Inaccessible World Cup Website

[Nicky]

Official web sites for the 2006 World Cup are so poorly designed that
most vision impaired fans won’t be able to use them to buy tickets for
matches or souvenirs, and will have difficulty finding even basic
information like match results, according to accessibility consultants
AbilityNet.

The World Cup web sites for England’s Football Association (FA –
http://www.TheFA.com/WorldCup2006 )
and the competition’s governing body Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA –
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ )
were found to fail even the most basic accessibility requirements, the
study found. On a five-point scale, where three indicates a base level of
accessibility, the FIFA and FA web sites were rated one and two
respectively, leaving both organisations at risk under anti-
discrimination law, said AbilityNet.

The results are particularly disappointing given the landmark legal case
over the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when sports fan Bruce Maguire won
a legal case against the organisers because their web site was
inaccessible, said AbilityNet’s Head of Web Services Robin
Christopherson. “It really shows the lack of progress they have made
over the last six years,” he told E-Access Bulletin.

The web sites were evaluated using automated checkers and human
testers for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
( http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ )
the internationally recognised standard drawn up by the World Wide
Web Consortium
( http://www.w3.org/ ).

Both web sites suffered problems with their display, structure and
navigation, making even the most basic services unavailable to even
experienced web surfers, according to AbilityNet. “Many areas of
FIFA’s site were difficult or impossible to use and, despite my best
efforts, I was unable to buy a ticket…I think I'll follow the Cup on the
radio,” said one.

Typical problems included failing to enable text to be resized or the
colours of displays adjusted, poor labelling of images, use of
inaccessible Flash animations at key points, embedding pop-ups in
pages with no warning, and extensive use of JavaScript, which is
inaccessible to users of older browsers. Both sites failed to adequately
cater for people who rely on keystrokes rather than a mouse for
navigation.

Although the FA web site was more accessible than that of FIFA, some
accessibility features like audio news reports were spoilt because they
weren’t well signposted, and could easily be missed, according to
AbilityNet. “I’ll do what I did last time, and follow it on the BBC web
site,” said Christopherson.

“We have made a number of changes to the site already to ensure
accessibility but we are aware there is still more to be done and these
have been incorporated into the overall review of our web site which is
taking place at present. We do appreciate hearing from any user who
has a specific issue with the web site,” an FA spokesperson told E-
Access Bulletin.

The World Cup study is one of several ‘State of the eNation’ reports
looking at web accessibility across a range of sectors. For more details,
see the ‘News and Events’ section of AbilityNet’s web site:
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/content/home.htm

SOURCE: E-Access Bulleting June 2006

[hannson]

The FA site is just too confusing! I wonder why they don't use an external stylesheet. I think they've got a fine markup though, at least they don't have a tagsoup.

However I cannot understand why the poll is flash.

The same (visually) results is possible to do while making the site more accessible by dropping most of the JS code but I think this site needs an extreme makeover.

[Tyssen]

But I think they've got a fine markup.

You're kidding, right?! It's a mess.

[hannson]

How could I not be kidding, the whole site is inside a <form>

[simonpointer]

That's all well and good, but aside from poor commercial and social practice, non accessible websites are illegal in the UK.

So the question is this, who is going to anything about it???

I my view until action is actually taken, and we have some case law to quote, no one responsible for accessibiliuty in the commercial world is going to give a damn, or do anything about it, regardless of PAS78 or any other activity. The only thing that's going to work is a right good smack in the bank balance, and a drubbing through the press.

So common RNIB put your money where your mouth is, and get out there and drag some of these sorry and pitiful efforts into the courts. It's the only way forward, clearly nicely nicely isn't working.

[xhtmlcoder]

Doesn't surprise me in the least.

[jonboi]

(late is better than never)
Nicky i wrote a paper on the poor accessibility of the world cup website as an assignment for Janet Read back at UCLAN. It wasnt much good though.

edit: it was the yahoo one


(by the way looking at your other threads it strikes me we did top 10's a year ago)