FC: Responses to W3C/disabled groups Web regulations, hack attacks

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[This is an interesting case of metaphor shear. Are web sites more like 
books or movies (no disabled versions necessary) or bars and restaurants 
where handicapped-accessible versions ARE required? --Declan]



> Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 15:39:17 -0500 (EST)
> From: "J.D. Abolins" <jda-ir () pluto njcc com>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: Re: FC: Disabled special interest groups ask for Web regulations
>
> The accessibility issue is big one for US federal Web site designers. The
> US DoJ is pushing for agencies to meet a federal standard to be
> established soon.
>
> My day job is with a state government agency and the accessibility
> requiremnts are sending a ripple here.
>
> Alt tags and descriptive texts are minor issues compared to what can
> happen if the more stringent accessibility standards were to be adopted. A
> biggie is the spearation of HTML from formatting/layout functions. Many
> Web designs use tables for layout and many people aren't using browsers
> that handle CSS effectively. So this means that the page designs will fall
> apart on older browsers (creating a different accessibility problem) or
> the sites will need to check for browser types and choose among multiple
> versions.
>
> For non-governmental Web sites, the question of the accessibility concept
> getting extended to most Web sites is a headache.
>
> I am for accessibility but an overly broad simplistic standard can really
> constrain Web expressions. This is very different than the access ramps
> and such in the physical world. Just soem Monday afternoon bleary
> thoughts.
>
> J.D. Abolins
> Meyda Online -- Infosec & Privacy Studies
> Web: http://www.meydabbs.com



> Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 08:31:20 -0800
> To: declan () well com
> From: Bennett Haselton <bennett () peacefire org>
> Subject: Re: FC: Disabled special interest groups ask for Web
>   regulations
>
> While I'm against regulation of private Web sites, I hope these regulations
> as they apply to *government* Web sites might force them to stop using the
> idiotic Adobe Portable Document That Exists Only To Create An Artificial
> Need For Our Software Format.  So it's not true that no good can come of
> this...
>
>         -Bennett




> From: Ron Duplantis <Ron.Duplantis () wonderware com>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
> Subject: RE: Report from UC Santa Barbara on denial of service attack
> Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 14:35:06 -0800
>
> Declan,
>
> The politech subscriber from UCSB suffers from a fundamental
> misunderstanding of broadcast journalism. S/he wrote: "All footage displayed
> shows the open access computer lab terminals available for enrolled student
> usage, which were not used to launch the 'zombie' program used in the
> attack." Being a print-journalism-trained person and a critical watcher of
> broadcast J, I've come to realize that these infotainers who masquerade as
> journalists are only interested in "some footage" to go along with their
> running commentary. It doesn't matter that the footage might be technically
> incorrect.
>
> Ron Duplantis



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