This is an accessibility audit of the 118 websites linked to the
COMMON CAUSE E-GOVERNMENT AWARDS
presented at the MA State House on March 19, 2009.
This simple one page audit was performed using the excellent -and free- WebAIM
WAVE- Website Accessibility Evaluation Tool. To learn more about this W3 tool,
please see: Using WAVE 4.0 to Evaluate Your Web Content at:
http://wave.webaim.org/presentations/ahg2008/
MA Cities and towns-
e-government award
winner ‘09
!=”Superstars” # of accessibility errors per WAVE one page check
11
Amesbury
Amherst ! 2
Andover ! 2
Arlington ! 1
Ashburnham 3
Ashland 3
Barnstable 24
Becket 3
Bedford 6
Bellingham 3
Belmont 4
Bolton ! 3
Boston ! 14
Boxborough 3
Brookline 11
Burlington ! 11
Cambridge 107
Carver 6
Charlton 30
Chatham ! 3
Chelmsford ! 5
Chelsea 3
Chilmark 1
Concord ! 6
Dalton 3

Dedham ! 4
Dennis 17
Dudley 1
Dunstable 1
Duxbury ! 1
East ! Longmeadow 20 (new site)
Eastham 1
Easton ! 22
Egremont NONE
Everett 55
Falmouth ! 2
Fitchburg 13
Freetown ! 45
Gardner ! 4
Gill ! 13
Gloucester ! 3
Haverhill ! 19
Holden 7
Holland 3
Holliston 6
Holyoke 4
Hopkinton 40
Hudson 1
Ipswich ! 3
Kingston ! 11
Lakeville ! 7
Leominster 36
Littleton ! 4
Longmeadow 28
Lowell ! NONE
Malden 50
Manchester-by-the-Sea 4
Marlborough 1
Marshfield 3
Mashpee 1
Maynard ! 3
Melrose 2
Methuen 2

Millbury 4
Milton 1
Monterey ! 5
Nantucket 5
Needham ! 2
Newburyport 12
Newton ! 4
Norfolk 9
North Andover ! 3
North Reading ! 3
Northampton 9
Northborough NONE
Northbridge NONE
Orange 1
Orleans 1
Otis* 3
Paxton 3
Pembroke NONE
Pepperell 6
Plympton 30
Provincetown ! 50
Reading ! 5
Rockland 6
Rockport 3
Salem ! 3
Salisbury ! NONE
Sandwich ! 4
Saugus 11
Scituate 5
Sharon 1
Sheffield 4
Somerville 221
South Hadley 4
Southwick 1
Springfield ! 13
Sterling ! 4
Sturbridge ! 4
Sudbury ! 5

Sutton ! 3
Tewksbury ! 5
Topsfield 3
Upton 9
West Boylston ! 5
West Springfield 2
Westford ! 5
Westminster 26
Weston 3
Westwood ! 8
Weymouth ! 6
Wilbraham 5
Williamstown 4
Winchester 1
Winthrop 1
Woburn 4
Worcester ! NONE
Wrentham ! 3
Common Cause’s criteria for this year’s e-government awards was as follows:
“In order to qualify for an e-Government Award, the town or city must post their
governing body's agenda and minutes, budget information, general by-laws, and--if
applicable--their town meeting warrant and results.”
The 51 communities called “Superstars” (shown with this sign: !)
additionally met the following criteria:
“In order to qualify for an e-Government Award with Distinction, the town or city
must fulfill requirements above, as well as provide archived governing board agenda
and minutes, zoning by-laws, school committee agendas and minutes, agendas and
minutes for an additional board or committee, and a calendar with all public
meetings.”
Above information from Common Cause/MA website at:
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=5027715
A year ago, Common Cause MA was contacted following the distribution of their
2008 awards, with the request that their criteria include website accessibility in
2009. Executive Director Pam Wilmot, immediately agreed. Nevertheless, this
promise, which appeared sincere, fell through the cracks this year.

As for Somerville, MA, which tops the list at a whopping 221 accessibility errors,
this writer has repeatedly contacted the mayor’s designated ADA Coordinator
C.Campbell, the city’s Chief Information Technology Officer K. Vishwanathan, and
several city Department Directors to cite free resources, provide links, and
encourage collaborations with members of the community, so that the City of
Somerville can meet its obligations to provide communications and information
compliant with Section 508 standards. More importantly, the City needs to show
respect and provide equal services, programs and opportunities to its leaders and
readers of all nationalities and ages who use screen readers and other assistive
devices to enable their diverse visual, hearing, motor and cognitive abilities.
So how did the City’s officials and staff respond to these friendly notes? With the
usual menu: a “stonewall” of silence.
This .pdf linked at: www.SomervilleVoices.org
“Lowell, zero. Somerville, 221. Mistakes, that is.”
4/19/09 ef/Community Access & Inclusion Project