Hello,
Agree on the points about the web site. Additionally, try to figure out which physical exercise group you belong to if you don't exercise everyday .. a required response to access a customized food pyramid...if the web site worked that is. Again, turning away the people perhaps most in need of the information.
Underlying is the already ongoing controversy about the Feds hiring a private PR firm, Porter Novelli that often/mainly works for the food industry, to conduct the marketing associated with the release of the new pyramid(s). Gov. sources claimed the contract was necessary because they did not have the resources or skills to proceed without assistance and needed industry support to succeed according to an Associated Press article in recent NY Times. Critics argue it is like giving a wolf keys to the hen house. From that perspective, it is no surprise that the information is difficult to access. For what its worth.
Best,
andrew
Good points, Andy.
In addition, the US Government apparently didn't
realize that some folks might actually want to look at
their new images (despite, or because of, how
confusing they might be) -- when my wife (a trained
nutrionist) tried to visit the new websites, she
failed seven times because of cicuit overload or
inadequate server capacity.
Oh, well, we all eat Mediterranean in this household anyway, but still... it would be kind of nice if the Government had a vague idea what it was doing
steve wagenseil expert/consultant OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions & Human Rights Warsaw, Poland http://www.osce.org/odihr
--- Andy Carvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/04/the_mystery_of.htmlHi everyone,
I've written a blog entry today that might be of interest. It's called "The Mystery of the Food Pyramid: An E-Government Fiasco?", and it discusses the new USDA Food Pyramid released this week. The pyramid is actually one of a dozen pyramids now available, based on a person's age, gender and level of physical activity. Unfortunately you need to go online to find out which diet you should follow, and this raises some serious questions regarding the digital divide, e-government for all, and Web accessibility for the disabled. Here are some quotes from my blog:
... I truly, truly hope the USDA does more than just this website to educate the public, though. As I've written before in my work on e-government for all, it's poor policymaking to assume that all constituents will have equal access to the Internet or the skills to use it. Therefore, you need to make sure you use alternative offline channels -- TV, radio, print, in-person meetings, etc -- to make government services and information available to the people who need it.
Unfortunately, when you look at various demographic groups, there's a higher likelihood of lower-income, less-educated people to eat a poor diet. Just the audience you'd want to reach in a public health campaign, right? Paradoxically, they're also the ones least likely to have Internet access or Internet skills. This makes it even more important to invest in large-scale offline campaigns to get health-related information directly into their hands.
Meanwhile, don't get me started on Web accessibilty for the disabled. I ran an accessibility test on the homepage and the "Inside the Pyramid" page, which describes the pyramid in greater detail. Both failed even the most basic accessibility standards; in the case of the homepage, it was because it didn't have alternative text descriptions for all the images on the homepage....
To read more, please visit here:
http://www.andycarvin.com
A permanent link for the article is here:
> Program Director
thanks, ac
-- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvinhttp://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivideEDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected]
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