FC: Disabled special interest groups ask for Web regulations

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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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