NIVELES DEL TRATAMIENTO DE AGUAS RESIDUALES

External factors are factors that cannot be influenced by stakeholders or by municipalities themselves. External factors are influencing the process from the outside, for example by other organizations or by legislation. The external factors that were found by literature and experts are rules and legislation on accessibility, other rules and legislation and citizen influence.

5.5.1. Rules and legislation on accessibility

In the Netherlands there are some rules and legislation on online accessibility. According to the ‘Nationaal Uitvoeringsprogramma e-Overheid’ (i-NUP), Dutch municipalities should comply with the accessibility guidelines on AA level by the first of January in 2015 (Kinggemeenten.nl, 2013). Three out of the six cases comply with the guidelines on this level, the other ones do not comply on any level. All of the stakeholders knew about the guidelines and the rules concerning the guidelines. Not all of the stakeholders knew the exact date on which they should comply. For example, some thought they should comply on the first of January in 2014 (E), or they should comply by 2017 (C).

An important result is the difference in the opinion on legislation. Stakeholders within municipalities that comply with the guidelines were remarkably more positive about the legislation than municipalities that do not comply. It is unclear whether stakeholders are negative about legislation because it is indeed too excessive or complicated or because legislation it is to their disadvantage since they do not meet the guidelines, A stakeholder from municipality [A] mentioned the absense of a sanction for not complying with the guidelines. Some stakeholders within [B] indicated it would make their job easier if there was a fine on not complying because it would make it easier to push people to supply accessible content and applications.

Especially in municipality [B], the legislation was seen as an important factor for implementing the accessibility guidelines. The legislation was even mentioned as a weapon to convince colleagues of the importance.

The obligation is one of the weapons, or munition, that we have to enroll it throughout the organization. We can indeed use them as a weapon, because I cannot come up with the stories about my blind sister in law. People are just like small children asking “Why? Why?”. Now you can say “Because it is mandatory”.

Content editor of [B] on the importance of legislation on accessibility

Therefore, the influence of rules and legislation can not be established based on this study, but it seems like rules and legislation do influence part of the municipalities and it even helps employees to implement the guidelines by convincing other stakeholders.

5.5.2. Other rules and legislation

While interviewing the respondents, some of the respondents of small municipalities [C, E, F] mentioned other rules and legislation. Sometimes they confused the accessibility guidelines with other rules they should comply to and sometimes respondents indicated that it is very hard to comply with all of the rules that are demanded by the government. The presence of other rules and legislation, such as DigID regulations, standards for news letters, online security and other standards on digitalization, seem to make it hard for small municipalities to meet all of the demands. The presence of these other regulations can result in lowering the priority and importance of implementing the accessibility guidelines.

5.5.3. Citizen influence

This code describes the influence that citizens have on the implementation of the guidelines. Citizens can complain about the guidelines or come to the service desk when they find the website not usable enough. Two of the municipalities (A, F) indicated they made changes on the website after having remarks or complaints from citizens of the municipalities. On the other hand, when citizens do not complain, municipalities may wrongly believe their website is accessible while it is not. A webmaster of [D] indicated that they haven’t had complaints yet, which made the guidelines less important to them.

I have to say, I am not in favor of the obligation to comply. There is this principle of comply or explain, I think that is a good principle. On the other hand, I have never heard a remark along the lines of ‘the contrast on your website is not right.’

Webmaster of [D] on the importance of complying with the guidelines

Thus, citizens seem to have an influence on the implementation. The results indicate that if citizens would complain more, it would have a postive effect on the implementation of accessibility guidelines.

5.5.4. Evaluation of external factors

This chapter described the influence of the external factors citizen influence, legislation on accessibility and other rules and legislation on the adoption and implementation of accessibility guidelines. All of the described factors had a notable influence on the adoption process. Especially rules and legislation have potential to play an important role in the adoption process. Legislation can increase the perceived importance of the guidelines and therewith give them a higher priority. However, it must be taken into account that non-complying municipalities may perceive legislation and the guidelines as complex and unnecessary. The influence of other rules and legislation can lower the priority of accessibility guidelines and has thus a negative influence on the adoption process. Because of their influence on the adoption and implementation, the factors rules and legislation, other rules and legislation and citizen influence will be added to the final adoption model.