Towards the end of last year I wrote an entry urging readers to sign an online petition. The petition aimed to highlight the poor standard of accessibility in UK Government websites following the launch of a disappointing new website by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) in May 2006.
In what I’m starting to percieve as “bloomin’ typical”, the Government response to this e-petition leaves the main question unanswered: how is the Government going to ensure that the websites they launch will be accessible?
Smokescreen
The Government’s response implies that their current strategy will ensure accessibility, but the sub-standard DTI website contradicts that claim.
In the response, they mention that their Digital Strategy “is to be implemented by [the] DTI” (my emphasis). The Government’s Digital Strategy has been around since March 2005 and includes the following statement of action:
Tackling social exclusion & bridging the digital divide
Action 7: Improve accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled
The new DTI website was launched in May 2006, over a year after the Digital Strategy was published. So, the DTI website fell short of this action, despite the fact that the report outlining that strategy was jointly written by the Prime Minister’s Stategy Unit and the DTI. They fell short of meeting their own standards.
For me, this fact doesn’t support the idea that the DTI is capable of supervising the cross-government review of the Digital Strategy mentioned in the response to the petition. Ian Lloyd raises this point for discussion over at Accessify:
Typical Government Response? Yup.
But what can you do? Time for another petition?! Or is that just another waste of time for the general public?
4 Responses to “Government responds to website accessibility e-petition”
Another petition would be interesting if written carefully. In either case the government response was pathetic and didn’t address the set petition question at all.
We should petition the government to read their petitions more clearly. Or something.
They completely ignored the substance of the petition:
The Prime Minister’s Digital Strategy is great but the petition was not about that. Nor was it about implementing the “strategy” or “reviews” of the strategy. The petition specifically asks for quantative measures regarding WCAG 1.0 AA conformance.
There is an avoidance of specific commitments — either through ignorance or cynicism — and a woeful absence of detail, substance or time frames.
What I would prefer to know is which minister is taking responsibility for the issue, when it will be corrected, what is the process for ensuring accessibility from this point on and to what standards or measures? Call me cynical, but that’s what my clients would want, and what I would provide without having to be asked. Is it too much to expect from my government?
I agree. Perhaps we didn’t get quite as many signatures as other petitions, but an actual answer would have been nice. While some of the e-petitions have recieved a well-considered response, this one seems to have simply been dismissed.
In fact, judging by some of the responses, the online petitioning system just feels like an effort to shut the public up – or allow the government to mass-mail signatories to say “See? We’re right!” – rather than allowing our voices to be heard.
Perhaps we could question Jack Straw about all this?!