FC: More on Feds won't release handicapped-access Web regs

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

> From: "Baker, Stewart" <SBaker () STEPTOE COM>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>, politech () vorlon mit edu
> cc: "Albertazzie, Sally" <SAlbertazzie () STEPTOE COM>
> Subject: RE: Feds won't release handicapped-access Web site regulations
>
> Declan,
>
> These rules could have other unexpected consequences.  It looks to me as
> though the standards will require the release of special GUI translators for
> all programs that have GUI interfaces (oral descriptions of each GUI
> element), even if the programs can be run entirely satisfactorily -- maybe
> even better -- from the command-line mode, which is also much more
> accessible, since each line can be run through a text-to-speech translator.
> This is a real make-work requirement that could fall heavily on open-source
> products like Linux that run quite well in command-line mode.  I can't
> imagine volunteers wanting to write GUI translators for Linux when people
> without sight will almost certainly use the command line mode instead.  So
> Red Hat and VA Linux will probably end up having to do that work themselves
> to sell to the government.
>
> For proprietary products, the producers will all have to comply if they want
> the Federal Government to buy their products, which means we could all end
> up waiting longer for new versions.
>
> On the good-news front, we may actually get to see the standards before they
> take effect.  The standards will be late for sure, but I'm hearing they will
> probably be release before August.
>
> Stewart Baker
> Steptoe & Johnson LLP
> phone -- 202.429.6413
> email fax -- 202.261.9825
> main fax -- 202.429.3902
> sbaker () steptoe com




> From: Adam Powell <apowell () freedomforum org>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
> Subject: web regs update
> Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 18:05:38 -0500
>
> Declan,
> We were contacted at the end of the day with an update. See the editor's
> note below. At some point in the last 24 hours, they also posted a new
> notice on the Access Board Web site with the same "next few weeks" language.
> Adam
>
> (Editor's note: David M. Capozzi, director of Technical and Information
> Services
>                   for the Access Board, contacted The Freedom Forum Online
> by e-mail on Feb.
>                   25 and said that the regulations that by law were to have
> been published by
>                   Feb. 7 would now be published after review "in the next
> few weeks" and then
>                   "will be published in the Federal Register for public
> comment." The Freedom
>                   Forum Online will summarize and link to those regulations
> as soon as they
>                   become available.)

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