[LINK] ABC Mobile Web Site Failed Accessibility Test

[George Bray]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 3:12 PM, Tom Worthington
<Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au> wrote:

> It is a matter for the ABC management if they want to waste public
> money in this way. But I ask they first spend money on meeting their
> legal obligations to provide a service to the wider community. They
> can then throw the rest of the money away on vanity applications to
> impress their fellow media executives. If this was a private company
> I would not invest in it, as a taxpayer I don't have a choice. But I
> am able to point out when the senior executive of the ABC may be
> acting unlawfully and ask they change their behaviour.

Tom, I think it's fair enough for you to pull up the ABC on their
accessibility work on a mobile version of their site and I'm sure they
value your contribution.  Chris Winter's fast and humble response
seems to indicate they take the issue seriously, especially when you
accuse them of illegal activity in a public forum.

I don't agree, however, that innovative media groups like the ABC
should curtail their exploration of delivery on new devices using new
software for the sake of getting it 100% right for every browser on
every mobile phone (a shambolic "platform" if ever there was one).

For as long as I can remember, Chris' innovation group have been
winning media innovation awards in Australia and I would guess this is
due to their management taking an exploratory view of today's and
tomorrow's technological capabilities - extracting a balance between
what can be done now (on crappy phones) and what could be done soon
(on better mobile computers).  I can bet they've had a few spectacular
failures too, but I submit that this should not stifle them in their
quest for pushing the envelope of media delivery.

I don't consider their developments a waste of MY 8.8c per day.


George


-- 
George Bray, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.