Towards a Web for Everyone

July 27, 2007. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Usability and Accessibility for the Web International Seminar.

The spread of digital technology has opened new opportunities, challenges and responsibilities for governments.

The web allows us to offer more efficient and innovative services and to share information thoroughly and openly, and it makes it easier to involve citizens in the decision making process.

The web can be the most democratic tool a government has because it allows for direct communication, overcoming geographic, cultural, economic and hierarchical barriers, as well as those faced by people with disabilities. 

But technologies do not do this on their own. They can either reduce or widen the gap between those with more and those with fewer opportunities, and they can enrich or hurt the relationship between citizens and government. It is the duty of the creators and administrators of these technologies to guide them and improve people’s quality of life.

As administrators, our objective is to create and maintain websites that are both useful and easy to use for the widest possible audience: usable and accessible websites. We believe that government, academia and the private sector should work together to achieve this objective.

 

Our commitment

1. To ensure the democratic access to government information and services by everyone, including users with disabilities, by embracing W3C recommendations
2. To facilitate the creation, archival and management of information with systems that are accessible
3. To ensure that information and services are easy to find, discover and use, following best practices in web design and development
4. To ensure the transparency of public information, and specifically information on the use of public resources
5. To facilitate and promote citizen participation in governmental decisions, as well as collaboration between governments
6. To promote the convergence of systems in the national, state and local levels so that users can navigate between them without barriers
7. To take full advantage of information technologies to better serve citizens
8. To make content easy for everyone to understand by following Lenguaje Ciudadano (plain language) recommendations.
9. To promote the ideals and concepts expressed in this manifesto
10. To continuously improve the methodologies referred to in this document

Commited States and Municipalities

José Natividad González Parás
Governor of Nuevo León
Dámaso Fernández Sepúlveda, Representative

Honorary witnesses

Observatorio Ciudadano

Política Digital

Universidad de Monterrey

Asociación Mexicana de Internet

Sistema de Internet de la Presidencia