The other night I was talking at length to my brother in law Steve about his field of engineering and its various certifications and standards and comparing it to my field of web development. This isn't the first time i've thought about this issue, In a previous blog of mine I went hunting for professional organizations for web development.... there weren't many.
He argued that "no one is going to die if a website doesn't work in Firefox, however in my field if a wall collapses and kills someone we got a problem. Thus we have standards, rules and regulations to make sure that doesn't happen". I agree that no one is going to die if a website doesn't render right but as more mission critical services move online web standards become more important.
Steve is a member of an independent professional organization for engineers known as Ashrae which develops standards among other things for the field of engineering. In the web world we have the W3C which is independent and then corporations like Adobe, Google and Microsoft who play a part in helping to innovate and drive web standards. However nothing is really enforced unless your designing for government who demand section 508 compliance.
He said that engineering has been around for thousands of years, and web development is a new field of expertise and standards and enforcement of those will take time. So it was funny today when stumbled across two separate articles:
- http://ajaxian.com/archives/two-rulings-that-could-improve-web-accessibility
- http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071003-lawsuit-over-website-accessibility-for-the-blind-becomes-class-action.html
Both talk about Targets class action lawsuit for not being 100% accessible to the blind? I shouldn't need to state it, but I will for clarification, Target is a corporation not a government body so no standards apply right? I guess not!
My point to my brother in law is that as more services move online, whether its shopping, banking, bill payment or yellow pages there need to be standards enforced to ensure everyone, young and old, 56k or broadband, iphone or pc can access your site. The lawsuit against Target could prove to be a big factor in enforcement of standards online..... Time will tell but this will be an interesting case to watch!
2 comments:
What an interesting discussion. Sure no body will die if a web page isn't accessible, but it's certainly a disappointment when it's a popular page like Target's and you're unable to view it.
James, got here from Linkedin.
As I said, I can see instances of where people could die if a website doesn't work properly.
With more and more Govt and Private agencies moving services online, what happens if someone in a remote or regional information needs life saving information to say, treat a deadly snake bite.
And say the relevant authority has put all this info online, and cancelled its phone support line.
The only way to get the life saving info is online. The site doesn't work 'cos it hasn't been "engineered" to a standard, someone dies of snake bite.
Legal action begins.
This is a very real scenario for regional people, especially in Oz.
If more and more services go online, and that becomes the only, or default way to get them, then huge issues of liability and responsibility will definitely arise.
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