The website of the World Glaucoma Association was nominated by Web Pages that Suck as one of the worst in the world. Glaucoma is a visual impairment and websites are supposed (and in many countries legally obliged) to be designed to meet the needs of disabled people.
This was a great example of how not to create a website. The website had frames, obscured text, whizzy animation and weird Monty Pythonesque people jostling and peering over the top of the site. Listen to the downloadable Glaucoma Hymn! It’s surreal, soothing and unnerving all at the same time. Vincent Flanders made a short and amusing video commentary on this website back in 2006.
One slight redesign later…
This website changed in early 2009. The glaucoma hymn and the Monthy Python heads are gone – presumably because the Association realised they were being laughed at. You can no longer click on an animated winking eye to play an Elvis song.
But the difficulties for visually impairmed users remain. Take the big buttons saying Now! and Click here to Register! There’s no ALT (alternative) text on those images, so a blind person using screen reading software won’t have a clue how to apply to attend the congress. There’s also no ALT taxt on the image that announces the congress so they won’t even know it’s happening! This is still the worst nonprofit website in the world.
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I just remembered another truly awful charity website: Community Careers.
It’s got head-spinning Flash and animated gifs; an unnecessary splash page; frames; menu images at the wrong resolution; squashed-up text; need I go on?
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on September 3rd, 2007