Blackmoor Vituperative

Jim Rapoza at eWeek takes FEMA to task for creating a non-standard web site that is not accessible in standard browsers.

…a surprising number of people respond to my missives against non-compliance with a “Who cares?” attitude. If Web developers want to build sites that only work with Internet Explorer, so what? If people don’t want to use Internet Explorer or are using a non-Windows operating system, they don’t have to do business with that Web site. I mean, come on, it’s not like it’s some kind of life-or-death emergency.

But what if it is a life-or-death emergency?

(from eWeek, FEMA’s IE-Only Form: Just What Katrina Victims Don’t Need)

It turns out the the FEMA aid application form is not accessible to standards-compliant web browsers. In fact, it appears to only be accessible to Internet Explorer (which no one should be using, including FEMA). Not only is this embarassingly bad web design (which is bad enough), it’s also a violation of Section 508, the accessibility law that applies to Federal agencies.

This isn’t 1999. Section 508 isn’t new. Web standards aren’t new. It does not matter whether this was done by federal employees or by contractors: the contract should have stated (and probably did state) that the site would have to adhere to both Section 508 design guidelines and to applicable web standards. Just about every government web contract in the last six years has had those requirements.

This is nothing less than another blatant, avoidable, ridiculous screw-up at FEMA.