Source: Voices in My Head

 

"I saw on the internet..." -- Your Aunt (Photo: custom-writing.org)

        

        Can you tell when a website is a bit shady? Do you know where to look for clues?

        Sometimes, websites are well-meaning -- they are just not reliable. Like in the example we are going to explore today. For this exercise, we will compare two sites that people can come across if they are trying to find information about disabilities. One is a government website. The other... Well, you'll see.

        Let's take a look at their front page. First, disability.gov:

        Look at that clean design. Very organized, nice background picture. It looks official. It makes you want to click on things. 

        Now, how do you feel about the next front page? This is disabled-world.com:

        First of all, the whole design looks like it was made in 2001. Look at that logo. I can see myself ending up here after a Yahoo search. I can hear my mom telling me to get off the dialed internet because she wants to call my uncle. The way this looks makes you feel like the information you'll find will be outdated. 

        Then, you read the introduction. Their first sentence is weird and hard to read, there's no punctuation. This was supposed to be their opening act. What can you expect from the rest of the website?

         Ok. Where do we go from here? Let's explore their menu bars. Let's call the first website ODEP and the second one DW? That will make things easier.

        ODEP's menu bar:

        

        Look at this beauty. All sorted into tabs. Easy to visualize. What do you want to know? 

        Meanwhile, DW will give you this experience:

        What... are we even looking at? Do they have topics that start with every single letter of the alphabet? Let's click on something.

        Well, they cover a lot of topics, we have to give them that. This is just part of letter "H." Are these resources reliable, though? I'll click on something. Uhhh vitamins. Done. There is a nice enough text about the importance of each vitamin, it's very thorough. But what I really want to know is where they got this information, I scroll down to find their sources and find this:

        They don't cite any sources at all! They actually just suggest that you cite them. At least, they clarify that they are just a community trying to provide general information and that you should still see a doctor if you need one. But I'm still very disappointed at their lack of citations. Even Wikipedia will provide you with sources.

        I go back to the list and I notice they have a second "tab" for every topic that says "Publications." I click on it and find what seem to be parts of a scientific paper, and they cite the author. The only problem is that the "paper" is more than 10 years old! I start clicking on the other "publication" links. 2010, 2011, 2009... They are all old. Then, I find this: 

        Yes, you read that right. They cite LENS SHOPPER as the author of this publication. Publication on their own website, that is. Here is a photo of the author:

SHOPPER, Lens et al

        Well, at this point, we know there's a community of people who can send their contributions to this website. But who is behind all this? Who manages the website and guarantees the submissions are following their guidelines?

        Enter Ian and Lynn Langtree:

        They are just a (probably old) couple that likes to help people with disabilities. They have no medical background. Whatsoever. The guy used to work as a mechanic in Australia. They don't even mention what the lady does for a living.

        Alright, this was a lot to take in. Let's go back to ODEP? I bet you had forgotten about them by now. This is their "About us" page: 

        This is just the first part of it, you'd have to scroll down to see the the rest. But you get the idea. Just look at the contents are on the left. Do they know what they are doing?

        Of course, this is a different website, with a different purpose. They will show you resources such as "disability employment statistics" and other things that are pertinent to the work they do. It's ok that they cite data they collected, because that is part of what their department does. They also have a blog and a newsletter. 

        And this is all for today, folks. I hope this post was helpful and you know a bit better now how to look for good websites. If you already did, I hope you had fun. I sure did :)