WCAG 1.0 versus WCAG 2.0 Web Accessibility Compliance: A Case Study

Most e-governments have been using the WCAG 1.0 guidelines as reference to probe their compliance to web accessibility principles. This was reflected in their local accessibility policies, website design, maintenance, and accessibility testing activities. Recently, WCAG 2.0 emerged as an ISO/IEC 40500:2012 International accessibility standard that has been recommended for adoption by the W3C WAI. This paper seeks to examine if there is a need for e-governments to reassess their web accessibility conformance, in light of the latest WCAG 2.0 standard. A case study related to the 21 Dubai e-government websites is presented whereby accessibility is evaluated based on the WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 guidelines and using automated accessibility testing tools. We found that WCAG 2.0 conformance testing identified some notable accessibility issues that were not revealed by WCAG 1.0 conformance testing. Hence we recommend that e-governments should develop and update their web content and accessibility policies to conform to the latest WCAG 2.0 guidelines and success criteria. Additional implications for practice and for academic research are also provided