A survey released last week by industry research firm Giga Information Group Inc. found that most of the Web's top corporate and e-commerce sites don't meet some basic industry and government standards for access, navigation and customer interaction. Failure to include such features on Web sites can result in frustrated customers and lost business for companies, said Steve Telleen, head of Giga's Web Site ScoreCard service and author of the study. Every Web site should do a set of basic things. The types of things that were missing are generally easy fixes, but at the same time, they are the structure of the Web site.
Some companies do fairly well, and some are completely lacking.
This study gives them something to make decisions on. They can look at it as a scorecard or as an analytic tool. For example, online consumers must have the option to cancel an order if the vendor can't ship a product in the time advertised, the spokesman said. Likewise, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in both the private and public sectors. Examples of Web aids for disabled people include color-coding for the visually impaired and the option to use a keyboard for those who can't operate a mouse.