Digital communications: National Audit Office

Establishing consistent accessibility standards for public services web users

The brief

By 2003, 28 million adults in the UK had used the Internet, however certain groups based on age, income and location do not. This 'digital divide' is most pronounced with only 17% of people over 65 going online. Key potential users are the 20% of the population that is over 65, and 17% disabled.

Public services are provided face to face to these groups but Digital options such as the web, electronic kiosks and digital TV will provide access to information about services such as home care, mobility travel, and pensions.

To measure progress to delivering services online, the NAO asked us to audit 75 public sector websites.

The solution

We devised a process, test criteria (in accordance to Usability good practices and UK Government guidelines) and undertook the audit. The results are published in the report 'Progress in making e-services accessible to all - encouraging use by older people', and evaluated how government agencies are delivering e-services to the public.

Our ranking rated the sites online service delivery on over 20 criteria, and we drew overall conclusions on usability and accessibility which are available at