Disabilities website to get accessibility makeover

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The revamp could provide an example of adherence to accessibility standards to other government sites

By Stephen Bell | Wellington | Wednesday, 18 April, 2007

Weka, a public-sector disability information website, is to be reorganised to improve content management and accessibility and usability of the site by the disabled.

The revamp could provide an example of adherence to accessibility standards to other government sites. Weka is in part operated by a division of the Mid-Central District Health Board, Enable New Zealand, which is not close enough to core government agencies to have to adhere to government web standards aimed at enhancing accessibility and usability.

A recent tender request says the reorganised website should meet “best practice” accessibility standards.

The Weka site (www.weka.net.nz) is jointly run by Enable New Zealand and the NZ Federation of Disability Information Centres, a collection of regionally organised bodies that provide services to disabled people. The site aims to further the government’s disability strategy. The Weka acronym stands for “What Everybody Keeps Asking”.

Sources in the disability community say the present website needs improvement in accessibility and a lot of the information on it is out of date.

A central feature of the tender is the supply and implementation of a content management system (CMS).