Note to Australians: In Case Of Terrorism, Be Sure To Be Using Internet Explorer

by , 9:00 AM EST, December 31st, 2002

In Australia, the government doesn't want to hear your cries, unless you are using the latest version of Internet Explorer. At least, that's what an article in the Sydney Morning Herald says. The writer noted a block of text at the bottom of the Australian government's anti-terrorism Web site that states: "This site is optimised for Internet Explorer 5 and above at an 800 x 600 resolution on PC. For Mac users, the Netscape browser is recommended."

Being as this page is paid for by Aussie tax dollars, the Morning Herald asks if it would have been so difficult to find someone that could code to standards. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

The Australian government has set up a anti-terror Web site to educate people about the dangers which it claims the country faces.

However, the way the site is designed not all of its features are visible to every class of viewer.

The site, paid for by the taxpayer, is apparently customised for only one class of Web user - a person using Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer 5.

One does not have to deduce this - it is boldly printed at the bottom of the front page of the site (which, by the way, has no title at the top apart from "Homepage", an indication of amateurish Web design).

The fine print also says: "We are endeavouring to make this site more compatible with other browsers", - for which, no doubt, the taxpayer should be grateful.

[...]

If this were an ordinary government Web site, one would probably pass on a story like this. But when a site says: "This Web site provides a single access point for national security information from the Australian Government," is it not mandatory that it be standardised so that every Australian Web user (or even world + dog) can view it in its entirety?

You can read the entire article at the Sydney Morning Herald's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is an issue we have long railed against, so we are delighted to see a mainstream newspaper take up the cause. The referenced article touches on this, but we wanted to stress that it is nothing but sloppy coding from inept and lazy HTML coders that can make a site not work in a particular browser. It is our opinion that government agencies from any country have no business making a site be reliant on any particular brand of browser or computer. Instead, they should be reliant upon basic standards, with any deviation in the content being ones of formatting, and not availability.

In this case, Mac users aren't entirely blocked, though that has happened on other government sites in the past, but we thought it pertinent to share the moral outrage of our cousins from Down Under.

Sydney Morning Herald: National security site raises questions of accessibility