Politech mailing list archives
FC: Disabled special interest groups ask for Web regulations
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 11:21:19 -0500
What this proposal appears to mean in practice is that -- assuming it becomes law -- folks with US web sites will have to redesign them to comply with "accessibility" standards. Some sites -- simple ones that lack graphics, sound, or frames -- will probably have to do nothing.
Others may have to do a lot of work, like using alt tags for text descriptions of images and figuring out a way to deal with (transcribe?) multimedia files. As someone who maintains a number of web sites myself, I'd have to do a substantial amount of work to make sure I don't run afoul of the law. Or I'd move my sites offshore.
I didn't find a no-registration URL to this Newsbytes story, though a link to it is at: http://www.newsbytes.com/search97cgi/vtopic?ACTION=SEARCH&ServerKey=Primary&ResultTemplate=nb99-qpass-results.hts&QueryMode=Simple&QueryText=handicapped&collection=CollNB00
-Declan
From: "Charles Platt" <charles.platt () gateway net> To: <declan () well com> Subject: Disabilities (2) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 08:36:42 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 Daily News Handicapped-Accessible Web Sites By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes. February 10, 2000 A number of interest groups for the disabled are asking the federal government to consider legislation that would force Web site operators to make their sites more accessible to surfers with disabilities, particularly the blind. At issue is Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which mandates that all "public accommodations" must be made accessible to persons with disabilities. A coalition of disability interest groups - led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) met today on Capitol Hill to plead their case before the Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution. Judy Brewer, director of the Web Accessibility Initiative International Program office at W3C, said the Internet holds great communicative and employment potential for the disabled, and that companies that fail to design for accessibility fail to prepare for the future.
...
As it stands, the federal government is planning to do its part to comply with the act. Next month, the federal government is expected to draft language that will require all federal department and agency Web sites to provide content through streaming audio in addition to text. The provisions would also require that all information on federal Web sites to be compatible with Braille and speech synthesis devices, and would ban touch screens, moving text or animation on those sites.
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- FC: Disabled special interest groups ask for Web regulations Declan McCullagh (Feb 14)