Feature: Positive linking.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

English local authorities are overstating their progress in developing websites, according to the eighth annual survey by the Society of IT Management (Socitm), published today.

Although Socitm's 2006 Better Connected survey recorded improvements in quality, it found discrepancies between English councils' self-assessed Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) statements on their ability to meet targets and the reality online.

Under one such target, English council websites should meet a demanding "AA" standard for accessibility to the visually impaired, set by the World Wide Web Consortium. In late December, more than 70% of councils said in their IEG responses that they would meet this target by its end-March deadline. But Socitm found that the "AA" standard was met by only three councils (less than 1%) when the research was carried out between November 15 and December 23 2005, while 53 English authorities (14%) met the less demanding "A" standard.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), which sets the targets, said that the time between the research and the deadline meant local authorities were still implementing changes.

But Socitm's insight programme manager, Martin Greenwood said: "You would have to be a fantastic optimist to think that even 5% will get near 'AA'." He added that councils may be making optimistic predictions based on automated tests of their websites - which can only check elements of accessibility - rather than the manual trials run by the Royal National Institute of the Blind on Socitm's behalf.

Mr Greenwood said that many councils were doing comparatively well on website accessibility, but that the "AA" standard is too high. "The government's policy was totally impractical," he said.