A low level of accessibility found in internal ICT systems for staff is creating a “depressing picture for employment of people with disabilities”, according to a new survey carried out in conjunction with E-Access Bulletin.
The research, conducted by Bloor Research with E-Access Bulletin and Ability Magazine, found private sector organisations have more accessible internal ICT systems than organisations in the public sector, with 44% of private sector companies surveyed having more than 70% of their internal systems accessible, compared with only 29% of public sector bodies surveyed.
Both sectors were asked how this picture is likely to change by the end of 2010. The private sector again came out on top, with 60% of respondents claiming that by the end of 2010 more than 70% of their systems will be accessible, compared to just 44% of public sector organisations.
However, the overall picture is still a gloomy one for the job prospects of disabled workers, the survey finds. “Although there is pressure to improve the internal systems, there will be a large number of systems that are still not accessible in 2011 and this will limit job opportunities,” it says.
Despite its shortcoming in internal systems, the public sector was found to have a greater overall level of accessibility in its external systems. These differences are “probably caused by the e-gov pressure for citizen access on the one side and inaccessible internal legacy systems in the public sector on the other,” the survey finds.
The full paper with results and conclusions of the survey can be found at:
fastlink.headstar.com/bloor2 .
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As a Visually Impaired Employee of a Local Authority within Ayrshire, I have to agree that accessible applications are given very little consideration. My Council uses several applications within their Customer Service Contact & I.T Department that are not accessible and even when they updated their software packages no consideration was given to purchasing applications that were accessible. Even within Social Services steps have not been taken to give Visually Impaired Employees access to our client information system “CareFirst” despite the fact that CareFirst is and has been accessible since version 4. Pleople like myself are therefore denied any opportunity of promotion because of such poor attitude towards the needs of disabled employees.
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