People visit government websites because they have to; they have a task. The question should be: “What is the best way to help the customer complete this task?”
The Web is about the informed, sceptical, cynical, questioning, impatient society. Citizens that feel empowered by the Web.
The UK has addressed this issue beautifully with: http://www.direct.gov.uk our equivalent sadly is https://secure2.gov.mt/SERVIZZ/home?l=7EA0A55B7EF96C01BBC62CAE4EDBFA1BD30ADEA3267D6161> unfortunately this is the URL, http://www.servizz.gov/ is not available nor is http://www.servizz.mt.
Before being able to access such services you need to visit one of the two offices on the island and go through a lengthy process, Its Monday, I have to wait till Saturday until I will be able to attend that suits my working schedule. In order to obtain my e-ID to access public information online, this process is outlined at: https://mygov.mt/portal/%28qliwef45ngt3ac55ropqjw45%29/webforms/howdoigetaccesstomygov.aspx#Register
From an accessible point of view I have no alternative, its only available to able those that have a way to reach an office and those that are in possession of a Maltese ID card excluding a large number of our citizens. I ask myself, if the experience is this bad to begin with, why should I bother to give up a Saturday morning?
Shouldn’t government websites be focused at helping citizens and businesses make easier, faster, better-informed decisions along with services that save the public time.
As demands grow its evident that our government website has become unmanageable. The sheer size and number of micro sites seems to outweigh human resources available to manage them.
In the beginning we had some vague strategy about getting everything online and publicly accessible. The letter ‘e’ got abused a lot and a few people talked excitedly about portals, it happened, it grew and yet the dynamics of the project have been stagnant. Nobody cares about the vision and the mission statement. The aim should be about putting this vision into action, not talking about it. Nobody cares much about the politicians vision, they’re at a government website to solve a government problem, not to eulogize the politicians.
I wonder if the Maltese government has a strategy to bring dot-GOV under control, Like you I pay taxes and I want to know this is being invested in the correct way, a way that solves our needs.
Interesting read Karl…
In fact I never got down to doing an e-ID because of the hassle of having to go to the actual office to apply for it.
If I may add to the above…
In late 2007 I had made a study to assess Accessibility across 7 different categories of Web sites, each category had a sample of 15 sites, and one of the categories being EU government sites (only the homepages were analysed). WCAG 1.0 and a draft version of WCAG 2.0 (http://www.matthewzammit.com/accessweb) were used in the study and only checks which could be verified programmatically were carried out.
Homepages for the EU governments’ category were by far the most accessible across the board, and the difference in accessibility even had a statistical significant difference as proven through an ANOVA test.
But… taking the governments’ homepages on their own, our http://gov.mt was the least accessible, both through WCAG 1.0 and 2.0! I’ve even met basic things, such as not having alternative text on images!
On the other hand, the UK’s homepage was the most successful one followed closely by Germany and Sweden.
… we still have a long way to go to have a proper dot-GOV… not to mention anything about the “Smart Island”!
Thanks Matthew
For a Web Content Accessibility Report have a look at: the Cynthia report it’s also good to point out that frames make it inaccessible to screen readers. Has anyone got an updated copy of the governments accessibility guidelines, I’ll like to see them if you have.
I remember back in 2003 I had worked on a local council site, and the site had to go through a lengthy process for an accessibility report with the infamous CIMU before going online.
I had completed all the task needed to their requirement for the site to pass this test, however the site did not pass because they insisted that I had to put an ALT tag on a background image!
Also design consistency between all sites does not exist and you have to spend a large amount of time to find something you need, if you can manage to find it at all.