessed 10 Aug 2018

  40. Amazon: Alexa. https://www.alexa.com/ (1996). Accessed 10 Oct 2018

  41. Eggert E., Abou-Zahra S.: Web accessibility evaluation tools list. https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/ (2016). Accessed 07 Jan 2018

  42. CTIC Foundation Technology: TAW. http://www.tawdis.net/ (2007). Accessed 08 Jul 2018

  43. Buzzi M.M.C., et al.: The W3C mobileOK checker. W3C/Ercim. 6766 LNCS(October), 5 (2004). doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/1286240.1286249

  44. Hawkins J.: Website bounce rates – the good, bad and ugly. https://www.knd.com.au/website-bounce-rates-the-good-bad-and-ugly/ (2019). Accessed 25 May 2019

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Gaurav Agrawal

  2. College of Engineering Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

    Devendra Kumar

  3. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Mayank Singh

Authors
  1. Gaurav Agrawal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Devendra Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mayank Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaurav Agrawal.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Agrawal, G., Kumar, D. & Singh, M. Assessing the usability, accessibility, and mobile readiness of e-government websites: a case study in india. Univ Access Inf Soc 21, 737–748 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-021-00800-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-021-00800-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation