The signing of the first Manifesto on Usability and Accessibility for Mexican Government Websites meant the conclusion of the UAWEB seminar, held in the University of Monterrey (UdeM) campus.

After two days of activities, Mexican states and municipalities agreed to a 10-point document that will guide them in creating more useful and simple websites.

The closing ceremony was presided by the Communication Advisor for the State Government and General Coordinator of the seminar, Raymundo Pérez Lancón. Dámaso Fernández Sepúlveda, General Manager of Technology, Information and Communications of the State Administrative Office read the 10 commitments of the Manifesto signed by representatives of 23 states and 3 municipalities:

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

The seminar had keynote speeches given by Lou Rosenfeld and Paulo Saavedra, who took on the subjects “A Brief (and Practical) Introduction to Information Architecture” and “Managing Government Web Projects for Citizens”, respectively.

Six other national and international experts shared their experience in two sessions of tutorials: Marcelo Barbosa, from Brazil; Javier Velasco, from Chile; Sarah Swierenga and Sharron Rush, from United States; Salomé Flores and Luis Aceves, from Mexico. Closing the seminar, Raymundo Pérez, Communication Adivisor for the State Government, thanked the speakers for their participation and presented them with their certificates. Raymundo Pérez emphasized in his message the strategic importance the web has taken for governments and was confident that this event had been a productive experience for everyone.