The ITF website has been re-launched as www.itfglobal.org with a host of new features, quicker performance and an improved user experience. Work to upgrade the site began in the spring of 2004 and is ongoing, with further improvements planned.

ITF web manager, Eric Spry, said: “The new website will provide our affiliates and visitors with a comprehensive and regularly updated online resource. We will continue to make changes throughout 2005 in our efforts to deliver content to our many users in the easiest and most efficient way possible.”

Five foreign languages have now been fully integrated into the site, allowing French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Portuguese speakers to view pages and documents in their own languages. Key content is also being translated into Arabic, Turkish, Dutch, Tagalog, Chinese and Indonesian.

Site navigation has been improved and simplified with the addition of a new “search” tool to locate specific content, a site map, and a “related items” feature at the bottom of each page that links directly to associated content. Transport International is also fully available online in five languages, starting with issue 19.

Other new features on the site include a bulletin board where users can post messages on a variety of topics and a secure extranet area that allows ITF working groups to access documents, and share ideas. Accessibility for users with a low-speed internet connection has been improved with text-only versions of all pages now available. The new site has also been designed to meet global web accessibility criteria and will work with industry-standard screen readers, so the blind or visually impaired can access content.

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) at www.etf-europe.org and the ITF Americas office at www.itf-americas.org are also part of the new ITF web system, allowing better integration and sharing of internet resources around the globe.

In 2004, the ITF website received nearly 10 million hits, with 2,200 average daily visitors to the site.ITF launches new global website