While governments around the world are doing more and more public business online, large segments of the population face obstacles in accessing these resources, according to a new report released at the annual Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet) Conference in Seattle.
The report, “E-Government for All: Ensuring Equitable Access to Online Government Services”—published by the Center for Media & Community (CMC) and the NYS Forum of the Rockefeller Institute of Government—includes “top 10 lists” of challenges and opportunities for achieving equitable public access to e-government. Some of the potential obstacles include an insensitivity to reading levels when publishing government documents, lack of public engagement on the accessibility of government websites, and user unfriendliness of e-government online resources. The opportunities outline measures that can be taken to realize the potential of e-government, including enforcement of Web accessibility and readability standards and the creation of ombudsmen positions in government agencies to monitor the performance of e-government resources.
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“Governments are actively embracing e-government as a tool for cutting bureaucracy and improving communications with the public,” said Andrea L. Taylor, director of CMC and vice president of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), where the center is based. “However, millions of people, including low-literate populations, non-native English speakers and the disabled, face enormous challenges accessing these online government resources. This report is intended as a next step in an ongoing dialogue among policymakers, the private sector, researchers and civil society to ensure that e-government deployment goes hand-in-hand with sustainable strategies to bridge the digital divide,” Taylor added.
The report is a summary of the ideas generated during the November 2003 E-Government for All virtual conference (
http://www.egov4all.org). Approximately 1,300 people representing more than 80 countries participated in the two-week virtual event, co-sponsored by the Center for Media & Community’s Digital Divide Network project, NYS Forum, Group Jazz and a coalition of programmatic partners. The report details discussions and case studies regarding e-government access and the challenges faced by underserved populations on the wrong side of the digital divide. The authors also propose “four stages of achieving e-government for all:” Initiation, Engagement, Integration and Equity.
The report, available for free over the Internet, may be downloaded from the Center’s website. Internet users may access the report in an accessible HTML format, as well as in MS Word, Rich Text Format and PDF. To purchase a paper copy of the report, please contact cmctemp@edc.org.
Download the report:
HTML version:
http://cmc.edc.org/library/egov4all.html
MS Word:
http://cmc.edc.org/library/egov4all.doc
Rich Text Format:
http://cmc.edc.org/library/egov4all.rtf
PDF version:
http://cmc.edc.org/library/egov4all.pdf
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The Center for Media & Community (
http://cmc.edc.org) promotes innovative uses of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to foster stronger communities and lifelong learning. As a legacy of the Benton Foundation, the center builds on the foundation’s pioneering leadership in research and development related to the digital divide, education technology and ICT literacy. The Center is located at Education Development Center (EDC), an international, nonprofit organization that conducts research and creates materials and programs to advance learning and promote health. EDC currently manages 335 projects in 50 countries.
Part of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the NYS Forum (
http://www.nysfirm.org) is a network of public officials and state government organizations concerned with information management, policy and technology. The NYS Forum’s mission is to promote policies and practices for effective, equitable and secure use and management of information resources in New York state government at all levels.
