It’s potentially the biggest regulation in the federal pipeline that most people don’t know about — and it’s aimed straight at the freedom to publish of the Internet. I explain at Cato at Liberty. More: Coyote (“The implications could be staggering, and in certain scenarios would basically force me to certainly close down this site, and likely close down many of my business sites.”)
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Now that alcoholism is a disability does that mean my website will have to repeat everything 3 times and then send a reminder email in the morning? And yet, as as arbiter of good taste and a concerned person, I can help you make a tasteful, conforming website with a minimum of permitting errors. Please don’t hesitate to submit your ideas.
I believed that any site that is text + html and does not use flash for navigation is already accommodated for disabled. Is there something else demanded in ADA? The article is not specific on that threat and does not link specifics.
They have tools that reads them whatever is normally printed on page.
Thinking about it, breaking copyright protections in order to accommodate to blind or deaf would still break DMCA and possibly CFAA. So those who use them might have to do something special, but that is a threat only to big businesses.
I wouldn’t worry about this too much. No matter how the Obama administration wants to apply the law, there are two big monkey wrenches to deal with.
1. The Government runs and depends on a lot of web sites themselves. If they apply the ADA to businesses, they will have to follow it as well. Good luck with that. In fact, Netflix’s best argument would have been to point out that DOJ sites are not handicapped accessible!
2. If the standards are applied, then all web sites will base themselves overseas and get around the ban that way. That would leave the federal govt and the states the only ones left.
You should have a button that makes everything in UPPER CASE. (FOR THE HARD OF HEARING.)