FEMA's website - registration works with IE6 ONLY

brianleahy · #1 September 7th, 2005, 11:33 PM

FROM http://www.macintouch.com/newsrecent.shtml

FEMA is adding insult to injury in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

[Gary Mullins] My 90-year old mother sat out Katrina in her brother's home next door in Diamondhead, MS, about eight miles from the Mississippi coast where the hurricane's eye hit. They survived without injury but with massive destruction to their homes, and my mother has lost most of her possesions. I brought her to my home in California yesterday and this morning went to the FEMA website to register to start the assistance process.
To my dismay, our Federal emergency agency requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, and only IE 6, to use the website for disaster assistance. I don't want to be political about this, but this smacks of a serious leadership failure that the use of the Internet is reserved for only the Windows community. I will reserve my opinion of the administration for the op-ed pages, but I want to vent my dismay about this to the rest of the Mac community. I hope other Mac users let their political reps, newspapers and other media know of this marginalization. [...]

[Todd Del Priore] 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."

I tried the latest Safari, IE and Firefox, none work. Heaven help all the Mac users in the South... assuming they have power.

Talk about a faustian bargain -- IE6, or no help for you...

**mdnky** · #2 September 8th, 2005, 03:13 PM

That's illegal technically. They're plainly violating accessibility requirements set forth by Section 508, which must be meet by ALL government agencies in the United States (federal to local).

Of course they'll disagree and spout off about the phone number being provided...

Every one needs to send a complaint to the webmaster. Visit http://www.fema.gov/feedback/#website for the address.

**fryke** · #3 September 8th, 2005, 05:59 PM

While they can say that for other users there's the phone number, it's plain _stupid_ to only support the one browser with the most security issues. Official things like this one should at the very least support a browser that is available to all users of modern computers. Like mozilla.

brianleahy · #4 September 8th, 2005, 08:22 PM

What amazes me is:

1 - any halfway competent web designer could create a form that'd work in nearly any browser

2 - It almost had to take a SPECIAL EFFORT to make that form ONLY work with IE6?

andychrist · #5 September 8th, 2005, 09:18 PM

They reported this story at the end of today's Marketplace (from American Public Media.)

**mdnky** · #6 September 10th, 2005, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianleahy

What amazes me is:

1 - any halfway competent web designer could create a form that'd work in nearly any browser

2 - It almost had to take a SPECIAL EFFORT to make that form ONLY work with IE6?

It's a government organization...competence and common-sense seem to be a lacking feature for many/most of them when you think about it. Definitely involved a 'special effort' on the part of their web monkeys...actually, now that I think about it monkeys could have done a better job.