[vicsireland] Re: Accessible Local Authority forms
- From: Barry McMullin <barry.mcmullin@xxxxxx>
- To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:56:04 +0100 (CET)
Hi Cearbhall -
Some comments below interspersed with your message:
Agencies seem to prefer PDF for all documents. I suppose it
guarantees that the layout is unchanged when it leaves them and
appears on the target OS.
Yes. This is especially common where they have an existing paper
form, and an existing process for handling that paper form. Then
they like the idea that the electronically distributed form (in
PDF or Word) will either be returned on paper, or, if returned
electronically, can be printed on paper, and just amalgamated
with the paper forms that their existing process already handles.
In other words, they can introduce an "electronic form" but
without having to re-design their handling process in any
way. Sometimes this is justified by the claim that they have to
have a handwritten signature on the form "for legal reasons" -
but I'd generally ge skeptical as to whether that argument has
any genuine force in the vast majority of cases.
I wonder how we might change the Local Auths to see it our way?
Any ideas?
It's slow going: but generally speaking, both the authority and
the users will get additional benefits by switching to a full
electronic process. Of course, they may need to retain the
option for paper submissions, but that can be turned into just a
"re-keying" function where whatever information was put on the
paper is now entered into the same electronic back office system,
by the local authority, "as if" the client had submitted it that
way in the first place. So we choose to converge on an
electronic process rather than a paper process. But that is
(typically) more convenient for many clients, not just those with
disabilities; and the local authority should typically find that
an electronic process, where all the forms (and the resulting
actions) are stored in a database, is more reliable, flexible,
and efficient to operate than the previous paper process. But,
of course, now we are talking about a significantly bigger job -
re-engineering a whole "process" - compared to just sticking the
MS-word or PDF version of a paper form (which they already have
anyway) onto a web site. But still - everybody is going to be
looking for efficiencies, so that would be the argument to use
these days - accessibility and equality then come along "for
free"!
Keep up the good fight!
Cheers - Barry.
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