The Problem of Digital Disability in E-Municipality: A Study on Metropolitan Municipalities

Abstract

The distinctive feature of the digital society is that it can practically use information and communication technologies in many areas of life, and the digital literacy rate is relatively high. The fact that most of the bureaucratic processes in e-government and e-municipality are transferred to virtual environments increases the importance of such topics as digital literacy and digital disability. One of the basic skills of the digital society is the relatively high rate of digital literacy and the increased ability of the members to use information and communication technologies. For this reason, the absence of digital disabilities and the design of web tools for individuals with disabilities are significant in digital accessibility. Suppose web tools are not designed for people with disabilities. In that case, it is inevitable that a new form of disability, which is unique to the digital society and called "digital disability," will emerge. The primary purpose of this research is to examine the web pages of Metropolitan Municipalities in Turkey according to digital disability criteria. For this purpose, the web pages of 30 Metropolitan Municipalities were analyzed in terms of digital accessibility, digital disability, and access performance. Within the framework of the research problem, sampling was determined according to the sampling method. Descriptive statistics and content analysis methods were used to analyze the data collected from the sample. The research findings show that the web pages of Metropolitan Municipalities have some inadequacies in digital accessibility and performance indicators.