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Related Works

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We have been committed to promoting and developing accessible web pages and mobile applications. As early as 1999, we had proposed to the government to formulate the first guidelines on accessible web design in Hong Kong, and it was accepted. Since 2007, we began providing web accessibility assessment services for different websites, in 2013, we then started up a social enterprise project called Web Access For all (WAFA), providing more professional and comprehensive web accessibility assessment, consultation, and training services. Until now, we have provided these services for more than 100 government departments and private organizations.

In 2012, we had won the Bronze award of “The Best Digital Inclusion (Award Services of Hong Kong ICT Award”. In order to understand and improve the overall accessibility level of Hong Kong, we will regularly select some local websites and mobile apps for accessibility testing, publish assessment reports and provide suggestions for improvement. We had also been delegated by the World Blind Union Asia Pacific to conduct a web and mobile apps accessibility survey in 2018, aiming to research the overall accessibility policies for the Asia Pacific countries and regions, and the report was published in 2020.

Learn more about our relevant works and their progress below:

Started to provide simple web accessibility testing services for various websites, which were performed by a number of visually impaired people. These Websites include The Government of Hong Kong (www.gov.hk) and The University of Hong Kong.

In 2010, we implemented a 2-year project called “Eliminating Digital Barriers – Promoting Web Accessibility and Enhancing the ability of Visually Impaired Users Campaign”, in order to promote the web accessibility design concept and knowledge. It was subsidized by the Digital Solidarity Fund, and the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Internet Society of Hong Kong were invited as the supporting organizations. The project had won the “Hong Kong Information and Communication Technology Awards 2012, Best Digital Inclusion Award (Service)-Bronze Award”.

Project content includes:

  1. To assess 30 websites that are commonly used by visually impaired people, test their accessibility level, publish test reports, and announce results to the public.
  2. To organize a series of seminars and workshops for the industry and visually impaired people, in order to raise their awareness of web accessibility.
  3. To plan and build the thematic website, providing information and knowledge for the IT industry, and act as a platform, allowing information exchange between the industry and the visually impaired people.

In 2012, we provided accessibility testing service for different websites based on the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) international standard, Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), as well as professional consultation and training services. Our clients included different government departments and public organizations. Furthermore, we have established the social enterprise project, Web Access For All (WAFA) in 2013, funded by the “Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Program” of the Home Affairs Department.

In November 2014, the Hong Kong Blind Union organized a press conference to announce the result of a survey on web accessibility adoption level. The report found that the accessibility of Hong Kong websites is lower than that of European and American countries, and there was still much room for improvement. In terms of overall average scores, Hong Kong’s website accessibility ranked 5th, which is lower than the four European and American regions, but higher than other Asian regions. This situation also occurred in some multinational companies that the web accessibility of Hong Kong branch is lower than that of other regions. For example, the web accessibility performance of Hong Kong branch ranked 6th among websites of all HSBC branches, which was lower than those of Europe, the United States and China.

On the other hand, the press conference also mentioned the web page barriers that visually impaired people often encounter, and suggestions to improve the accessibility of Hong Kong’s web pages.

In September 2018, we were delegated by the World Blind Union Asia Pacific to conduct a questionnaire survey on the web and mobile apps accessibility, in order to understand the overall accessibility policies across Asia Pacific countries and cities. And the online release conference for the survey was held in September 2020. The report shows that the web and mobile apps accessibility for Hong Kong ranked the 3rd among 12 countries and cities in the Asia Pacific region, which was next to Australia and South Korea. However, many aspects still need to be improved, such as transportation, media, medical institutions and online shopping platforms.

In addition, during April 2020, an accessibility testing, for 10 Hong Kong news related iOS mobile apps, had also been conducted.