The Canadian government was recently ordered by a judge to make their websites accessible to the visually impaired, which surprised the hell out of me, because so many of their websites and programs are so painful to use, in my opinion, that I figured that they had to be that way to comply with someone’s misunderstanding of online accessibility.
Of course, I’m not terribly surprised that they’re appealing the ruling, though I’m disappointed in the potential precedent they might set by arguing that there are other ways to get at the information without using the internet.
To be clear, it’s 100% possible to make modern, efficient, and even attractive websites that comply with accessibility guidelines for the visually (and otherwise) impaired, especially for government sites, which aren’t exactly pinnacles of web 2.0 or gaming.
The thing of it is, if you’re applying for a federal grant that involves online work, they make accessibility mandatory. That’s a requirements doc I pulled from a random government program (Heritage Canada in this case) but I’ve seen it before in client work proposals. It doesn’t explicitly say accessibility, but when it says things like “All core website content and functionality must be accessible in any browser, although its presentation may vary… all users, regardless of their browser, must have access to the site’s basic content and functionality,” well, that’s kind of what this lawsuit was about…
It’s always kind of amusing to see companies and organizations get hit with their own rules, like when Bell Canada got nailed for violating the do not call list that they maintain or record labels being charged with piracy, but as I said earlier, I hope this appeal will get squashed, or better yet, never get filed. Yes, I realize that it’s my tax dollars at stake, but it’s also a significant beachhead in the online space that needs to be protected.
Photo by Christian Heilmann.
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