Caritas
[March 2003] Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the Catholic agency for Justice, Peace and Development, focusing on Sustainable Human Development, Justice and Peace — Advocacy and Education, Emergency Relief.
The website is extensive with a great deal of information tucked away in the dozen or so sections listed in the navigation frame. You can read newsletters and reports, buy publications, join a mailing list, find out about various campaigns — both within and beyond New Zealand. There are sections for schools and for appeals, and the full text of the Treaty in both Maori and English. With so much information it could take weeks to read all the available pages.
One of the most important things about the website though is that it is updated frequently — recent items include information about Iraq. Keeping a website current is a challenge, but a worthwhile goal.
Unfortunately, though, if you haven't finished reading and would like to Bookmark a page so you can return later, you'll find that the Bookmark simply brings you back to the Home Page. The site uses a now very outmoded technique of frames where clicking a link in the navigation bar on the left loads information in on the right hand side, but the Address Bar doesn't change to reflect the information you're now viewing.
In that case though you could use the Site Map or perhaps the Search function to find the relevant page again. The Search seems very effective and there are clear instructions on how to get good results.
Using frames also has an impact on the page titles which also don't change to reflect the content.
If you visit the site with images off you'll probably be a bit mystified as there is no alt text to replace the missing pictures. This is one of the most common website mistakes and one of the biggest barriers to making a site actually usable and accessible. The missing alt text could be put right immediately to make the site more friendly for those visitors who don't receive the pictures.
The layout is clear and clean and the site loads quickly. Some headings are coded only for looks though which reduces their accessibility. Big, bold text "looks like" a heading for sighted visitors but doesn't work like a heading for those who can't see the page. Listening to a page works much better when headings really are headings and not simply bold body text. It does seem the site is in a period of transition with some pages using better coding than others.
The site suffers from an occasional "click here" and link text which doesn't stand alone, meaning wasted search engine rankings and reduced accessibility. If link text contains your key words and concepts then search engines will rank your site higher. Moreover visitors such as blind people who may navigate purely from a list of links taken out of context can still get around.
By and large though the many links are well handled. An exception is the text links at the bottom of the Home Page which need to be separated by a dash or similar to stop them from running together.
This is a useful and extremely informative site which could maximise its usefulness and usability with some tuning up and a move away from frames-based navigation. It's definitely worth a visit.
[http://www.caritas.org.nz]