Public water systems across the U.S. are required to annually issue a water quality report (more formally, consumer confidence report or CCR) and make it publicly accessible. CCRs are ineffective at communicating risk and safety information to the customers for several reasons: they are hard to find and poorly advertised, present complex scientific data at a high reading level, and are written predominantly in English. In this paper, we analyze a representative sample of 268 CCRs to measure their accessibility along three dimensions: adherence to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 standards, their Flesch Reading Ease score, and the availability of translation to non-English languages. Our analysis found that water utilities of all sizes, customer demographics, and geographic locations scored poorly on each measure of accessibility. However, accessibility scores were correlated with utility size, racial composition, and the presence of bilingual speakers. As one of the few mandated non-crisis communication to customers, CCRs present a meaningful opportunity for water systems to share information about water quality, public health, and community concerns. Accessible and easy-to-understand CCRs can achieve all that and build customer trust.

中文翻译：

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自来水公司的消费者信心报告难以获取


美国各地的公共供水系统必须每年发布一份水质报告（更正式地说，消费者信心报告或 CCR）并公开发布。 CCR 无法有效地向客户传达风险和安全信息，原因如下：它们很难找到且广告宣传不佳，以高阅读水平提供复杂的科学数据，并且主要以英语编写。在本文中，我们分析了 268 个 CCR 的代表性样本，从三个维度衡量其可访问性：遵守网络内容可访问性指南 (WCAG) 2.0 标准、Flesch 阅读轻松度分数以及非英语语言翻译的可用性。我们的分析发现，各种规模、客户人口统计和地理位置的自来水公司在各项可达性指标上得分都很低。然而，可访问性得分与效用规模、种族构成和双语使用者的存在相关。作为为数不多的强制与客户进行非危机沟通的方式之一，CCR 为水系统提供了一个有意义的机会来分享有关水质、公共卫生和社区问题的信息。易于访问且易于理解的 CCR 可以实现这一切并建立客户信任。