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Governments spend huge resources on custom computer systems, developed by contractors to government specifications under government monitoring. Although a number of these systemsinvolve defined usability efforts, a majority of the development efforts have little requirement for system usability. For these systems, usability generally relies on the awareness, skills, and perseverance of the developers. HCI practitioners face an exceptionally daunting task in government environments, because funding allocations for the various development activities are clearly defined very early in the development process. A relatively poor understanding of usability issuesby most development and acquisition managers usually gives the HCI effort short shrift. Government HCI practitioners met at a Special Interest Group (SIG) Session at CHI’94 to discuss the challenges they face in their work assignments and to explore …