Summary

  • A January 1998 announcement said Internet Explorer 4.01 could not be certified for FAFSA on the Web because a JavaScript incompatibility put data accuracy in doubt.
  • The service had removed the need to install a separate application, while making the exact browser and operating-system combination part of its supported path.

The student had an application to complete. The browser had an exam to pass. On 23 January 1998, the U.S. Department of Education explained why the latest Internet Explorer, version 4.01, was missing from its list of certified browsers for FAFSA on the Web. A JavaScript incompatibility meant the department could not guarantee the accuracy of the data. Internet Explorer 4.0, on Windows 95 or Windows NT, had passed. Progress had acquired a rather awkward decimal place.

FAFSA was the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Putting it on the Web promised a useful escape from installing a dedicated program before even starting the paperwork. The department's November 1997 letter confirmed that the service had opened on 30 June that year. It offered online instructions and a search for the school codes applicants needed. A browser became the front door to a consequential administrative transaction.

The department was also working on what happened after a student entered. Its 1998–99 design replaced a displayed form with an interview: grouped questions, additional help at troublesome points and improved logic for skipping questions that did not apply. Usability testing had informed the changes. Software could take some of the burden of interpreting the form off the family filling it in.

That extra intelligence gave compatibility a job beyond making the page look respectable. The January announcement said each production browser version was tested to establish that data checks worked correctly and that information reached the application's database accurately. The browser was participating in the transaction. A familiar screen was only the visible part of the arrangement.

The February 1997 project announcement had already made browser capability a condition of access: applicants needed support for SSL 3.0, the encryption protocol specified for the project at the time. Windows and Macintosh machines could participate if their browsers supplied that support. The January certification list added finer distinctions. Supported Netscape Navigator versions varied by operating system; Navigator 4.04 was still being evaluated. A product name alone was too coarse a description of the tool in the student's hands.

For IE 4.01, the department said it had reported the incompatibility to Microsoft and was working with the company. The notice supplied no count of damaged submissions or lost aid. Its decision concerned whether the browser could be certified to handle the data reliably. That distinction locates the actual story: the agency was drawing the boundary of the service it could support.

The Web had spared applicants a separate software installation. It had also made the agency's service depend on software releases outside its own building. Someone still had to check the whole journey from an answer on a screen to a correct record in a database. In early 1998, a browser upgrade arrived at that checkpoint and failed its entrance exam.