Re: how to get corporates to change?

> things to consider regarding the website design of
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

My impression of the BBC's web sites is that your problem is that they
don't behave like a single corporation.  I believe the centre does have
an accessibility policy, but the further you get away from the centre,
the more you get to standard commercial web site values, e.g. material
sourced from the regions generally has very little central influence.
Even the London national part of the organisation devolves web site design
a great deal.

E.g. material sourced from the regions may not have a low graphics version,
whereas material sourced from London is likely to have one, but it will
vary from department to department as to whether it actually works.

(You get a similar thing with UK government sites; although the centre
is pushing accessibility, a lot of government departments out-source their
web sites to commercial organisations that use commercial design values.)

Note that I think it is a good thing that there is devolvment in the BBC.
I don't think out-sourcing of government sites is good though.  Government
sites are one of the few cases where accessibility and "business" objectives
tend to align, but by out-sourcing they get a design based on normal
business, where management don't see them as aligning.  (In the immediate
context, it means that, even if you can work out how to contact the webmaster
for a government site, you will reach someone who has no accessiblity brief.)

Received on Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:56:44 UTC