New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standard
New Zealand
In 2010 New Zealand became the first country to make WCAG conformance mandatory for government websites; the standard now requires …
Good practice
Imported
★ 96
★ 92
★ 92
★ 88
Ecuador's WCAG 2.0 AA Web-Accessibility Mandate — a Binding Law With Near-Zero Measured Compliance
Ecuador · Quito · See the Ecuador profile · See the Quito profile
Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 61% 68/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
Ecuador adopted a binding WCAG 2.0 AA web-accessibility standard in 2014, enforced via self-certification from 2020 — yet a peer-reviewed 2017 audit found none of 44 evaluated university websites compliant, averaging 5.0/10 with 8,970 accessibility errors.
0 of 44
Universities meeting RTE INEN 288 (July 2016)
5.0 /10
Average accessibility score (July 2016)
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- Servicio Ecuatoriano de Normalización (INEN) / Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de Discapacidades (CONADIS)
- Period
- 2014–ongoing
- Keywords
- digital government regulation, web accessibility standards, disability rights, ICT governance
Context
Ecuador's standards body INEN adopted WCAG 2.0 in January 2014, and RTE INEN 288 (2016) made Level AA compliance mandatory for public-service websites, phased in via Level A by August 2018 and Level AA by August 2020, enforced through a conformity certificate.
Results
A 2017 academic audit tested 44 of Ecuador's 47 accredited university websites in July 2016 using the automated Examinator tool. None met RTE INEN 288: average score 5.0/10 (range 2.7-7.9), with 8,970 individual accessibility errors across 54 error types, 59% in the 'Perceivable' principle alone.
Conclusions
A strong, dated legal mandate did not, by itself, translate into compliant websites in the sector studied; more recent government-wide compliance data was not found in public reporting.
Implementation
- Indicative cost
- Medium (€50k–€500k)
- Time to results
- Long (> 3 years)
- Staffing & skills
- INEN (national standards body), CONADIS (disability-equality council), public agencies and university IT teams
Conditions for success
- Automated and manual conformity testing
- Government-wide compliance monitoring beyond universities
Common failure modes
- Legal mandate not translating into measured compliance in the audited sector
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-08-28
- Servicio Ecuatoriano de Normalización (INEN) / Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de Discapacidades (CONADIS) — accessed 2026-08-28
- Universidad de Alicante: Accesibilidad Web — Ecuador (marco legal) — accessed 2026-08-28
- Acosta & Luján-Mora (2017), Enfoque UTE — Análisis de accesibilidad web de universidades y escuelas politécnicas del Ecuador — accessed 2026-08-28
Attachments
Similar practices you may find useful
Pragya Prasun v. Union of India — India's Supreme Court Makes Digital Access a Fundamental Right and Orders Accessible e-KYC
India
On 30 April 2025, India's Supreme Court ruled that digital access is intrinsic to the Article 21 right to life, …
Nationwide Accessible Kiosk Mandate
South Korea
A 2021 disability-discrimination law amendment now requires accessible self-service kiosks nationwide from January 2026, mandating voice guidance, braille/raised buttons and …
Cambodia's National Information-Accessibility Training — Equipping 139 Provincial Officials to Serve Citizens with Disabilities
Cambodia
UNESCO, Cambodia's Ministry of Information and CDPO trained 139 provincial officers from 24 provinces on disability-inclusive information access, building on …