Any comments?
----- Forwarded message from "Mahesh T. Pai" paivakil@vsnl.net -----
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 23:46:31 +0530 From: "Mahesh T. Pai" paivakil@vsnl.net Subject: please comply with standards To: contmngr-sfio@sb.nic.in Message-ID: 20040609181631.GA5348@nandini.home
Dear Sir(s),
This has reference to the home page of th Serious Fraud Investigation Office, (http://www.sfio.nic.in/).
The bottom of your page mentions that ``Site optimised for 800 X 600 monitor resolution, java enabled, IE 4.0 or above.''
I feel that as an institution which has to interact with the public it is most improper of you to `optimise' your pages for a browser for a particular operating system. Firstly, it is in no way, `optimisation'. You are simply using public funds for carrying advertisement for a particular company.
You ought be aware that the users of the world wide web use diverse operating systems and browsers. In order to make things easier for both developers and users of the internet, the W3C consortium (World Wide Web Consortium) has laid down certain standards for web pages; and it would have been appropriate for you to conform to those standards.
Also, you will appreciate that the Internet is a useful medium for people with disabilities to communicate with the outside world, and compliance with the W3C standards automatically ensures that people with disabilities can access your site (for example, using a screen reader). You will appreciate that as an organ of the government, and an organisation discharging Sovereign functions, you have to adhere to certain standards of fairness and propriety.
In fact, on verification of your site, except for minor variations which affect accessibility for the visually disabled, the pages are by and large compliant to the W3C standard. What, then, is the objective of recommending use of a specific browser?
I hope that you will understand the issue in its proper perspective, and ensure that your pages fully conform to W3C standards and further, remove references to specific brands of browsers.
Hoping early compliance with this request,
Thanking You, Sincerely Yours,
Mahesh T. Pai, Advocate, `Nandini', SRM Road, Cochin - 682018. Kerala State.
----- End forwarded message -----