The accessibility of Queensland visitor information centres’ websites

Visitor information centres (VICs) are one major information resource for visitors both before arrival at their destination and during their visit, and use of the Web as a new information dissemination channel by VICs is now widespread. However, the issue of the accessibility of VIC websites may be overlooked. The homepages of websites from 66 Queensland VICs were examined to find out whether the posted information could be easily accessed by disabled tourists. Each homepage was analysed in terms of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web accessibility by using Bobby Online Free Portal in January 2005. The majority of VIC website homepages were found to fail one or more of the W3C web accessibility measures which means disabled users may have substantial problems when accessing Queensland VIC websites. Possible reasons that could have contributed to the low accessibility rating of Queensland VIC homepages are discussed. Several suggestions on how to improve the accessibility of VIC websites are then offered.