Here in the Great White North we’re deep in the middle of election season. Joe Clark [no, not former Prime Minister Joe Clark] and Craig Saila have compiled an “independent, nonpartisan review of Canadian political Web sites” that finds a massive disconnect between the parties running for leadership, and official accessibility standards for government sites.
Point by point, Clark and Saila have discovered that all political sites tested:
- do not meet Web standards, meaning their underlying code is grammatically incorrect
- probably work correctly in only one browser, Internet Explorer for Windows, even though not all Canadians use that browser
- usually don’t bother identifying the language in which they are written (English or French)
- are somewhat inaccessible to people with disabilities
While the sites in question are not official GoC sites, and thus not subject to the official government guidelines, it’s tempting to wonder how seriously one should view the campaigns of those who don’t attempt to meet the standards set by the government they wish to represent.