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Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)

From: Angela French
Date: Tue, Apr 30 2013 9:43AM
Subject: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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You all may find this of interest: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/universal_credit_dwp_browser_compatibility_snafu/

I thought the UK had strict accessibility laws?




Angela French
Internet Specialist
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.checkoutacollege.com/

From: Kevin White
Date: Tue, Apr 30 2013 10:04AM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

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

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Wed, May 01 2013 7:54AM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.mass.gov/itd

From: Léonie Watson
Date: Wed, May 01 2013 11:55AM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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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

From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, May 01 2013 12:16PM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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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

From: Heidi Jungel
Date: Wed, May 01 2013 1:00PM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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I am sure it is a colossal project and I think that steers departments
away for updates. I know I ran into this with a large project a while back
ago.
My advice is always, start with the most exposed or used
pages/applications. Then, plan the rest out piece by piece (for those
familiar with Agile, put these in backlog so that it can be addressed for
each iteration/sprint). The challenge is always working on the latest
updates and ensuring that there is regression testing for QA.

I agree that having a government site (UK or otherwise) neglect such a
task is ridiculous, but I have to wonder why they are "snubbing" it. Are
their plans for updates (especially for something since 2005)- or as this
page suggested, there is a separate website used that is more up to date.
They should at least link to the updated site or get rid of the old.



On 5/1/13 11:16 AM, "Steve Green" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

>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
>
>

From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, May 01 2013 1:23PM
Subject: Re: UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners
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The problem with the Government Gateway is that such prioritisation is challenging. Even a relatively lightly-used application might have tens or hundreds of thousands of users. The project has been going more than a decade with hundreds of developers, and some technologies (such as XHTML) have come and gone during the life of the project. There are also different product owners for different parts of the website, so it's not as easy as one person taking a look at the whole thing and deciding what to do about it.