Hundreds of thousands are excluded from public authorities' websites

Swedish public authorities are legally required to make their digital services accessible to all. However, those who rely on automated testing tools miss the majority of the problems. This is shown by new research from the University of Skövde. Hundreds of thousands of Swedes risk being excluded from important public information.

Ruth is 82 years old and needs to apply for home care. On the municipality's website, she encounters small texts, confusing menus and unclear headings. Her eyesight is failing, the screen reader cannot interpret the page, and after twenty minutes of confusion, she gives up. Not because she is done, but because she cannot manage.

As more public services move online, the gap widens between those who can easily access information and those who cannot. For people with visual impairments, reading difficulties, or other cognitive challenges, a website can become a barrier rather than a support.

Only one sixth of the guidelines are tested

A new study from the University of Skövde shows that authorities miss large parts of the accessibility problems when they rely on automated testing tools. On average, only one sixth of the required guidelines are tested.

"No tool can identify all accessibility problems on a website. Not even when several tools are used together do they catch more than a small portion of the errors," says Thomas Fischer, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Skövde.

A democratic deficit

Since 2019, authorities have been legally required to make their digital services accessible to all. Despite this, many obstacles remain for groups already at risk of exclusion.

"An important part of a democracy is that everyone has the same opportunity to participate in public life. When people cannot access public authorities' information, it can affect their quality of life and sometimes even their lives and health."

According to Statistics Sweden (SCB), around 725,000 people in Sweden live with disabilities that directly affect their ability to access information online. (Source: SCB, Definition of disability in the Statistics on Income and Living conditions.

Automated tests miss deeper problems

Thomas Fischer and his colleagues examined how many of the WCAG guidelines are actually tested. (WCAG is a set of recommendations for web accessibility, forming the basis of European and Swedish legislation.) The results show that the tools mainly manage simpler, measurable tests, such as colour contrast and image captions.

Unclear guidelines create uncertainty

The problems are not just technical. The WCAG guidelines are long and written in running text, which leaves great room for interpretation.

"One developer may interpret the rules one way, another in a completely different way. This creates inconsistency," says Thomas Fischer.

The researchers are calling for a shared testing environment with real-life examples and expert evaluations, so that developers can compare their tools and identify deficiencies.

Let accessibility testing become part of everyday routines

Despite the shortcomings, Thomas Fischer sees an important role for automated tools when used correctly.

"We recommend using several different tools in parallel, as they have different strengths and weaknesses. And above all, to integrate the tests directly into the systems where the web pages are created."

According to the researchers, this would increase the chance of identifying problems in time, without increasing the workload for web editors and other officials.