Darebin libraries website
Jun 13, 03:35 PM | CommentHaving experienced many online offerings from local governments and local councils in the past, as well as having worked for a few, I had pretty much resigned myself to accepting that most are going to be rubbish in terms of antiquated code using tables for layout and inline styles, bad interface design, little or no regard for usability or accessibility and, more often than not containing outdated content.
Whatever the reasons for this, be it that the website is perhaps considered a low priority, that there’s no dedicated resource allocated to the website or that it’s simply too hard to get people to agree to a redesign, the sites’ users seem destined to lose-out.
This has always amazed and concerned me considering the broad, diverse user base that these organisations must have, and the importance of the content to a lot of people.
Target accessibility lawsuit given class action
Oct 9, 01:27 PM CommentThe legal case against Target in the US has been in the headlines again this week as a federal judge in has just granted “class action status” to the lawsuit.
Like many in the web industry, I have been aware of this case since it first came to light back in early 2006 (when a 24-year-old student, along with the American National Federation for the Blind filed the suit, alleging the Target Corporation is breaking the law by failing to make its website accessible and usable for the blind), but I wasn’t too clear on what this recent “class action status” meant, and what the ramifications might be.