Usability and Accessibility of E-Government: Benefits and Issues

This report explores the concepts of usability and accessibility within the context of e-government, emphasizing the role of information technology in modern governance. It examines the implementation of e-government sites, highlighting their importance in connecting governments with citizens and facilitating e-democracy. The report discusses the usability of these sites, focusing on user-friendly interfaces and communicative relationships between governments and citizens. It assesses the accessibility of e-government platforms, addressing issues like design, security, and the digital divide. Furthermore, it outlines the benefits of e-government, such as enhanced connectivity and communication, while also acknowledging the challenges, including broken links and usability issues. The analysis draws upon various studies and reports to provide a comprehensive overview of e-government's impact on citizen engagement, democratic processes, and the overall progress of nations.

Running head: USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
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1USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
1 Introduction
The emergence of new technologies has helped in the administrative part. The
advancements undertaken by the internet relating to the information technology has helped a lot
in the development of the e-government facilities. The formation of e-government is an
important step that is being undertaken in order to reach out to the people.
The discussion is based on the usability and the accessibility of the e-governments. The
most intriguing criteria of this discussion is to judge the efficiency of the e-government and
assess the ways in which the formation of the e-government is beneficial for the people. The
formation of this type of governments are undertaken in order to understand the basic needs of
the citizens and to adhere to a better communication channel. The communication channel helps
the governments to change and modify based on the requirements of the citizens of a nation. the
discussion holds the accessibility of the e-governments and the manner in which the formation of
such governments are usable for the masses. It simply enumerates the benefits and limitations of
the government based on the requirement of the citizens of the nation (Lofstedt 2012). The most
important consideration that is being undertaken by the governments is to reach out to the people
in the furthest corners of the nation (Lee and Kwak 2012). In order to reach out to the mass, e-
government is being formulated. The improvements that the nation undertakes is based on the
requirements of the people and therefore the development of the electronic authorities helps in
identifying the issues faced by the people in the nation and thereby communicate effectively.
The purpose of undertaking this discussion is to assess the importance of the step taken
by the governments to reach out to the citizens of the nation and the benefits and the limitations
of the service that are being provided through the government’s online presence. the

2USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
technological advancements has helped in bringing about changes in the administrative structure
of the nation. E-government is a kind of undertaking which helped the governments in
connecting with the people and thereby attaining to the requirements of the people at large.
2 Implementation of the concepts of information technology on e-government
The usage of information technology has helped in undertaking the probable steps of
advancements. Internet has been the major source of the changes that the society undertook. It
helped in undertaking the changes effectively based on the requirements of the people. Making
use of the internet sources several media platforms have evolved making people aware of the
changes that are being undertaken by the society. Communication is the most important step that
is being undertaken through the proper functioning of the internet. The Governments of certain
nations also have started utilizing the internet in order to connect to the citizens of the nation.
The formation of the e-governments has facilitated the growth of the information being
transmitted to the people. The government-facilitated sites helps in keeping the people informed
about the norms and regulations that are being formulated by the government (Carlo Bertot,
Jaeger and Grimes 2012). The formulation of the e-government sites provides a platform where
the government and the people of the nation come together to discuss the issues that are being
faced. it also helps in facilitating the e-Democracy of the nation where the people have got the
right to speak out their issues. The usability of the sites is based on the improvements that are
being made by the governments based on the requirements of the people. Huang and Benyoucef
(2014) believed in the democratic control of the governments.

3USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
3 Usability of the E-government sites
The implementation of the e-governments helps in the developments of the democratic
forms of governance as it includes the people’s views on the issues faced by the nation, the
voting and the implementation of the other fundamental rights that every citizen of the nation is
entitled with. On the other hand, the usability of the other commercial sites is being tested by the
users, which provided them with an user friendly interface. It helped in undertaking the steps that
are required to be taken by the governments while undertaking the services. In order to upgrade
the services, the governments must take steps in order to modify the websites so that the users do
not face issues in the usability (Carlo Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2012). The user-friendly
interface facilitates in undertaking the smart functioning of the websites and thereby affects the
accessibility. Government works for the benefits of the citizens at large; therefore, the credibility
of implementing the e-governments is based on addressing the needs of the people of the nation.
Therefore, the proper functioning of the websites help the government is undertaking steps in
order to improve the situations.
3.1 Maintaining a communicative relation with the people
According to Hong (2013), the relationship of the government with the citizens of the
nations has been enhanced after the implementation of the e-governments. The enhancement of
the relationships with the people is based on the criteria of making the considerable changes in
the patterns of governance based on the needs of the majority of the people. It is termed as the
basics of governing the central idea of democracy. The government’s relation with the people of
the nation is an important aspect that must be considered while understanding the importance of
developing the e-governments and their functioning (Harrison et al. 2012.). The electronic
governments help in determining the changes that are being desired by the citizens of the nation.

4USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
It helps in the undertaking the specific steps based on the requirements of the people who cannot
communicate with the governments otherwise.
The websites and the portals that are being created by the governments help the
government in understanding the issues faced by the people and thereby resolve the issues. The
most important step undertaken by the government is based on the requirements of the citizens
and enables the governments to take decisions based on the betterment of the people and the
communities at large (Meier et al. 2012). In order to address the issues faced by the
communities, the government has developed certain range of websites that helps in determining
the issues faced by the people in the communities. The use of information and technology has
affected the growth of the individuals. The governments have started considering the micro
levels of improvements in order to undertake macro levels of output that accounts to the nation’s
progress. According to the Huang and Brooks (2012), the government develops e-government
sites which are still facing difficulty in the utilization of the user interface. The user interface
developed by the government portals does not work at times and therefore the efficiency seems
to diminish. The most important consideration undertaken by the organizations are based on the
requirements of the people and therefore adhering to the needs of the people is the only
consideration that the government sites must have (Kavanaugh et al. 2012). The lack of
technology that the sites suffer from might be due to the nature of non-commercial activities
undertaken by the government. It is therefore contradictory to the private sector websites, which
involves commercial activities.

5USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
Accessibility of the websites
The accessibility of the websites is an important criterion that must be assessed before
judging the credibility of the websites. It is an important aspect relating to the usability of the
website as it is based on the criteria of the change that is being brought about by the governments
in the era of technological advancements. According to Ubaldi (2013), people have grown
increasingly concern about the democracy they enjoy in their nation. The formulation of the e-
government portals has helped a lot in resolving their issues. However, the websites are suffering
from a lack of availability due to their design and customization patterns. Moreover, the security
of these websites is limited (Bertot et al. 2014). Therefore, it is affecting the human centric
approach relating to the safety and security of the information that are being transmitted through
the websites (Bertot, Jaeger and Hansen 2012). On the other hand, the information that are being
transmitted through the websites are based on the government’s administration. Therefore,
important steps must be undertaken by the governments in order to secure the accessibility of the
websites. However, Hong (2013) believed ion the effectiveness of the websites in connecting the
government with the people in order to resolve their problems. the problems that are being faced
by the citizens of the nation is being communicated to the governments through this website. The
grievances, the feedback of the people on the policies formed by the government and the other
issues like the voting is being resolved through the formulation of the websites. The websites
therefore enables the availability of the e-democratic strategies in this era of technological
advancements and information technology (Hong 2013). The most important consideration
undertaken by the websites are based on the right to information of the people of the nation. It
provides a platform for the people to receive the information that would help them in judging the
credibility of their government.

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Options of accessibility of the websites
The options of accessibility of the websites depend on the internet conditions and the
design of the websites (Ubaldi 2013). The design of the websites facilitates the accessibility. In
simple terms, the complicated design of the website and the portal in which the people and the
government comes together to discuss about the social and other issues, must be enhanced.
Parycek and Edelmann (2014) believed that the e-government websites facilitates the connection
between the people and their government and therefore the issues in the websites must be
resolved. The democracy that is being shared through the social media platform is the integral
part of the website; therefore, accessibility of the websites must be enhanced. The primary aim of
the website’s accessibility is based on the disability of the people to communicate with their
government freely. In order to enhance the communication and thereby bring in changes in the
structure and the policies the web portals must be enhanced (Huang and Benyoucef 2014). On
the other hand, usability of the website is characterized by the user satisfaction. The most
important consideration undertaken by the government websites are based on the concept of
connecting with the people in order to deal with the progress of the nation.
Benefits of utilization
The advantages that the people derived from the installation of the e-government
websites is based on the usability of the websites. The most important benefit that the people
derive from the installation of the websites is through the enhancements in the connectivity. The
connectivity of the people with their respective governments helps them in understanding the
modifications that are being undertaken by the governments for the benefits of the nation.
Moreover, the installation of the websites has helped the people in communicating the issues
faced by the people with the government. It helps the government in taking steps based on the

7USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
requirements of the people (Schweighofer and Hötzendorfer 2013). The option of the usability
depends on the people’s usage of the websites and their individual gains from the website. The
websites helps in resolving the issues faced by the people and thereby helps in determining the
nation’s progress. The most important point that is being undertaken by the people while
understanding the functions of the e-government is the communication factor that supports the e-
democracy of the people. Communication helps in developing the people’s right to say about the
changes that are being taken by the governments for the betterment of the nation.
Issues faced by the websites
According to a report formulated by Bournaris et al. (2013), the websites suffer from the
broken links that must be repaired. The broken links disables the accessibility of the websites and
thereby makes use of the procedure undertaken by the government officials for the better
communication of the issues (Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia 2012). The main aim of the
websites is based on the factors of enhancing the connectivity between the people of the nation
and the government. It helps in understanding the issues faced by the people and therefore the
design of the websites should be undertaken carefully in order to ensure the accessibility of the
website to all the people (Huang and Brooks 2012).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the emergence of the e-
governments has contributed to the enhancement of democracy in a nation. However, it has got
its drawbacks too. Based on the usability of the websites and their relative accessibility, the
websites are being assessed. It helps in the efficiency of the functions taken by the government
websites, which are non-commercial in nature. The most important criteria in undertaking the

8USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT
development of the website is o reach out to the people. The government and the people can
communicate with one another like two distinct entities and thereby the governments are solving
the issues faced by the public. It has enhanced the functioning of the government in responding
to the needs of the citizens of the nations and keeping a track of the issues faced by the people of
the nation. The most intriguing issue faced by the government websites are based on the fact that
the websites are having a low usability count as they are not user friendly and at times are not
accessible. Due to the technical defects in the websites, the government cannot efficiently
communicate with the people of the nation. Gradual steps are being undertaken in order to
develop the e-government sites in order to improve the accessibility of the contents and the
usability that affirms satisfaction to the user.

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