Government websites are awful and inaccessible

May 10, 2010 in for Churches, Outreach

One of the things I’m passionate about is good websites. I critique church and ministry websites, and share examples of good and bad practices because the bad is off-putting and the good is effective. A good website draws people in, meets peoples needs, and provides a positive experience.

One of the common responses I hear is that “we don’t have the skills or money to develop a good website”. While I think there are ways around this, I can understand this struggle.

Government websites don’t have this struggle. And yet they are so often appalling.

I’ve had reason to visit the website for the Australian Taxation Office recently. The only browsers they support are:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.0 or later
  • Netscape Navigator/Communicator Version 6.0 or later

I don’t understand why Safari, Firefox or Chrome are not supported – or more to the point, why no browsers that operate on a Mac are supported. Internet Explorer only represents 55% of the market – Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera comprise the majority of the 45% share.

This is basic stuff.

I then needed to register for a password.

The password was required to be “5 to 8 characters in length, with at least one (1) numeric, and same character can not be repeated more than twice”. That’s a complicated password – I’ve never been asked for a password to meet such a long set of requirements before, especially the requirement about not repeating a character “more than twice”.

I’ve then tried calling them – but that’s a whole other story! In the end, with my long list of issues, I decided to write a letter to the Commissioner.

It’s nice that you can follow the ATO on Twitter, but there are more basic needs that should be addressed first.

Churches and ministries – be comforted. Even having a lot of money doesn’t guarantee a good website :)

  • http://www.catchmedia.com.au Ben Crothers

    So true, on the whole. I work with a lot of govt clients, and two of the things you highlight – the browser thing and the restrictive conditions on the password thing – are symptoms of the same issue that a lot of govt departments and agencies have: many of them are making decisions and working with technical processes that are based on outdated information.

    Even when they are working with well-skilled teams and best-practice methods, internal politicking, entrenched processes and old legacy systems can hold them back.

    But things on the govt side are improving. They (finally) acknowledge and endorse making websites compliant with the revised version of the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0 – http://webpublishing.agimo.gov.au/Accessibility), and AGIMO has even written its own bunch of fairly sensible guidelines – http://webpublishing.agimo.gov.au/

    Some websites like http://australia.gov.au/ and http://www.austrade.gov.au/ show that govt websites are getting better. And http://www.smashingmagazine.com has showcased the website for the Museum of Australian Democracy: http://moadoph.gov.au/

    Generally, the more progressive depts and agencies move faster with improving their online presences than the more conservative and internal-process-bound dpts. The same could maybe said for churches…? ;)

  • Cam

    @Ben Crothers The Museum of Australian Democracy is good for a government site but please don’t use Smashing Magazine as a guide for successful design.

  • Steven Kryger

    Hi Cam, what’s your concern with Smashing Magazine?

  • Cam

    Steve, Smashing Magazine does have a big following so it is good for exposure. It also does help a lot of home hobby designers with tutorials, it’s a start. However it celebrates a very trendy / simplistic / copycat style of design. It doesn’t help people to innovate and create fresh work. It just gives them lists of sites and they copy bits from here and there. Lots of people won’t recognise this and that’s fine, I personally really want churches to aim higher.

  • http://www.dobox.com/ Bruce

    @Ben Crothers The Museum of Australian Democracy is good for a government site but please don’t use Smashing Magazine as a guide for successful design.