Editorial

Can everyone access your web content?

A WORD WHICH HAS CROPPED UP frequently recently is ‘accessibility’. While not exactly a buzzword (yet) it is something that organisations cannot afford to ignore when setting up their websites and managing their content. Web content must be accessible to everyone who is likely to look at the website (within the constraints of confidentiality and privacy) whether they suffer from any disability or not. In the private sector the website is an organisation’s window on the world but in the public sector, with its emphasis on e-government and online services for the citizen, it must not only be the local authority’s window on the world but be interactive and informative and allow the citizen to make full use of its e-government facilities.

Last month (June) in IM@T Online we saw that 85 per cent of London borough websites have yet to achieve the web accessibility recommendations defined by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Priority Service Outcomes Report. But how can accessibility be achieved? Have you ever thought just what you must do to ensure that everyone can see and use your website? If not, there’s more to it than you think and we bring you a detailed article by Jamie Burton and Jenny Craven about the importance of making your web content accessible to everyone. Our lead news story about Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s new website and a case study about Liverpool also underline the importance of accessibility.

Apart from managing web content, organisations and departments within them must effectively manage their records and documents whether on paper, microfilm or in digital format. How much staff time is wasted by searching for information which isn’t where it should be? Is there a distinct lack of collaboration on records/document/content management projects and hence a lack of business success? Is the information you publish on the Internet, intranet or website managed to best effect? If not, take a look at Dave Macey’s article about multi-site management to provide a website for every occasion.

If you’re still not sold on the merits of electronic records and document management or if you’re new to the whole business of content management or have to make the business case for installing and implementing and EDRM solution, then read Jon Halestrup’s article on data capture and EDRM.

Records and document management is crucial in the healthcare industry, the National Health Service and pharmaceutical industry where patients’ records or clinical trails data can be a case of life and death. In his article Paul Attridge considers content management as the only cure for pharma’s ills.

Anne Grimshaw, Editor

IM@T Online July 2005