E-government implementation: Transparency, accessibility and usability of government websites

Abstract

In several European countries decentralization has promoted the creation of Regional Governments (RGs) with high levels of competence and responsibilities, such as promoting good governance and sustainability. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), and hence, the adoption of e-government has contributed to the adoption and dissemination of government transparency in a usable and accessible way. In this chapter, we study the transparency, accessibility and usability of websites of Spanish RGs. As a first step, we want to know if the implementation of e-government has improved transparency about sustainability. In a second step, we want to know if citizens perceive the advantages of the use of governmental websites as a medium of transparency assessing the accessibility and usability of RG’s websites. The results show that the most information disclosed is environmental information. Furthermore, RGs information disclosure is determined by citizens’ perception of accessibility and usability.