Usability And Accessibility Model For E-Government Websites In Ethiopia
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Date
2018-06-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
E-Governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, and making government more accountable, transparent and effective. Based on this, the development of E-Government websites and portals are main components of the e-Government strategy implementations for the last nine years in Ethiopia. However, services optimizations with usability and accessibility are key issues of Ethiopia e-Government services development.Therefore, the ultimate goal of this study is creation of usable, accessible and sustainable Ethiopian e-Government websites with four stage of research analysis, through proposed model. The investigations results are used to provide a clear picture of what needs to be improves from management and user point of views and also from other stakeholders of e-Government services. This study applies mixed methods of data collection and analysis, that integrating quantitative and qualitative data, using questionnaires’ and interviews to identify the key usability and accessibility issues of Ethiopia e-Government websites services. The data collection and analysis are primarily from management and users’ point of views are analyzed and discussed and also interpretations of the data are presented using factor analysis and other analytical techniques. Afterward, expert based e-Government website evaluations are presented and discussed using heuristics evaluation principles’. Finally, automatics accessibility evaluation based on WCAG 2.1 guidelines using online WAVE Accessibility Tool assessment results are analyzed, presented and discussed.The findings of the study confirm that, Ethiopia e-Government websites have many usability and accessibility gaps. In general, the current status of e-Government websites not fulfill most of usability features of Heuristics rules and did not conform to W3C, WCAG 2.1. Therefore, it is recommended that pay attention to users’ requirements, improves websites design, functionality, language and services capability; get better websites content and documentations, increase the capacity and awareness levels of managements and employees, and implement planed e-Government websites development and assessment activities.The proposed model was adapted based on the study outcomes and Ethiopian context. It has five components: Manager and Web Administrators; End-Users; Usability & Accessibility Evaluator Committee, Public Relation and Communication Affairs Bureau and Development ProcessFinally, the aim of the study was achieved by conducting mixed and different sides’ studies, and adapted usability and accessibility model. Moreover, the findings reported by the researcher may alert organization managements, IT experts, web developers and other stakeholder to give more emphasis on specific usability and accessibility features which are often being neglected
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Keywords
e-Government websites, usability and accessibility evaluation, usability and accessibility gaps, disability, Heuristics, WAVE, proposed model