[LINK] Flaws in Federal Government Mental Health Website

[Tom Worthington]

John Hilvert reported "Federal mental health portal fails web standards"
(IT News, Jul 11, 2012 2:00 PM): 
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/308216,federal-mental-health-portal-fails-web-standards.aspx?eid=46&edate=20120711&utm_source=20120711&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=governmentit_newsletter

The site in question is "Mind Health Connect", funded by the Department
of Health and Ageing: http://www.mindhealthconnect.org.au/

I ran my own checks on the home page and found 20 errors with the W3C
Markup Validation Service: 
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mindhealthconnect.org.au%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.3

The page failed a WCAG Version 2 automated test, with 17 Level 2 (AA)
errors.

Also the page rated 0 out of 100 on the W3C mobileOK Checker (the lowest
possible score): 
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check?task=20120711051630281.mobile1&docAddr=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mindhealthconnect.org.au%2F

None of these problems are particularly difficult to fix and would be
evident to any competent web designer. They do not so much indicate a
failure of the technical implementation, but a failure of the management
to set priorities.

Perhaps the Minister needs to give direct all the Department's senior
staff to attend a course on web accessibility and online communication.
The Federal Government can't run effectively with senior executives who
are not competent with the basics of modern communication.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
Legislation

Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/