523852 - nih.gov / pubmed.gov -- Sniffs for "Firefox", tells other Gecko browsers "Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications."

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect)

Description

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

STR:

1) Visit URL given above in Seamonkey, a Firefox nightly (one that lacks "Firefox" in the UA string), or Camino with the "Firefox" bit removed from the UA string.

Expected results: normal browsing.

Actual results: a warning bar below the navigation bar that states, "Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here..." with a link to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/corehtml/query/static/unsupported-browser.html

Comment 1

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.23) Gecko/20090825 SeaMonkey/1.1.18

I did not see the problem as described.  

However, there are problems with the page.  The title graphic extends down and covers part of a navigation area.  I saw this even while spoofing Firefox with the following UA string:  

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.23) Gecko/20090825 SeaMonkey/1.1.18, NOT Firefox/3.5.3

The page has 36 XHTML errors and 102 CSS errors.

Comment 2

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

David: What do you see if you go to the second URL (the one in comment 0)? I suspect they're sniffing for platform when Seamonkey is detected, based on the so-called "compatibility chart" on that page.

cl

Comment 3

[David E. Ross]

I sent an E-mail to the NIH, restating what I put in comment #1.  I also indicated that they had incorrect sniffing, that they should be looking for "Gecko" and not "Firefox".  

They replied with a message that had the same link given at the end of the original Description.  When I go to that link, I see my browser identified in in the yellow box at the top of the page.  

I also had problems with Web pages for the CDC: 19 XHMTL errors, 7 CSS errors, a design that is very poor, but no sniffing.  If these problems adversely impact the use of audio browsers by those with visual handicaps, the NIH and CDC are violating Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1986 (as amended in 1998), which requires all federal agency Web pages to be handicapped-accessible.

Comment 4

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

You should be very clear about pointing out the Section 508 violations in your next e-mail, and there should definitely be a next e-mail, if for no other reason than to argue the point from that perspective.

Comment 5

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091017 SeaMonkey/2.0

The page seems to be working now with SeaMonkey 2.0 without any spoofing.  If Chris Lawson agrees, he hsould mark this "Resolved Fixed".

Comment 6

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Still showing up in Camino without the "like Firefox" portion of the UA string. Their sniffer is pretty broken; it identifies Camino's normal UA string as "Firefox 3.0.16pre)" (yes, that trailing parenthesis is there), so it's clear they haven't changed anything meaningful here.

Comment 8

[Garrett Smith]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I sent an E-mail to the NIH, restating what I put in comment #1.  I also
> indicated that they had incorrect sniffing, that they should be looking for
> "Gecko" and not "Firefox".  
> 

That is not very good advice.

The functionality of PubMed does not require browser detection. They would be much better off without it.

> I also had problems with Web pages for the CDC: 19 XHMTL errors, 7 CSS errors,
> a design that is very poor, but no sniffing.  

They're up to 34 Errors on that page and 24 Errors on the home page:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

If these problems adversely
> impact the use of audio browsers 

As mentioned in bug 531501, PubMed violates WCAG Priority 1 Guidelines by requiring javascript for search results links.

Focusing the text input box breaks keyboard navigation. PubMed is *not* Device independent. Requiring a mouse violates section 508.

Also as mentioned in bug 531501, Pubmed displays the warning bar (mentioned in the description) in Firefox 3.5.5.

It is interesting to note that the scientific study linked in this URL has two persons named Fuck.

Comment 9

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

For the record, this is still a problem. Has anyone had any luck getting in touch with an actual person at the NIH?

Comment 10

[Garrett Smith]

I got a a few responses from from NLM CustServ representative Margaret. She did not seem to understand most of what I wrote and eventually stopped replying to my responses. Though she did write:

"We hope to update our browser detection and information page as soon as we can."

Which follows comment #3, unfortunately, rather than realizing that the browser detection is a product of incompetence (such as that mentioned in comment #1 (xhtml "tag soup", 36 XHTML errors and 102 CSS errors)).

I summarized some of the correspondence in Bug 607554 - "Pubmed violates WCAG & Section 508. - breaks keyboard navigation with autofocus input and requires javascript."

Comment 11

[Garrett Smith]

(In reply to comment #10)
> I got a a few responses from from NLM CustServ representative Margaret.
The email address is [e-mail]. HTH.

Comment 12

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I commented over in that other bug, but I'll say it here for completeness: it might help to try the a11y contact they supposedly have, listed on

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/accessibility.html

cl

Comment 13

[David E. Ross]

NIH is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.  If this bug affects accessibility, go to the top and try <http://www.hhs.gov/accessibilityassist.html>.

Comment 14

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

Tested and I haven't seen any issues.