IE/Win-only FEMA Web Site
As if FEMA wasn’t taking enough flak lately, it turns out their emergency contact web site until very recently (as in post-Katrina) only allowed people using Internet Explorer for Windows in.
As Frank Hayes points out in his opinion column on Computerworld, Shame On FEMA…
…a little pain saved by a few software developers results in lots of pain for thousands of disaster victims.
Ordinarily, I’d call that irresponsible, poor development practice, maybe even incompetent. That’s when the cost would be measured in lost business.
But when this sort of foul-up locks out people in desperate need of help, it’s not just irresponsible. It’s unconscionable. It’s shameful.
Would the word criminal be hyperbole in this case?
