www.accessibile.gov.it is a portal dedicated to the Observatory on the accessibility of Internet services provided by the Public Administration.

One of the main requirements and also a primary objective of online communication in Public Administration is to provide greater accessibility to information and full usability of the services offered. This website powered by Formez at the initiative of the Italian Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation, is intended to become the meeting point between citizens and the Public Administration in order to improve the quality of the public services provided online. This portal is meant for all Italian citizens, Italians abroad, foreigners in Italy, people with disabilities, or less experienced individuals, for anyone having trouble using online services and accessing information made available from the Public Administration.   

There are two priority goals in this initiative. The first goal concerns the constant updating of the national legislation on access, following the adoption of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 - the new international recommendations - and the second goal regards the management of alerts for the citizens experiencing difficulties in enjoying the services provided through public websites.

This is how the system operates. The users encountering difficulties when using a specific public website expose a complaint or offer a suggestion, by  accessing the "Messages" section, filling out a form and sending it. At first, the comments are analysed from the back office of the observatory and are assigned to accessibility experts. Once the adequacy of the report is verified, it is published on the website and sent to the administration concerned (first phase is signalled by a sad red face indicating the status of "received"). In the second stage, the administration welcomes the report of the observatory and takes over the issue (the second stage is signalled by a normal yellow smiley face indicating the status "in process"). Finally, the institution involved - possibly assisted by the expert - will remove the difficulties facing the user and will in turn notify the back office of the observatory which will update the status of the alerts (the third stage is signalled by a green smiley face indicating the state "resolved").

The user can be aware of the status of a report by accessing the 'Records' List'. Each report is listed and accompanied by an emoticon according to the current status of the report. In the section 'Examples and guides', achievements on samples are presented in text, video tutorials and articles, among other. The aim of the collection is to propose solutions that can be replicated and that particularly please the user, as well as support material for those who prepare the content.

Further information:

• Official press release of the portal of 'Formez' (in Italian)
• Official website of the Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation - 'Accessible: Observatory of services' accessibility of the Public Administration' (in Italian)