[LINK] Cautionary Tale of Web Accessibility Not Heeded by Victorian Government

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Thu Dec 17 10:38:11 AEDT 2009


They have bigger problems than this. It was offline many hours 
yesterday on the first day that the information was needed and being 
relied upon by the public.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/cfa-computer-failures-raise-fresh-alarm-on-day-of-danger-20091216-kxho.html

Jan

At 10:26 AM 17/12/2009, Tom Worthington wrote:
>The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI) has a set of
>"Cautionary Tales of Inaccessibility" to help promote good web design:
><http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/resources.html#casesnot>.
>
>I was contacted about "A Cautionary Tale of Inaccessibility:
>Sydney Olympics Website": <http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/socog-case-study>.
>
>Regrettably the Victorian Government Country Fire Authority Web Site may
>be added to this list: <http://cfa.vic.gov.au/>.
>
>An automated test indicates that the CFA home page failed a W3C WAI
>Version 1 test, with 1 error at level 1, 36 at level 2, and 15 at level
>3. The page also failed a W3C HTML Validation test, with 230 errors and
>37 warnings. The page also failed the W3C mobileOK Checker test.
>
>The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission identified deficiencies in
>the online distribution of bushfire information by the Victorian
>Government. Some media reports indicate that the CFA web site failed
>yesterday:
><http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/16/2773833.htm?section=australia>.
>
>Any ICT professional involved with bushfire web sites must be aware that
>they have ethical as well as legal obligations to ensure that the
>systems they provide are operating correctly. Arguing that the web site
>is not essential and that citizens can get information from other
>sources is not a valid defence, nor is arguing that they do not
>have sufficient resources, nor that they did not have the authority, or
>were ordered not to fix flaws in the system. Professionals are
>required to act in the public interest, regardless:
><http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/webethics.shtml>.
>
>The design of web sites for emergency use, including bushfires, is not a
>new field and there are some established approaches. I outlined some of
>these, along with methods of using the web for investigations, for the
>staff of the Victorian bushfire inquiry:
><http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/02/ict-at-victorian-february-2009-bushfire.html>.
>
>More in my Blog at:
>http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/12/cautionary-tales-of-inaccessibility-not.html>
>
>
>--
>Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
>PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
>Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
>Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274
>
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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