NZ Government Web Standards Wiki
The New Zealand Government Web Standards wiki site is a resource worth bookmarking. This shows the solid public sector commitment to web standards and accessiblility I would personally like to see everywhere.
The New Zealand Government Web Standards and Recommendations aim to help government make well-designed web sites that enable access regardless of disability, web browser, mobile device, or connection speed.
Using a wiki is a great idea. Gleaning ideas from outside the public sector is critical to the process of identifying that constantly moving bar of best practice. This is a great way of collating current thought and practice into a very useful resource. And, in itself, proof positive that web standards accessible web design (even in government) can be aesthetically pleasing!
My blurb around this issue relates to the existence of Tasmanian Government Policies on Web Publishing, which I’ve ranted about before, and which several large government sectors had only even heard existed after a conversation with me in passing! Not only that but we have a government which in most departments doesn’t get the finer print of those documents at all.
One public sector marketing manager last year directing a government web team told me they intended to put up a Flash site and face the consequences of a reprimand later when it was too late to change. Another department simply made themselves a Flash website in-house which may look slick but will pose barriers to many artists who are techno-resistant or at least techno-naive. Not to mention the impact of Flash on accessibility at large. Government websites should not be Flash.
And, again last year, another manager asked me incredulously what laws governed web site construction because they knew of none. Apparently they thought you could do whatever you like… apparently the web is considered in that department to be another paper based document delivery method and not unique to itself.
There are several government websites here that do get web standards, accessibility and usability. There are some reasonably good people out there working in this sector who are intelligent, articulate and determined to provide best practice against what is undeniably a management flow to maintain the current status quo – in staff and budget. But there are also several departments who need to trash their IT teams and identify that these guidelines aren’t just some fluff pages the government put up in appeasement. They mean something valid and require widespread adoption.
I’d really like to see more resources, and more public sector commitment, to best practice web services like that shown with the New Zealand Government Web Standards wiki. Its a role model the industry, particularly within government, should latch onto and emulate. [end of rant]
