Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 9, 2005 1:21:43 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],=20
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Subject: [MediaAct] No Aid from FEMA Without Windows.
Want to file for aid online? Better run Windows
FEMA site requires assistance seekers to use Internet
Explorer 6
By Gary Krakow,Columnist
September 6, 2005, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9231271/
The good news: If you've survived Hurricane Katrina, the
government will let you register for help online. The bad
news: But only if the computer you're using is running
Windows.
Yes, it turns out that to make a claim with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's Individual Assistance Center,
your Web browser must be Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 or
higher and you must have JavaScript enabled. It even says so
right on the page itself. One problem: IE6 isn't available
for Macintosh or Linux computers.
Complaints about government Web sites requiring Microsoft
software aren't new, of course. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC
joint venture.) But this is one instance that struck
particularly hard for some.
Mac user Gary Mullins wrote Monday on the MacInTouch Web
site:
My 90-year old mother sat out Katrina in her brother's
home next door in Diamondhead, MS, about eight miles from
the Mississippi coast where the hurricane's eye hit. They
survived without injury but with massive destruction to
their homes, and my mother has lost most of her
possessions. I brought her to my home in California
yesterday and this morning went to the FEMA website to
register to start the assistance process. To my dismay,
our Federal emergency agency requires Microsoft Internet
Explorer 6, and only IE 6, to use the website for
disaster assistance. I don't want to be political about
this, but this smacks of a serious leadership failure
that the use of the Internet is reserved for only the
Windows community.
When reached Tuesday afternoon, a FEMA spokeswoman said they
were aware of the problem and had passed it along to their
tech guys to try to resolve the issue. The spokeswoman I
spoke with declined to venture a guess on when the problem
might be solved, however.
I tried myself to access the FEMA site (
http://www.fema.gov/register.shtm) using the latest version
of Mozilla Firefox on a Windows PC, a brand new Mac mini and
a Linux laptop. No luck. Whenever I got close I was directed
to a page which told me to try again later or We are sorry
for not being able to proceed your requests because you have
failed our tests. Trying with Opera, Netscape or Safari
wasn't any better.
If you're running Mac OS X, you could run Virtual PC 7 and
then access Windows and Internet Explorer. Some people also
have been having some success using Firefox and the User
Agent Switcher extension and setting it to IE6. I tried this
and was able to get a little further in the process, but
stopped before actually having to fill out a form. I'll leave
that to those who really need help.
At this time, I'd say the safest way for non-Windows users to
register for assistance is to call FEMA directly at
1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362) or for the hearing/speech
impaired at TTY: 1-800-462-7585. FEMA says the phone lines
are staffed 24/7.
* * * * *
PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS!
Nan Rubin
Community Media Services
121 W.=A0 27th St.=A0 # 302
New York, NY=A0 10001 USA
212-463-7411
www.nanrubin.com___
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Mike Weisman
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