SkaroffBlog

To follow up on my open source posting, Boing Boing reports that FEMA’s website, and specifically the assistance registration pages, can only be viewed using Internet Explorer 6.0.

FEMA’s website for disaster registration requires:

“In order to use this site, you must have JavaScript Enabled and Internet Explorer version 6. Download it from Microsoft or call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) to register.”

This means Windows Firefox users, and all Linux and Mac users simply can’t access the site. While not exactly an open source issue (this one is specifically a matter of accessibility and standards compliance) it chillingly demonstrates the danger in allowing our government to only use products from one vendor. Especially in mission critical applications such as emergency management, everyone – including federal agencies – must go to great pains to make sure that every internet user, no matter their choice of computing platform, has access to the necessary resources.

[And before any nerds get on my case, I am aware that this page doesn't properly validate. Philly.com doesn't properly URL-encode ampersands in their RSS links in the Sixers and Eagles links in the sidebar. D'oh.]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 2:48 pm and is tagged as Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.