Work

WCAG 2.1 Audit of Bangladeshi E-Government Accessibility: A Maturity Model for Digital Inclusion

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Government e-services in Bangladesh are central to welfare, taxation, and civil registration, yet their accessibility for people with disabilities remains underexamined. This study audits 47 Bangladeshi government e-services, recorded across 74 website entries, against WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA criteria using WebAIM WAVE and manual inspection. Across 1,534 finding records, the audit recorded 14,308 accessibility indicators, of which 8,838 were flagged as errors and most of the remainder were accessibility features. Missing form labels, very low contrast, and empty buttons were the most frequently recorded error types. Error-labelled counts mapped mainly to the Perceivable (62.4%) and Operable (23.6%) principles and predominantly to Level A criteria (64.5%), indicating potential barriers for screen-reader, low-vision, and keyboard-only users on home, login, and application pages. Counts are not deduplicated across WCAG criteria and are not verified distinct failures. The paper also proposes an exploratory three-tier Accessibility Maturity Model (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) to support future benchmarking once verified failure counts are available. The findings support targeted remediation, developer training, and enforcement of Bangladesh’s 2022 Digital Service and Web Designing Guideline for Inclusive Accessibility.

Source: Userhub Journal

DOI: 10.58947/journal.pbxk45