Accessibility and Agency Website Design: Stumbling Backwards? A Follow-Up Study

Abstract

This follow-up longitudinal study examined 86 social service agency websites that were previously examined in 2000. The websites were examined on dimensions of the language, readability, and disability access over a 10-year period. Data were gathered in 2000, 2005, and 2010. The results indicate that agencies are not creating websites that are user-friendly for diverse populations. This is due to complex reading and comprehension levels and a lack of language opportunities on the websites. Agencies may be able to better serve clients by a decrease in the sophistication of the agency website, namely reading comprehension levels.

KEYWORDS:

• disability
• language
• literacy
• nonprofit agencies
• website design

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Phil Suman and Kathleen George, doctoral students, and Dr. Cathy Pike, faculty at the Indiana University School of Social Work, for their help in this project.

Notes

Note. Time 1 = 2000; Time 2 = 2005; Time 3 = 2010.

^a Correlation is significant at the .01 level (two tailed).