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Brought on the help of web accessibility consultancy Tetralogical 

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Brought on the help of web accessibility consultancy Tetralogical 

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The direction we ended up taking was one of inclusivity rather than full accessibility as we realised that making an interactive map fully accessible with e.g. screen-readers would end up being a difficult user experience for people with disabilities. Instead, we give respondents the option to give a text response and request a call-back from the consulting organisation if they’d like further help. I interviewed Leonie Watson from Tetralogical about this aspect of the development process, she is excellent: https://newsroom.delib.net/uncharted-territory-lowering-barriers-to-geospatial-participation/

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Lack of infrastructure and digital skills to promote the civic tech 

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Lack of infrastructure and digital skills to promote the civic tech 

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So we don't know what are the best areas to invest resources to raise these capabilities

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Costs for hiring software developers to help make an unfunded project  accessible

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Costs for hiring software developers to help make an unfunded project  accessible

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Recent challenge when creating an interactive mapping participation tool

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Recent challenge when creating an interactive mapping participation tool

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Interacting with a map is obviously very difficult if you can’t see.

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Testing approaches across diverse societies across the world. Focus on inclusivity across a wide spectrum. 

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Testing approaches across diverse societies across the world. Focus on inclusivity across a wide spectrum. 

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Presentation at the Accessibility in civic tech event hosted by Code for Africa. (Screenshot)

One billion people around the world have disabilities, according to research by the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). However, a 2020 analysis of one million web pages by WebAIM found 98.1% contained access issues. This means people with disabilities, who make up 15% of the world's population, are excluded in some form.
Read our Universal Access Guide here
This means that to truly cater for and empower all citizens to bring change, civic tech organisations must create products and platforms that are universally accessible. At Code for Africa (CfA), the continent's largest network of civic technology and data journalism labs, being accessible is one of our top priorities.

CfA hosted its own workshop on Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 19 May to discuss the importance and expansion of accessibility practices within the organisation. We also launched the Universal Access Guide on how to build accessible products and our #open-accessibility Slack channel, for members of our community to connect and share accessibility resources.

Mark Renja, Code for Africa project manager, explained the basics of accessibility and how CfA is building an inclusive accessibility strategy. "Having accessibility as a central part of your thinking at every stage of a project, beginning with when you first start planning it, is critical. This way, you avoid a scenario where you have to go back and fix things you overlooked. It also means you can also allocate resources early on to ensure the final product is universally accessible."

Gertrude Nyenyeshi, a front-end software developer and community manager at CfA, and Blessing Oladunjoye, a media consultant and practicing journalist with BONews Service also joined as panelists with insights from software development and journalism perspectives.

"We are quick to condemn inaccessibility in the physical space because it is glaring, but we are making the digital space inaccessible because we think it doesn't matter. Anyone can acquire any form of disability at any point in time. It is therefore essential to design our content and digital tools to meet certain accessibility features. Accessibility is for everyone, not just people with disabilities," said Blessing Oladunjoye.

"Building accessibility into products actually improves the experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities," said Gertrue Nyenyeshi. "It should therefore be considered from the start of a product life cycle. Engineers should think about it right from the design phase, during the development phase and testing."

As part of the road to ensuring our products are more accessible, we've collated some best practices on creating and designing more inclusive content on different platforms.
We've shared what we've learned
Our GAAD event gave us an opportunity to share CfA's Universal Access Guide, a resource we compiled based on Alex Chen's accessguide.io, which was made available by the Beeck Centre's Technology + Belonging series led by Shaily Acharya and Vandhana Ravi.

Together with these guides and our own lessons, we're creating a resource for CfA's teams to build accessible products. We are also sharing the lessons with the wider Code for All community - a network of 31 civic tech organisations from around the globe.
More accessible social media
The images we share on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have alternative text, which makes the content more accessible to people who rely on screen readers to relay information. As producers, this also meant ensuring our content calendars include fields for alternative text, so that it's automatically part of our creation and review workflow.
We've created inclusive multimedia products
In August 2020, we launched an audiovisual series for PesaCheck, aimed at social media users on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram who prefer audio and video over text. By ensuring the weekly, two-minute-long episodes were fully captioned, PesaCheck's content debunking potentially dangerous health-related misinformation during the pandemic was able to reach deaf users, in addition to blind users who listened to the audio and the rest of our social media audience.

This product, created when we realised Twitter's then-new audio tweets feature lacked captioning, went on to cover election-related misinformation, fake Twitter accounts spreading false information, and tools people could use to sharpen their misinfo-spotting skills. As a testament to its success, PesaCheck's accessibility-focused content - its best-performing by far - was featured by Facebook as part of its third-party fact-checking partner spotlight.
We've asked our team what more we can do
There's a lot more to be done. As we implement the universal access guide across our projects, we've also asked CfA's staff to share their experiences and needs using a voluntary and anonymous survey. This will help us centre the varied spectrum of disability when defining our own content, processes and tools.

Accessibility is an ever-changing process, and we'll continue developing our own guidelines, while using the experiences and insights of our community to make our work more accessible.

If you'd like to participate or share your resources, join our #open-accessibility channel on Slack here to connect with developers, storytellers and designers working towards a more inclusive internet for all.

_____________

Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent's largest network of civic technology and data journalism labs, with teams in 21 countries. CfA builds digital democracy solutions that give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions, and that strengthens civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability. This includes building infrastructure like the continent's largest open data portals at openAFRICA and sourceAFRICA, as well as incubating initiatives as diverse as the africanDRONE network, the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative and the sensors.AFRICA air quality sensor network.

CfA also manages the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), which gives the continent's best muckraking newsrooms the best possible forensic data tools, digital security and whistleblower encryption to help improve their ability to tackle crooked politicians, organised crime and predatory big business. CfA also runs one of Africa's largest skills development initiatives for digital journalists, and seed funds cross-border collaboration.

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How we are tackling accessibility in civic tech

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One billion people around the world have disabilities, according to research by the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). However, a 2020 analysis of one million web pages by WebAIM found 98.1% contained access issues. This means people with disabilities, who make up 15% of the world's population, are excluded in some form.

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A toolkit, what accessibility means, top tips to make impactful changes, funders, coders who want to help etc.

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A toolkit, what accessibility means, top tips to make impactful changes, funders, coders who want to help etc.

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Case studies showcasing how to become or build an accessible civic tech initiative that's cognisant the accessibility issues. This could include success stories, challenges, how an org used specific tools to become more accessible etc

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Case studies showcasing how to become or build an accessible civic tech initiative that's cognisant the accessibility issues. This could include success stories, challenges, how an org used specific tools to become more accessible etc

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How to get granters to put accessibility in their grants

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How to get granters to put accessibility in their grants

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Infographic: Opening Doors to People with Disabilities - Pollicy

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As part of our study on the exclusion and marginalization of persons with disabilities from the digital society, we created an infographic to showcase findings from our study.

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This guide was created to drive conversations within technology entities to reconsider and reconceptualize how they approach inclusive design practices. Historically, inclusion has been a "nice-to-have" add-on within digital platforms, and as such, discriminates against and excludes a large proportion of the world, based on factors such as race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, geolocation, language, religion etc. The guide is intended to serve as an exercise in thinking about diverse perspectives and needs of unique users when developing programs, policies and platforms. We would like to note that in this guide, accessibility is used interchangeably to refer to 'access to the internet' or as used in disability rights.

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This guide was created to drive conversations within technology entities to reconsider and reconceptualize how they approach inclusive design practices. Historically, inclusion has been a "nice-to-have" add-on within digital platforms, and as such, discriminates against and excludes a large proportion of the world, based on factors such as race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, geolocation, language, religion etc.

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A young team from Mozambique led by Mozambican entrepreneur Dayn Amade.
Our mission
Reduce the digital gap by empowering communities with digital education.
Our Approach
Establishing networks and partnerships with stakeholders

An African solution to an African problem, the Community Tablet is the first digital school, which runs on four to six large LCD screens, powered by solar panels transported by trailer (which can be attached to anything - from a motor vehicle to a donkey). Working with anthropologists at Mozambique's leading university, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, The Community Tablet delivers customised animations that are relevant and familiar to local communities. Gamification helps to increase engagement, while also collecting vital data to demonstrate how well a message has been understood. Since hitting the road in 2015, it has helped to educate more than one million Mozambicans across 90 communities.
Click on the icons below to read our media features.
Our main objective is to bring the Community Tablet to all rural communities and promote digital inclusion.
COVID-19 Solutions & Community Testimonials
The Community Tablet empowered students with financial awareness through its tailored financial education video lessons. After all video lessons and conference calls with financial experts were delivered, students were able to test their level of understanding through a Quiz installed in the Community Tablet.
Highlights:
The Community Tablet enabled teenagers to learn about the importance of contraceptive methods and HIV prevention through its tailored contraceptive education video lessons. After all video lessons and conference calls with contraceptive counsellors were delivered, students were able to test their level of understanding through a Quiz installed in the Community Tablet.
Highlights:

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A young team from Mozambique led by Mozambican entrepreneur Dayn Amade. Our mission Reduce the digital gap by empowering communities with digital education. Our Approach Establishing networks and partnerships with stakeholders An African solution to an African problem, the Community Tablet is the first digital school, which runs on four to six large LCD screens, powered by solar panels transported by trailer (which can be attached to anything - from a motor vehicle to a donkey).

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Offer your services

Help shape the future of digital for charities. Join our network of skilled professionals and start making a real difference. Find out what's on offer and get involved today!

Join a peer network

We're keen for you to become part of our growing network and get better connected with people working in the tech for good space. Find a peer network for you.

Stay in the loop

Follow us on social media, or sign up to our newsletter for the latest information surrounding digital in the third sector, funding opportunities, top tips and events.

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Help shape the future of digital for charities. Join our network of skilled professionals and start making a real difference. Find out what's on offer and get involved today! We're keen for you to become part of our growing network and get better connected with people working in the tech for good space.

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Funding Civic Tech Long-Term and Patient Capital is critical

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Funding Civic Tech Long-Term and Patient Capital is critical

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A toolkit with guidance and access to subsidised services to assist with improving accessibility, smaller organisations or not-for-profits, do not have the capacity or funds for a dedicated service internally.

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A toolkit with guidance and access to subsidised services to assist with improving accessibility, smaller organisations or not-for-profits, do not have the capacity or funds for a dedicated service internally.

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Accessible tech is better tech. People think it's an extra step, but instead we should show it as a necessary step. You will have a better user experience if it is accessible, for your entire audience.

Saw this article about it a while ago: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/there-s-already-a-blueprint-for-a-more-accessible-internet-if-only-designers-would-learn-it?utm_source=pocket_mylist

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The internet can be a hostile space for 15 percent of the world's population who experience some form of disability.

Try navigating a website as someone who is visually impaired: Turn on voice command on your computer (Command ⌘ + F5 if you're on a Mac, enable Navigator if you're on a PC) and go to Amazon's Kindle store. You'll quickly find out that those who rely on voice commands can't skip around and are doomed to listen to every notation about every page element before getting to the one piece of information they need.

"It's a crime that the most versatile device on the planet-the computer-has not adapted well to people who need help," laments Vint Cerf, the "father of the internet," who co-authored the net's communication protocol with Bob Kahn. The 75-year old computer scientist knows this pain point first hand having been born with a hearing impairment and color blindness.

The internet was a welcoming place when Cerf conceived of it. Email, for instance, originated as an assistive device that allowed the deaf to receive messages accurately. He developed its protocols, in part, to communicate with his wife Sigrid, who is deaf. Cerf often recounts the story about how she got the proper cochlear implants quickly when she communicated with doctors via email. "It's a great equalizer in that everyone, hearing and deaf, uses the same technology," he said to the New York Times in 1998.

But as websites got flashier, the experience has quickly become a source of frustration for disabled users. Despite the internet's potential to improve their lives-from ordering groceries to communicating with friends-going online is an even more stressful prospect for many. A 2016 Pew Research survey found that only 40 percent of disabled Americans feel comfortable using the internet compared to 80 percent of able-bodied users. In the UK, less than 30 percent are online.

Using his platform as Google's "chief internet evangelist," Cerf has been proselytizing about how bad design results in injustice. "It's almost criminal that programmers have not had their feet held to the fire to build interfaces that are accommodating for people with vision problems or hearing problems or motor problems," Cerf says.

To navigate a website, people with vision impairments, for instance, listen to short phrases describing each element on a webpage. But in the rush to meet deadlines, web developers often skip the process of tagging photos, graphics and buttons adequately unless they're required by law. In the US, only federal agencies and their contractors are required to make information accessible to people with disabilities and even that isn't consistently enforced. Accessibility is often treated as a stage 2 project, after a webpage is launched.

Gifs Can Do Harm

Creating a more accessible internet rests on the shoulders of designers and developers who make web content. The good news is that it requires relatively simple actions. In fact, there's already a blueprint for it, explains Towson University computer science professor Jonathan Lazar. "If we can just get people to use what we already know to do, that is fantastic! That's the challenge," he tells Quartz.

A resource called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) outlines strategies and resources for creating accessible sites. Authored and vetted by a cadre of international experts, WCAG was updated this year to include best practices for mobile devices.

Many WCAG recommendations echo the basic principles of good web design. This includes making pages work well in landscape and portrait display orientations; promoting the use of autofill forms; and making sure that default font sizes are at a comfortable reading setting.

Some recommendations are less obvious. For example, WCAG states that web pages should never contain " anything that flashes more than three times per second." Rapid flashing-especially red-colored graphics-can induce photosensitive epileptic seizures. This principle pertains to the internet's favorite punchline: gifs.

In 2017, the FBI arrested Maryland resident John Rayne Rivello for tweeting a strobing gif to embattled journalist Kurt Eichenwald with the words: "You deserve a seizure for your posts." The New York Times reports that Eichenwald, who has epilepsy, immediately suffered a seizure upon seeing the animated message on his Twitter feed. His lawyer described the malicious tweet as "no different than a bomb sent in the mail or anthrax sent in an envelope." These short looping videos often fail WCAG principles because they can't be stopped by the user and a descriptive file name for screen readers is often missing. (There's an endless scroll of uncategorized gifs on Giphy uploaded as "gif1," for example.)

Making Accessibility a No-Brainer

Getting web developers to implement WCAG's best practices is difficult because accessibility is often an afterthought. This prejudice is even reflected in the very layout of web design textbooks, notes Rachel Olivero, director of technology at the National Federation of the Blind. "A lot of the textbooks and online training address accessibility as a side bar," she says. "How many times do you skip over the asides because you're in a hurry? It's not taught as the right way to do it, so only the people who know accessibility are those who have to and not just anyone building sites."

In the US, only federal agencies are required to produce accessible materials to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. And even then, many government agencies fail to implement guidelines adequately. Like textbook sidebars, the role of the Section 508 coordinator is often treated as a side job at many budget-strapped US agencies.

"There are some agencies where someone is told, 'By the way, you kinda work in technology, so we're going to make you the 508 coordinator,'" says Lazar who has documented the struggles of Section 508 coordinators (pdf). "Even if they have the interest and the passion, they don't have the time, budget, nor proper training to implement it well," he attests.

Lazar suggests software companies could train designers to build accessible sites. In a lecture at Google in July 2017, he proposed a scenario where software prompts designers to follow WCAG principles, as part of the normal production process. For instance, what if design tools required designers to add tags to every element they introduce, much like commerce sites compel us to supply personal data to proceed with a transaction. The key, Lazar says, is to make it the standard.

Major tech companies actually offer great accessibility features in their products. Apple, in particular, is regarded as the industry trailblazer when it comes to assistive technology and its efforts have been applauded by the American Foundation for the Blind. The problem, oftentimes, isn't the lack of solutions but the lack of awareness outside disability communities.

Accessibility features are still often buried in sub-menus. Adobe Illustrator, for instance, has a useful, but little-known Color Blind Proof Setup Mode, which gives graphic designers a preview of how their work will be perceived by individuals with red-green colorblindness. Lazar argues that we need to make accessibility tools apparent for people who don't need them. "Why don't we just make accessibility so much more obvious?" he says. "Minor changes have big impact." He applauds Microsoft for updating its Office software with a "check accessibility" button that appears on the top menu. The button scans the document and generates a list of items that are problematic for persons with disability. By placing it in a prominent spot, the button also serves as a reminder for authors to think about accessibility.

Inclusive Design is Good Business

Design that considers the needs of disabled users can benefit a company's bottom line. A 2016 Microsoft-funded investigation about the economic value of accessible technologies to companies suggests several advantages for employees from increased talent diversity, boost in productivity, and increased retention. For customers, showing a company cares about accessibility engenders loyalty and generates repeat business.

There's a particularly dramatic return for online businesses. For instance, UK insurance company Legal & General Group doubled its online traffic in three months when it redesigned its website to make it accessible to disabled people. It recovered the cost of the redesign within 12 months.

Similarly, CNET improved its SEO and saw a 30 percent spike in Google traffic after adding transcripts of videos in 2016. "Between the easy-to-crawl site outlines, the relevant keywords found on the alt-text [descriptor text] for all of the images, and the adherence to best practices, accessible sites are prime picking for Google's algorithms and tend to rank more highly in searches," explains web developer Helena McCabe.

Neglecting accessibility can be disastrous to businesses. In the UK alone, Business Disability International estimates that 70 percent of customers with access needs close out of websites that are hard to navigate. They estimate that £11.75 billion ($15.3 billion)-called the " click away pound"-is lost when disabled customers click away of sites. Companies that invest in accessible technologies have a better chance of capturing the $8 trillion that people with disabilities and their families around the world spend each year. Inaccessible sites also present a legal risk. The landmark case on the matter involves Target Corporation paying $6 million to settle a class action lawsuit in 2008 because its website was inaccessible to users with vision impairments. Filed by the National Federation of the Blind, the case cited the e-commerce giant's lack of alt tags that help blind users parse the site.

To riff on IBM founder Thomas John Watson Jr.'s famous maxim: Inclusive design is good business.

Kat Holmes, who previously led the Inclusive Design practice at Microsoft, notes that accessible design can even lead to innovation. "There's a long history of innovations designed with and by excluded communities that have become a part of everyday life for many more people," she explains to Quartz. Closed captioning, touchscreen mobile devices, audiobooks, and even the keyboard all originated as assistive technology, like Cerf did with email.

Involving people with disabilities as co-authors is crucial. "We need to bring people with disabilities into the development process not just as users, but developers," says Lazar. "People with disabilities are natural problem solvers. They do it every day," Lazar says, quoting assistive technology pioneer, Richard E. Ladner. "Shifting who can contribute their talents to creating solutions will, in turn, shift what we make, how it's made, and who benefits from those designs," adds Holmes.

Ultimately, perhaps the biggest motivation for improving accessibility on the web boils down to a selfish reason. "There is one reason for inclusion that transcends all other justifications: uncertainty," writes Holmes in Mismatch How Inclusion Shapes Design. "Many of us are temporarily able bodied and will face exclusion as we age. When we design for inclusion, we're designing for our future selves."

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There's Already a Blueprint for a More Accessible Internet. If Only Designers Would Learn It

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The internet can be a hostile space for 15 percent of the world's population who experience some form of disability. Try navigating a website as someone who is visually impaired: Turn on voice command on your computer (Command ⌘ + F5 if you're on a Mac, enable Navigator if you're on a PC) and go to Amazon's Kindle store.

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Make it easy to play a role in addressing the issues

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Make it easy to play a role in addressing the issues

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Guidance on how best to describe/provide alt text for maps and visualisations

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Guidance on how best to describe/provide alt text for maps and visualisations

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Here about difficulties of accessing civic tech tools from people themselves, give that human element

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Here about difficulties of accessing civic tech tools from people themselves, give that human element

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The Community. Design. Initiative. is a project located in one of Canada's most at-risk and diverse neighborhoods, facilitating a conversation about architecture's responsibility to engage across not only physical, but economic, social, cultural, and environmental environments. In short, it's kids building buildings-under the watchful mentorship of a few brave social work and design professionals. In Canada, it is pushing the envelope around truly participatory architectural processes.

The project itself is unique collaboration project between a social service delivery hub ( East Scarborough Storefront), an architectural think tank ( archiTEXT), and an architecture firm ( SUSTAINABLE.TO). Based in the priority neighborhood (a neighborhood defined as at-risk) of Kingston Galloway Orton Park in East Scarborough, the building project has engaged youth to design an 8,000 sq. ft. addition to the social service delivery hub, the East Scarborough Storefront. Over the last three years, local youth have been engaged with architects, landscape architects, planners, designers, etc.-over 45 professionals involved in the conception, design, fundraising, approval process, and construction of the building. The complexity of this building process' eco-system continues to engage all ranges of stakeholders, with the youth-led participatory process demonstrating broad reaching positive impacts on the community (and at-risk neighborhoods at large).

Both social workers and designers want to help to improve people's lives, yet they use entirely different words, tools and processes. The Community. Design. Initiative. has allowed (or made it necessary for) the two groups to learn to work together, to share their words, tools and processes.

Since 2009, the mentors/professionals have been working with the youth and community of East Scarborough to reimagine their Community Service Delivery Hub, a one-stop shop where 40 partner agencies deliver services to support the people of the community under one roof. Together, they have developed a Master Plan for the building and the site for a sustainable and accessible adaptive reuse of a dispiriting 1960's police substation into a vibrant place of extreme imagination and practicality, which better reflects the spirit of the community. The 8-phase Master Plan allows for the realization of the vision in stages, as funding becomes available. To date, the collaborative detailed design and construction of phases one through four (the renovation of the existing building) has been completed, and phase 7 (shade and naturalization strategies on the site) has begun, with strategic additions to the building and further landscape improvements to follow.

Key sustainable architectural features include: adaptive reuse of a robust existing building and site; re-connection of the building and site to the surrounding community and green spaces; resource and energy-efficiency; non-toxic, natural materials; creative rainwater harvesting and shade structures; optimization of renewable energy sources; local food production; shade and naturalization strategies; andâ€¨ accessibility for all. The community engagement in the process reflects the core belief that buildings can only be truly sustainable when they are created by the community, rather than for the community.

In the last several years, the conversations around this type of work seem to be increasingly pervasive. Architects around the world are challenging themselves to not only reinvent architecture in its physical form, but also the process through which it is created. In Canada, architects have begun to engage into this research, mostly by way of providing pro-bono work for non-profit groups. The Community. Design. Initiative. takes this research a significant step further by exploring not only the relationship-building, but also the legal frameworks associated with this kind of work, as well as the time commitment required to make these projects truly participatory. Engaging with this style of practice more widely across the country, and around the world, would give architects a new and much-needed sense of relevance in communities where our role and input has steadily and considerably diminished over the last three or four decades. The belief is also that this style of practice can reload architecture with real significance-buildings can be bearers of a fabulous and much needed artistic potency when they are created by the community.

This project is renewing architecture discourse and practice in Canada, and is rebuilding key connections with audiences and communities that had long lost touch with architects and architecture.

The CDI project touches on seven key thematic areas:

Dynamic youth capacity building

Place-based poverty reduction

Local Economic Development /Resilient Local Economies

Tower Neighborhood Renewal

Bridging design professionals with community-building in the inner suburbs

City-building outside of the downtown core

Sustainable Design Typologies

The Community. Design. Initiative. demonstrates what can happen when there is a convergence of people together from a broad range of disciplines and socio-economic backgrounds engaging in the practice of architecture as a new type of solution to a problem. The building almost becomes the happy byproduct of an entirely otherwise-relevant outcome.

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Community. Design. Initiative., by Zahra Ebrahim of archiTEXT - Core77

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The Community. Design. Initiative. is a project located in one of Canada's most at-risk and diverse neighborhoods, facilitating a conversation about architecture's responsibility to engage across not only physical, but economic, social, cultural, and environmental environments. In short, it's kids building buildings-under the watchful mentorship of a few brave social...

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Civic User Testing (Inclusive Usability Testing)

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Civic User Testing (Inclusive Usability Testing)

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Civic User Testing Group as a New Model for UX Testing, Digital Skills Development, and Community Engagement in Civic Tech - https://www.cutgroupbook.com/

The CUTGroup Book - http://www.cutgroupbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/cutgroup-third-edition-for-download.pdf

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By Daniel X. O'Neil and the Smart Chicago Collaborative

This is the CUTGroup book, an extensive how-to on the Civic User Testing Group-a set of regular Chicago residents who get paid to test civic apps. It began with a simple idea-that civic technologists should be in communion with the people they seek to serve-and it has grown to a community of more than 800 people who work together to make lives better through technology.

In this book, we cover in great detail how we do UX (or user experience) testing, community engagement, and digital skills in one civic tech system. We cover the hardware and software you need, methods for tester and developer recruitment, test design, location scouting, and results analysis. We show detailed budgets, exact website configurations, complete text of recruitment emails, the raw results of every test we've conducted, and all the other nuts and bolts it takes to make a CUTGroup in your city.

Dedication

To the people of the City of Chicago.
If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work.

Epigraphs

This is not a pipe.

-René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1929

I mean, we're all stuck here for a while.
Let's try to work it out.
Let's try to beat it.
Let's try and work it out.

-Rodney King, Speech on May Day, 1992

"Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources."

-Jakob Nielsen, 2000

Get this book

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By Daniel X. O'Neil and the Smart Chicago Collaborative This is the CUTGroup book, an extensive how-to on the Civic User Testing Group-a set of regular Chicago residents who get paid to test civic apps.

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Address things on a technical level eg. require images to have alt text. Don't technically enable publication without alt text. 

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Address things on a technical level eg. require images to have alt text. Don't technically enable publication without alt text. 

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Understand the scale of the problem - how much inaccessible stuff is out there. 

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Understand the scale of the problem - how much inaccessible stuff is out there. 

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use evaluation and analytics to help make system change

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use evaluation and analytics to help make system change

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We need to listen to communities and use that to apply ideas.

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interaction is anonymous at the front end to allow those with low confidence/ability to engage without fear of bullying

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interaction is anonymous at the front end to allow those with low confidence/ability to engage without fear of bullying

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When lacking basic connectivity, we tried to connect the community with organizations that could support their needs.

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When lacking basic connectivity, we tried to connect the community with organizations that could support their needs.

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Asked for user feedback on accessibility, ease of navigating the platform

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Asked for user feedback on accessibility, ease of navigating the platform

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Focus on Visuals where there are language issues

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Focus on Visuals where there are language issues

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Work a lot with symbols, use as little text as possible, maybe even videos.

Have to have an alternative for sight impaired people as well however. Focus on Alt Text. Could do something with sound effects.

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Translated the fixed language on the site on request - only possible with funding to do so.

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Translated the fixed language on the site on request - only possible with funding to do so.

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CfA | Engagement | Universal Access Guide

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Use web tools for accessibility testing, do user testing

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Use web tools for accessibility testing, do user testing

# data[].attributes.headline
Start by asking team members anonymously about the challenges they face themselves using your tools. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Start by asking team members anonymously about the challenges they face themselves using your tools. 

# data[].attributes.body
What kind of approach is good enough? To focus on volume or depth?

# data[].attributes.headline
Thematically categorize tech use and support based on who you engage with and keep everything simple

# data[].attributes.subject
Thematically categorize tech use and support based on who you engage with and keep everything simple

# data[].attributes.body
For content writers and researchers. How to communicate simply / in multiple languages in our guides / tools / resources.

# data[].attributes.body
Making translation tools more accessible

# data[].attributes.body
Accessibility isn't just sight impaired, for example. Can be language, class, etc. How do we know all areas?

# data[].attributes.headline
With the pandemic, so much tech has been introduced and more screen time use which stressed our communities

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With the pandemic, so much tech has been introduced and more screen time use which stressed our communities

# data[].attributes.body
We have explored using two other predominate languages in our tool.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lack of access to basic infrastructure due to geographical barriers.

# data[].attributes.subject
Lack of access to basic infrastructure due to geographical barriers.

# data[].attributes.body
Remote communities are sometimes the ones needing more to get access to online projects, and yet they might lack access to internet services which makes really difficult to engage them in civic technology projects.

# data[].attributes.headline
Using my Learning and Development budget

# data[].attributes.subject
Using my Learning and Development budget

# data[].attributes.body
I have identified it's an area I want to grow in - and so I now have time and budget to upskill

# data[].attributes.body
We communicate in English. However, South Africa has 11 official languages. English is also not the first language of more vulnerable groups in society.

# data[].attributes.headline
Accessible Language (Limiting Technical Terms)?

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Accessible Language (Limiting Technical Terms)?

# data[].attributes.body
A lot of times, you need to know a lot of jargon, technical terms, academic words to be able to access Civic Space (for example: UN SDGs and its framework). How do we make good conversations happen without this?

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We used the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the blind)

# data[].attributes.headline
Don't know who our users are with accessible needs

# data[].attributes.subject
Don't know who our users are with accessible needs

# data[].attributes.body
It's not just all "make the website screenreader friendly"

How do we prioritize if we don't know what our users need

# data[].attributes.headline
As a data organisation, how do we provide an alternative to data visualisations for visually impaired users?

# data[].attributes.subject
As a data organisation, how do we provide an alternative to data visualisations for visually impaired users?

# data[].attributes.headline
When creating webpages from PDFs, how do you ensure that diagrams are accessible?

# data[].attributes.subject
When creating webpages from PDFs, how do you ensure that diagrams are accessible?

# data[].attributes.body
To remove the diagrams completely, means losing some level of meaning for those audiences who are not visually impaired.

# data[].attributes.headline
General motivation to participate online - when face to face engagement is preferred

# data[].attributes.subject
General motivation to participate online - when face to face engagement is preferred

# data[].attributes.body
We are a small team, none of us super experienced with making tech accessible. It means there is a big burden on staying on top of accessibility

# data[].attributes.body
A short list of software devs with experience making sites and tools accessible, available for hire and volunteer

# data[].attributes.headline
Which communications channels should be used? Facebook?

# data[].attributes.subject
Which communications channels should be used? Facebook?

# data[].attributes.body
Here's the Civic Tech Field Guide's collection of assistive and accessible tech that we've collected over the years, which we view as a necessary and foundational layer to civic tech being effective:

https://directory.civictech.guide/listing-category/assistive-and-accessible-tech

# data[].attributes.body
Some helpful resources I wrote up in the Digital Participation Platforms Guide https://www.peoplepowered.org/digital-guide/assure-accessibility, including WebAIM's automatic accessibility issue finder, which can flag accessibility issues for you with any given site

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For volunteer projects, the cost of developer time

# data[].attributes.subject
For volunteer projects, the cost of developer time

# data[].attributes.body
We very much want to build an accessible platform, but we have no budget and so commissioning developers to ensure accessibility has been very difficult

# data[].attributes.headline
Do you aim for volume of users, or seek to be more targeted?

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you aim for volume of users, or seek to be more targeted?

# data[].attributes.headline
Not knowing if the service provided is broadly accessible or not. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Not knowing if the service provided is broadly accessible or not. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Small changes to working methods that would help disabled people access our services aren't adhered to as standard.

# data[].attributes.subject
Small changes to working methods that would help disabled people access our services aren't adhered to as standard.

# data[].attributes.body
And it's the kind of knowledge that can be taken on enthusiastically but then lost when colleagues move on to other organisations.

# data[].attributes.headline
The people who need our services most might not even be online

# data[].attributes.subject
The people who need our services most might not even be online

# data[].attributes.body
For example, the most deprived or the elderly may not have access to the internet. Even if they do will they be put off by interfaces that assume a good understanding of how to use websites.

# data[].attributes.headline
What are the adoption strategies that have worked in countries like India where there is a huge digital divide and a general fear of making mistakes while using online payments/services

# data[].attributes.subject
What are the adoption strategies that have worked in countries like India where there is a huge digital divide and a general fear of making mistakes while using online payments/services

# data[].attributes.headline
Power Dynamics often overcome the true purpose of civic tech

# data[].attributes.subject
Power Dynamics often overcome the true purpose of civic tech

# data[].attributes.body
The awesome solutions often get absolved within the power political vacuum.

# data[].attributes.body
The incentives are to simply get something out there -- a minimum viable product -- and planning to deal with all the different communities can mean that there's not enough funding to create anything.

# data[].attributes.headline
Common technical accessibility issues with selected UK websites

# data[].attributes.subject
Common technical accessibility issues with selected UK websites

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https://silktide.com/blog/we-analyzed-websites-for-accessibility-issues-here-are-the-results/#common-issues

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Our data shows that worldwide public sector sites perform significantly better than privately-operated sites, but there's still room for improvement across the board.

Hi. We're Silktide. We help organizations find accessibility issues on their websites and help them understand how to fix them.

You may have seen the Silktide Index - the accessibility league table encompassing various industries and sectors.

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD - external link) we decided to pull some data out of the Index and give a run down on the state of accessibility across different sectors.

We created the Index to help raise awareness of web accessibility, and the consensus is that people find it super useful. So we're distilling our findings from May 2021 into this post.

Strap yourselves in, this is going to be a long article! Here's what's coming up.
If you want to skip ahead to the results and data, click this link.
What is this report about?

We analyzed 6,554 websites and 758,408 web pages across multiple sectors for accessibility issues. This report breaks down our findings. In the results and data section, you'll find:

The differences between public and private web accessibility

A comparison of public sectors sites by country

Differences between accessibility across worldwide universities

Which industry sectors have the most accessible websites

A breakdown of WCAG A and WCAG AA scores by sector

A list of the most accessible CMS'

This report is based on our findings from our May 2021 Index and encompasses every website in the Index as of that date.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility is the process of ensuring that your web services cater to a wide range of user's needs. It's not always about disability, although that is the first thing most people think of.

How does poor web accessibility affect people?

Let's say your user is blind or has impaired vision. They use a screen reader, which is a piece of technology that reads the content of your website out to them. They can navigate through your headings, to get straight to the content they need to. They can also fill in forms and otherwise have an enjoyable experience on your site.

Unless of course, your website isn't accessible, then it becomes a very difficult task.

What if you missed the 'Skip to Content' link for screen reader users? The impact of doing so means your users might have to tab through tens of navigation links to read the first page heading.

What if you present useful information in images that don't have alternative text? Or a form with no labels, so there's no way to know where to put your name, address, or phone number?

Or how about intrusive popup banners, modals, or chatbots that steal focus from screen readers?

These are common accessibility issues that are relatively easily fixed.

Considering situational accessibility

Let's consider 'situational accessibility'. If a user has low vision they need text contrast to be high enough that it's readable. The same applies to a person with excellent vision who happens to be using their device in bright sunlight.

A user might not be able to hear the audio in a piece of your content because they are either deaf, have an ear infection, or are in a loud room. These three problems are all fixed with the same solution - adding subtitles and transcripts to audio and visual media.

Indeed, many accessibility issues affect all users to some degree, and often a single solution improves the experience for everyone.

Accessibility, then, goes hand in hand with usability.

For more information on this, watch our webinar 'How web accessibility affects people in the real world'.

How we tested

We gathered a sample of up to 125 web pages from each website and tested those against around 200 accessibility criteria.

The basis for our tests are the WCAG 2.1 guidelines (external link).

We update the results each month and all information, including previous monthly results, is available. This report is based on data from our testing in May 2021.

How we assign a score.

The website's Accessibility Score is a weighted combination of all three levels (45% for Level A, 40% for AA, 15% for AAA).

Each WCAG 2.1 Level is rated out of 100.

The results and data

We analyzed 6,554 websites and 758,408 web pages in total.

We found that the median overall score across all websites was 62.59.

The median WCAG 2.1 A score was 81.8, while the median WCAG AA score was 52.1.

The average number of pages tested per sites was 115.

We found an average of 96 PDFs on each website, and the average number of PDFs found with at least one accessibility issue was 92.

Public/private sector comparison

Overall

The overall public sector median score was 65.30, while the overall private sector median score was 55.50.

Breaking this down, the WCAG A median score for public sector was 83.80, and for private sector, 73.80.

WCAG AA median scores were 55.60 and 43.00 for private and public sector respectively.

By location

We split the public sector results up by geographical area. We included the UK, Canada, the United States, and Australia.

The overall scores were:

WCAG A scores were:

WCAG AA scores were:

Public and private sector: 90th and 10th percentile comparison

By taking the top and bottom performers across the public and private sectors, we get a more meaningful picture of how well organizations perform.

We split the data across the 90th and 10th percentile, and further split by WCAG level.

Then we compared the figures to the overall median score across the entire index.

The overall scores were as follows:

Comparison of worldwide universities

The index contains data on UK universities (159), US universities and colleges (1851), and Canadian universities (86).

The overall accessibility scores are as follows:

United Kingdom 67.90

United States 63.79

Canada 58.40

WCAG Level A scores are as follows:

United Kingdom 83.90

United States 82.19

Canada 71.95

WCAG Level AA scores are:

United Kingdom 58.00

United States 54.20

Canada 45.60

Accessibility by industry

The top four most accessible sectors in the May 2021 Silktide Index are:

The bottom four least accessible sectors in the May 2021 Silktide Index are:

Accessibility by CMS

Where possible, we detect which CMS is in use by a website in the Index. We've included data for any CMS' with at least ten entries in the report along with sample sizes.

Our data suggests that the most accessible CMS' are:

JADU 85.30 (sample size 74)

GOSS 79.68 (sample size 36)

Squarespace 73.58 (sample size 16)

Our data suggests the least accessible CMS' are:

DNN 46.03 (sample size 26)

Crownpeak 53.46 (sample size 21)

Microsoft SharePoint 54.47 (sample size 65)

Common accessibility issues

Our data shows a number of common issues that are present in every sector. Here are the top five.

Avoid using the same link text for different destinations (WCAG A 2.4.4)

Screen reader users will see links on a page listed without context, so you should ensure the same link text is not used to point to different web addresses.

Ensure form controls have labels (WCAG A 1.3.1)

People using screen readers are not able to see the layout of a form. To make forms accessible, they must define explicit text labels for each form control.

Ensure text has sufficient contrast (WCAG AA 1.4.3)

The color of text must sufficiently contrast with its background color so that people with moderate visual impairments can read it. Our demo report shows examples of color contrast.

Ensure controls change appearance when selected (WCAG AA 2.4.7)

All controls on the page - including links, buttons, and fields - should show when they have been selected by the keyboard.

Ensure links explain their purpose (WCAG A 2.4.4)

The purpose of a link should be clear from the text inside the link. Links like "learn more" are not helpful to users with accessible technology.

Discussion

What can we conclude from this data? Headline takeaways are:

Public sector websites globally outrank private sector sites

Legislation such as the EU Web Accessibility Directive, Section 508, the ACA, and the DDA (Australia) mandates public sector sites to be accessible to a certain standard.

The private sector is not subject to such legislation in these regions, save for the ADA which applies to certain US businesses over a given size.

You might conclude that the disparity between scores between these sectors is because private sector companies are not legally required to make their websites accessible.

Other factors may include people simply not being aware of the impact of poor accessibility on web users. It's hard to fix a problem if you don't know you have one.

Canadian public sector sites scored the best overall, followed by the UK, Australia, and the United States.

UK, Australia, and USA public sector sites have fairly similar WCAG A and AA scores. But the real difference is that Canada has, on average, a 10 point lead in AA scoring.

So while all regions have, on the whole, excellent WCAG A accessibility, Canada wins out by going further in its AA scoring.

UK universities rank best for accessibility, followed by US and Canadian universities.

There's not much between the UK and USA WCAG A scores, but Canada falls behind here which drags their overall score down to 58.39, compared to 67.90 and 63.79 for UK and US university sites.

The best public sector sites overall score 38.34% above the median, while the best private sector sites score 21.11% above the median

Conversely, the lowest-scoring public sector sites score 34.81% below the median, while private sector sites score 45.17 below the median.

Comparing the 90th percentile of public and private sector sites to the overall Index median, we can see that the very best public sites outrank the very best private sites by some margin.

Also, the lowest performing public sites score considerably more poorly compare with even the lowest scoring public sector sites.

The most accessible sector is UK local government, followed closely by Canadian central government.

Taking individual sectors, we can see that the UK local government index has the best score overall, with 83.45 overall. Canada scores a little higher in WCAG A, but where they lose the top spot is to the UK's WCAG AA score of 80.64 (compared to 73.10 for Canada).

Out of the entire Index, the top 20 sites for accessibility are all owned by UK councils.

The least accessible sector is UK Retail, along with UK Supermarkets

This is an interesting result, especially in light of the pandemic we're currently in. UK retail has shifted online by as much as 78.2% due to various lockdowns (external link), so to score so poorly in general accessibility means that likely a lot of web users have been unable to engage with those businesses.

So there is some room for improvement in these sectors and perhaps now is the time to start a wider web accessibility discussion in the private sector.

The highest-scoring CMS for accessibility is Jadu, followed by GOSS and Squarespace.

Now, there are a lot of moving parts with these results, and a CMS generally is only as good as the developers who use it. That said, some CMS' don't give as much control over certain accessibility features, like adding alternative text, so those would score lower overall.

Either way, it's interesting to see JADU score at the top here. They design and test their themes for accessibility before handing them over to their customers to populate. Many of the websites here are also in the UK local government, the top-scoring sector overall.

It's good to see organizations putting in the hard work to improve accessibility for everyone.

Sectors with higher WCAG AA scores rank more highly than those only focused on WCAG A accessibility.

This is fairly obvious as both scores combine to form the overall score. That said, some sectors would not be particularly distinguishable if you only take into account WCAG A scores.

For example, the comparison between public sector sites by region. There wouldn't be much to tell apart UK, USA, Canada, and Australian organizations if we were not also considering the WCAG AA scores.

The same accessibility issues come up again and again.

The common issues we find in the Index are often the same from month to month.

Inaccessible links, insufficient color contrast, and incorrectly labeled forms are the most common issues by far.

We also find that PDF accessibility is a real challenge from our conversations with our customers ( we have an hour-long webinar available with practical examples of how to make accessible PDFs).

Our advice is to not use PDFs if at all possible. instead, supply an HTML version of the information.

Conclusion

There's certainly a contrast between the public and private sector in terms of global accessibility.

Legislation is likely a huge part of this. Indeed, our data shows that UK councils (now among the most accessible websites in the Index) have improved their accessibility scores dramatically since February 2020.

The EU Web Accessibility Directive deadline in September 2020 gave focus to these organizations to make their websites better. And while most were already working towards this goal, a lot of feedback we get from the sector is that the Index has been really helpful in tracking their progress.

We're always the first to say that automated accessibility testing is a tool (and a great one) but should never be used in isolation.

You should combine automated accessibility testing with manual testing for the full picture. We'd also recommended testing using screen readers, such as Voiceover (iOS) or Talkback (Android).

We hope you've found this article useful. You can learn more about our accessibility testing software (we also have a demo report on our website available).

To see the accessibility leaderboards visit the Silktide Index.

Transparency and commitment to accessibility starts with your accessibility statement.

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We analyzed 6,554 websites for accessibility issues - Silktide

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Our data shows that worldwide public sector sites perform significantly better than privately-operated sites, but there's still room for improvement across the board. Hi. We're Silktide. We help organizations find accessibility issues on their websites and help them understand how to fix them.

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Are there examples of civic tech projects which are inherently (perhaps accidentally?) very accessible and broadly used?

Are there examples of civic tech projects which have made effective changes to what they do and succeeded in making themselves more accessible?

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Review state of civic education in schools

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Review state of civic education in schools

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Which countries are doing this well? What's missing? Is there a disconnect between what's taught and real life?

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Who wants to fund work in this area?

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Seek funding specifically to improve accessibility of services

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Seek funding specifically to improve accessibility of services

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eg. funder Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has a priority for funding work which:

"develops and promotes mechanisms which enable civil society and the general public, including marginalised groups, to engage appropriately and effectively with government policy making at all levels"

https://www.jrct.org.uk/power-and-accountability

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Quakers have a strong commitment to equality. This leads us to reject some conventional forms of hierarchy (such as the use of titles), to share power widely within our own church structures and to be willing to speak the truth to powerful bodies and individuals.

In wider society, the way that power is concentrated, shared and used is changing as a result of globalisation, new technology, new channels of communication, extreme inequality and other factors. These changes bring increased risks of unaccountable power, but also new opportunities for interconnected, engaged and flourishing democracy.

We want to support people to create a world in which power is more equally shared, and in which powerful institutions are responsive and accountable to wider society and aligned with the long-term public interest.
At this time of crisis, JRCT is also keen to support work that responds to the dual harms of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. We have amended our funding policy below to reflect this.
Funding priorities

1. Strengthening corporate accountability

Large corporations have significant power, and checks and balances are inadequately developed, particularly for trans-national corporations, including the largest digital platforms and intermediaries. We are interested in funding work which:

develops and promotes mechanisms which increase the accountability and responsiveness of companies to shareholders, stakeholders, regulators and the long-term public interest, for example through improvements to corporate governance, corporate structures (including alternative corporate forms), company reporting or regulation

develops and promotes mechanisms whereby those who suffer severely as a result of company actions, particularly marginalised groups, can gain access to justice

promotes the application of the same standards of accountability to large digital companies as other commercial organisations, for example with respect to taxation, consumer protection, treatment of minorities and the protection of rights

encourages a constructive dialogue across private, public and civil society sectors to define and develop values and norms of corporate accountability and transparency in relation to new digital technologies.

2. Strengthening democratic accountability

In a healthy democracy, government should be representative of the wider public and in touch with a wide range of groups, but not disproportionately influenced by any single interest. We are interested in funding work which:

develops and promotes mechanisms which ensure an accountable, transparent and proportionate relationship between the private sector and government

develops and promotes mechanisms which enable civil society and the general public, including marginalised groups, to engage appropriately and effectively with government policy making at all levels

encourages government, parliament and other statutory agencies to be more representative of the wider public they serve, in terms of gender, ethnicity and other factors

supports the modernisation of the democratic infrastructure to increase its accessibility, relevance and resilience in a digital age

promotes greater transparency by digital intermediaries in relation to their impact on democracy and elections.

3. Encouraging responsible media

All forms of media play important roles in a healthy democracy, but media companies and platforms can themselves be powerful and unaccountable. We are interested in funding work which:

encourages accurate and responsible media, with appropriate safeguards

helps to develop a relevant and proportionate response to the risks of misinformation and disinformation in commercial media

explores and promotes ways for all forms of media to play a constructive role in holding government, companies and other powerful actors to account

helps to develop and strengthen infrastructure to support new forms of community journalism for the public benefit.

4. Responding to the dual harms of Covid-19 and systemic racism

At this time of crisis, JRCT is keen to support work that responds to the dual harms of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Specifically, we wish to encourage work that scrutinises the responses and policies of powerful institutions and actors, and which envisions and builds support for transformative social change based on justice, peace and sustainability, including work which:

Scrutinises and holds the government and/or corporations* to account for systemic inequalities, injustices or abuses of power arising from their responses to Covid-19, including in relation to corporate bailouts, public procurement or worker support schemes

Examines how the media (including social media) landscape has been affected by Covid-19 and its effectiveness in holding government and key actors to account during the pandemic

Envisages how corporations could transform their purpose and practices to better address stakeholder concerns, sustainability imperatives and the long term public interest as part of recovery from the pandemic and seeks changes to support this*

Identifies ways in which to build upon the widespread community activism arising during the pandemic to reinvigorate our democratic governance and institutions.

Other information

Under this programme, JRCT will consider applications for national work in the UK, or elsewhere in Europe for work at a pan-European level.

Specific exclusions

In addition to the Trust's general exclusions, we will not fund work under this programme which:

is about democratic participation or user advocacy in relation to service provision, e.g. education and health

focuses on international development issues

is limited to corporate accountability in relation to a particular business sector, e.g. tourism or supermarkets (*this exclusion does not apply in relation to our fourth funding theme on Covid-19/Structural racism ie single sector applications are eligible)

is general campaigning that is not concerned with the themes given above

supports individual journalists or news organisations to undertake investigations or create content.

Application deadlines

For further information see When to apply.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust - Power and Accountability

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Quakers have a strong commitment to equality. This leads us to reject some conventional forms of hierarchy (such as the use of titles), to share power widely within our own church structures and to be willing to speak the truth to powerful bodies and individuals.

# data[].attributes.body
Identify where support requests are arising from accessibility issues eg. basic computer / web use issues.

Remove confusing elements of the service eg. recognise where jargon is being used and remove it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Resources to actually run services on a day to day basis and provide support and assistance. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Resources to actually run services on a day to day basis and provide support and assistance. 

# data[].attributes.body
Funders appear to like to support starting something new. Value and impact often comes from running a service over very many years.

# data[].attributes.headline
Encourage and enable use of services anonymously or under pseudonyms.  Remove users' names on request. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Encourage and enable use of services anonymously or under pseudonyms.  Remove users' names on request. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Fear of negative personal consequences as a result of public engagement on civic matters

# data[].attributes.subject
Fear of negative personal consequences as a result of public engagement on civic matters

# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps less of a concern for those with little/nothing to lose, or those with the wealth and connections to deal with challenges. Possibly something which impacts many in the middle.

# data[].attributes.headline
Engagement by those who are struggling to used the service can be misinterpreted as misuse/abuse

# data[].attributes.subject
Engagement by those who are struggling to used the service can be misinterpreted as misuse/abuse

# data[].attributes.body
Those with a low level of literacy might write very brief messages. They might write all in lower case, or all in upper case.

Those who struggle to engage substantively include allegations eg. of corruption in messages.

# data[].attributes.headline
We have users lacking literacy in terms of reading and writing, but also in terms of basic computer/website use, and in terms of a lack of understanding of the structure of government they are trying to engage with. 

# data[].attributes.subject
We have users lacking literacy in terms of reading and writing, but also in terms of basic computer/website use, and in terms of a lack of understanding of the structure of government they are trying to engage with. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Disability statistics are not well known

# data[].attributes.subject
Disability statistics are not well known

# data[].attributes.body
Try to educate your peers

# data[].attributes.headline
A11y is not a priority for decision makers.

# data[].attributes.subject
A11y is not a priority for decision makers.

# data[].attributes.body
Is the last thing that gets attention.

# data[].attributes.headline
More experiments with audio-based access to information

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More experiments with audio-based access to information

# data[].attributes.headline
In the UK, an estimated 7.1m people (National Literacy Trust) have difficulty reading. But everything we do is text-based. 

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In the UK, an estimated 7.1m people (National Literacy Trust) have difficulty reading. But everything we do is text-based. 

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Learn about our work in Nigeria and our Civic tech Fellowship 

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Learn about our work in Nigeria and our Civic tech Fellowship 

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Visit civichive.org for more information