MoHaG - Slashdot User

Is browser compatibilty a human rights issue?-> 0

Submitted by MoHaG on Tuesday September 02 2008, @02:11PM

MoHaG writes "After someone noticed that South Africa's Independent Election commission's blocks any browser other than Internet Explorer on Windows, a complain was filed with the Human Rights Commission.

It poses an interesting question: Is the accessibility website of an important element of democracy a human rights issue?

The complaint says that, "unlike the vast majority of websites on the world wide web, and unlike other South African government websites, this website [the IEC website] is not accessible to viewers, except those who have purchased a particular software product from a specific software vendor.
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South African Election website requires Windows

Submitted by MoHaG on Wednesday June 13 2007, @03:34AM

MoHaG writes "South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission's website requires Internet Explorer which is only supported on Windows. Users of operating systems other than Windows have no way to access the website, other than forging HTTP headers. Users of alternative browsers are redirected to a page instructing them to install Internet Explorer. Users of Linux and Mac OS has no way to follow the instructions given on the page.

With the government planning to switch to open-source software, this means that not even government employees will be able to get information critical to ensure democracy in South-Africa."