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Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners

for

From: Steve Green
Date: May 1, 2013 12:16PM

We have been providing accessibility testing and consultancy for the Government Gateway project on and off for several years and are in the middle of a 3-month engagement right now. The Government are taking it seriously but it is a colossal project and it is difficult enough to get the new stuff up to a high standard let alone deal with the legacy content and applications.

I should say that the offending application is nothing to do with us!

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Léonie Watson
Sent: 01 May 2013 18:56
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners

Sarah Bourne wrote:
"While I agree wholeheartedly that it's a travesty that applications like this ever saw the light of day, I think we need to be fair to UK.gov. They did not build this app - that was done long, long before the UK.gov project was started - they just have not fixed it yet. In this case, the "fix"
would have to be a total replacement. I'm sure they have a long list of old applications that need attention."

Since Gov.UK went live six months ago, 24 central government departments, the PM's office and the Deputy PM's office, and all UK embassies around the world have become part of the new platform. In the process we've published
50,000 pages of content (much of it rewritten for better readability), discarded 116,000 pages of content and files, redirected 275,000 URLs to the new site, and closed 222 sub-domains [1].

With a handful of exceptions [2], the remaining 300 agencies and public bodies will be moved to the new platform over the next 12 months or so.

The aim is for government services to meet the new Digital By Default Service Standard by April 2014 [3]. The Gov.UK design principles make inclusive design a core expectation [4], and the service design manual has information on accessibility, assisted digital, alternative formats, testing with disabled people and more [5].

Which is a roundabout way of agreeing with you Sarah. It was a travesty that websites like this ever appeared, but we're working on making it better. In public sector terms Gov.UK has moved at warp speed, with the alpha, beta and live stages completing on time and on budget. Even so, it's going to take a little while yet for the transformation to complete, and even then there'll be plenty more to do :)


Léonie.

[1] http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2013/04/30/24-departments-later/
[2] http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/12/11/exemptions/
[3] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/digital-by-default
[4] http://www.gov.uk/designprinciples
[5] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/browse


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Bourne, Sarah
(ITD)
Sent: 01 May 2013 14:55
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners

While I agree wholeheartedly that it's a travesty that applications like this ever saw the light of day, I think we need to be fair to UK.gov. They did not build this app - that was done long, long before the UK.gov project was started - they just have not fixed it yet. In this case, the "fix"
would have to be a total replacement. I'm sure they have a long list of old applications that need attention.

sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Kevin White
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 12:04 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners

Yup, and the UK government aims for a high level of inclusivity. I fail to see how this nonsense isn't subjected to a serious level of wrist slapping.

Kevin

On 30 Apr 2013, at 16:43, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> You all may find this of interest:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/universal_credit_dwp_browser_c
> ompatibility_snafu/
>
> I thought the UK had strict accessibility laws?
>
>
>
>
> Angela French
> Internet Specialist
> State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
> 360-704-4316
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://www.checkoutacollege.com/
>
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>