The new version of the New Zealand Government Web Guidelines is out for consultation – get in quick as consultations close on 31 October 2006.
The whopping 132-pages of Guidelines have been reviewed and rewritten by a working group of several government agencies, with input by industry accessibility experts and the Usability Professionals Association.
The underlying standards to achieve accessibility outcomes have not changed significantly from the previous version; the emphasis has been on removing duplications and dated material and making the standards more usable.
Part of the consultation involves a proposal to call the new version (V3.0) the ‘New Zealand Government Web Standards and Recommendations’. The proposed name change is based on feedback from government agencies acknowledging the importance of the Standards.
The State Services Commission (SSC) are also exploring presenting the New Zealand Government Web Standards as a Wiki. The Wiki is a prototype that will be available for public consultation in late 2006.
SSC say they would appreciate specific feedback on the proposed name change and are also looking for good practice examples that could be incorporated into the document (that would benefit other agencies when they are considering website development).
You can supply your feedback through web.guidelines@ssc.govt.nz
2 responses to “New Govt Web Guidelines”
I’m currently going through the spec with my highlighter .
I’d be interested to know your opinion about it: I’ve got some real pet peeves. Namely the rediculous ‘. ‘ requirement for the end of alt and title attributes!
Has this ever been proven to be helpful, for anyone? None of the screen readers I have used gave a shit about it – and why would they? The browser must be smart enough to recognise the end of a alt attribute, take a small pause, and then proceed with the next piece of text.
All this requirement does is muddle my beautiful html with eroneous, presentation junk.
Anyone have any experience of this requirement being useful?
My co-worker’s main annoyance is the ‘[‘ access-key requirement.
While use of a 216 colour palette is no longer stipulated as a Standard (you might even be able to thank me for that), one of my pet peeves that it still appears in the suggestions http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/web-guidelines/web-standards-v3/chapter6.html
When I check website user stats the computers using lower than High Color (16 bit) is zilch – even the most modern mobile devices use thousands of colours. But I agree with the requirements for sufficient contrast and catering to colour-blind people.