1．Definition of Web Accessibility

Web accessibility means that all people including senior citizens and people with disabilities have equal accessibility to information provided on the web. This includes those who have restrictions to the usage of websites and people who are not accustomed to using the web （refer to FY2010 revision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Public Website Operation Manual）.
The Public Website Operation Model of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications was revised in 2010 in accordance with the 2010 revision of Japan Industrial Standards （JIS） for web accessibility （JISX8341-3:2010）. The initiative requires public organizations including the central and municipal governments to advance measures to upgrade its websites in accordance with JIS standards.

2．Measures taken by MEXT

The MEXT website aims for the continuous improvement of web accessibility according to JIS standards so that all people have equal accessibility to the internet.
MEXT has continued to implement personnel training on web accessibility since 2008. MEXT has updated its internal manual on web accessibility in 2009 based on the JIS draft revision proposal. Moreover, MEXT conducted an investigation in 2011 on the level of its website content correspondence to JIS standards, in addition to implementing improvement measures from 2012 on the cautionary points found. MEXT has formulated a web accessibility policy to enable all people to have equal accessibility to information provided on its website.

3．MEXT Website Web Accessibility Policy

The MEXT website aims to improve web accessibility based on JIS standards in compliance with “AA level”.

※Definition of compliance…

This notation method is based on the “The first edition of guidelines on the level of compliance to JIS X 8341-3:2010 web contents” decided by the information communication access council web accessibility infrastructure committee.

-Range of correspondence
Documents created and managed by the contents management system （CMS） under the MEXT website （contents provided under the www.mext.go.jp  domain）

-Non applicable items
 Searching sites which utilize external services
 Images provided by external services
 
-Web accessibility measures currently implemented

-Current level of correspondence
-Implementation of JIS AA compatibility assessment in March 2015 over its main 70 pages.
-Questions or comments on compatibility assessment results shall be sent via link: Inspection Certificate/“Comments on web accessibility”.

-Results of target output and conformity assessment
-Situation of target output:  Level AA   92%~99%

-Main cautionary points found upon conformity assessment
The following points were highlighted as a result of the compatibility assessment. For any problems using the MEXT website, please contact the following department, or send comments via link: Inspection Certificate/ “Comments on web accessibility.”

MEXT will successively work to improve the points mentioned below:
-The dropdown menu on the top page is accessible using a mouse, but is not accessible using a keyboard. Please use the link: ***.
-Some PDF documents are inaccessible.
-A portion of voice and video recordings do not have captions, alternative contents or voice guides.