Australian eCensus 2011

The 2011 Census forms arrived with a code for the eCensus. At www.census.gov.au, there was a link to both an accessible version designed for screen reader devices and a standard version.

The e-Census was introduced at the 2006 Census, when I provided a detailed analysis of the "eCensus: Australian Bureau of Statistics Web Based Population Census Form". A quick check of the eCensus web page for 2011, shows the XHTML 1.0 Transitional code has one validation error:

Line 31, Column 142: there is no attribute "autocomplete"

…lcomeForm" method="post" autocomplete="off" onsubmit="return openKiosk(this.ta…

It took 15 minutes to fill in the on-line form (which is reasonable), with no difficulties encountered.

One question was about use of the Internet:

Question 59 Can the internet be accessed at this dwelling?

• Include any internet service regardless of whether or not paid for by the household.
• If more than one type of connection in dwelling, select the most frequently used type.
• For more information, see the Census Guide or press the Information Button for this question.

No Internet connection
Yes, broadband connection (including ADSL, Cable, Wireless and Satellite connections)
Yes, dial-up connection (including analog modem and ISDN connections)
Other (including Internet access through mobile phones, etc)

An amazing amount of effort goes into designing even such a simple looking question. I attended the 2007 ABS ICT Reference Group meeting where this question was discussed.