Nonprofits Policing Each Other's Sites?

Two recent articles should make all nonprofit webmasters a little more eager to keep their sites up to standards.

A Sept. 25 AP story reports that the Democratic National Committee advised its opposite number, the RNC, that volunteers who sign up at the RNC site (GOP.com) have their email addresses exposed due to a security flaw in the site. According to the article, " The addresses can be accessed with a few simple computer key strokes after logging on to the Republican National Committee Web through a standard registration process available to all users."

The GOP response is predictable: "This is another cheap political stunt not grounded in reality."

In a more serious case, NonProfit Times is reporting that the National Federation of the Blind is suing retailer Target because Target.com is not adequately accessible to the blind. NFB contends that this is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nonprofit sites might be similarly affected by this ruling. In other words, NFB might sue your organization if you don't comply with industry accessibility standards.

While we cringe at the thought of nonprofits suing each other, we do recognize that nonprofits have responsibilities to their users and would-be users, and one way or the other, nonprofits have to meet those responsibilities.