CASE STUDY

Making Digital Government Services Accessible

Image that shows screens from smartphones with the Gov.gr services
A few words 

Gov.gr is the online platform of the Greek government that enables the completion and processing of time-consuming and bureaucratic procedures. It is used by millions of Greek citizens and thousands of businesses who can find a plethora of digital services quickly and easily.

The challenge 

The main challenge was to make sure that 12 of the most popular digital services are accessible to as many users with disabilities as possible. In more details:

  1. We had to identify, analyze, and prioritize accessibility issues.
  2. We had to support the remediation of the accessibility issues according to the highest international standards, more specifically WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1.
  3. We had to apply a holistic methodology that leads to certification verifying that most of the identified issues have been remediated according to WCAG 2.1.  
Our approach 

We applied our holistic methodology that leads to digital accessibility certification according to WCAG 2.1.

Our methodology combines a series of expert-based accessibility audits with rounds of remediation and usability testing with users with disabilities. 

     Stage 1: First round of Αccessibility Audit (including the use of software tools and manual expert-based testing)

     Stage 2: Remediation of issues as identified in the first round of Accessibility Audit

     Stage 3: Second round of Accessibility Audit (including the use of software tools and manual expert-based testing)

     Stage 4: Remediation of issues as identified in the second round of Accessibility Audit.

     Stage 5: Usability testing with users with disabilities

     Stage 6: Remediation of issues as identified in the Usability testing.

     Stage 7: Final audit on specific templates.

     Stage 8: Accessibility Statement and Certification.

During the remediation phases, we closely collaborated with GRNET, the organization that developed the services for the Gov.gr.  

 

Main outcomes 

We identified, analyzed, and remediated 46 accessibility problems in total.

  • 18 problems impacted the total of website templates.
  • 12 problems impacted multiple website templates.          
  • 16 problems impacted one single website template.

Regarding the different types of disabilities:

  • 40 problems impacted those who have visual impairments.
  • 8 problems impacted those who have motor impairments.
  • 14 problems impacted those who have cognitive impairments.

After the usability testing (80% of the remediation process was already completed) participants said they were very satisfied with their experience with the remediated services.

(Mean score =6.0 where 1= Not at all satisfied and 7= Completely satisfied)  

 

Awards

UX | CX Awards 2023: Gold Award in the category "Best Citizen Experience".

Diversity and Inclusion Awards 2023: Silver Award in the category "Disabilities / Chronic Diseases"

awards_badges.png

 

Services and methods applied 
  • Accessibility Audits 
  • Moderated Usability Testing with users with disabilities 
  • Remediation of Accessibility issues