Is it a real law or regulation? Has it been enforced? To whom does it apply?

I think it's a good idea for government information sites (although I'm not sure about the cognitive abilities part, because I'm not sure it's a good idea to try to simplify things like government regulations and what not, because it's too easy to simplify them right into being wrong). I'm not so sure about applying it to private web sites. Would that mean Amazon? Would it mean me?

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000

Answers

This certainly a valid and interesting question. Had I done a bit more homework I may not have posted it in the first place. As it stands I still firmly object to the "blanket" application of any regulations and/or laws regardless of their intent.

I'd like to hear from someone who was directly involved in inplementing the required changes to a site. Barring that, at least someone who witnessed the changes in a site they use regularly.

DinoNeil

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000

URLs! URLs!

Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/

The Clock is Ticking http://www.alistapart.com/stories/ticking/ - with relevent links to the legislation in question.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000

Well... it certainly smacks of something the gov't might try. Haven't heard anything on the matter though, except here - the regs and guidelines for the gov't and contractor websites that we get are far more interested in security than accessibility, and oversight (currently pretty dismal) for the security issues, as well as keeping track of all the FOIA rulings is more than enough to occupy current resources.

Which actually, is one reason I could think of for the gov't to push this - make the site, by regs, very very simple, and half the military sites out there now will disappear if they guys can't play with their pretty whizbangs. That would ease the security issue considerably.

There are a *ton* of regs out there regarding documentation that are in place, but currently regarded as unenforceable by the courts - i.e. you can tell an government agency they have to have all their business email filed, with a logical file structure in place to preserve it as official records (a current reg no one follows) - but unless you allocate funds for the time and labor to do that, you can't enforce it.

I would suspect that if this did go through, the same thing would apply. Technology has greatly increased the number of documents floating around (including websites), but there is no increase of funding to handle them.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000

One thing I remember about disabled-access laws from my daze as an office manager is that workplaces aren't required to conform to the ADA if they have fewer than fifty employees. That's how Omni, my old company, go away without blowing thousands of dollars installing an elevator. (Though they do have a wheelchair ramp and all the offices are on the first floor, and the restrooms must be accessible because they're big enough to roller-skate in.) For that reason I doubt that any such regulation would apply to Bad Hair Days.

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-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000