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ADA Doesn't Apply to Web
djmoore writes "A federal judge has ruled that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) does not apply to the Web. U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz dismissed with prejudice a suit demanding that Southwest Airlines make its website more accessible to the blind, saying that the suit would create new rights for the disabled without setting appropriate standards. Judge Seitz also rejected plaintiffs' claim that the Web is a 'place of exhibition, display, and a sales establishment,' one of the twelve categories covered by the ADA, on the grounds that the law only covers physical places." Our original article has more details.
Finally, common sense from the bar. A new law is needed to define the rights of the disabled in cyberspace. Like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act defined how Copyright functions in cyberspace, a Cyber-ADA needs to be passed by Congress to define how (and whether) the handicapped shall access cyberspace.
Dr. Joseph Hairston
Superintendent, CCBC
Maybe if blind people walked around with a magnifying glass, they wouldn't have to use those silly red and white sticks.
Or, maybe the trouble is that the blind people can't find the option to make the text bigger... that's gotta be it.
For starters, the website I run (which neither works in Lynx nor is it accessible by blind people) is solely oriented around visual arts, so no, Im not rude, discourteous or odious.
And for your information, Lynx is a terrible browser which doesnt conform to the HTML standard with any degree of accuracy - Nor does it support most of the techologies which have enriched the internet: Java, Javascript, Flash, Graphics, Animation, streaming media.
You need to get real. Calling people names because they dont go to the huge effort of making their website for both visual, blind people and text mode people is ignorant.
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Why not have firearms designed for people who have no arms?
Because then they would be called firestubs. And that sounds dumb.
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now that i have your attention, look, most /. readers, myself included despise the DMCA because precisely it infringes upon our freedom. and that is the problem. the ada specifically takes away freedom from some, to give "access" or in other words, privileges to others. how so.
by forcing others to make acocmodations for some, then you are taking away their ability to decide what they do with their time and money. you might argue that everyone has the right to access the same places, etc. but this is specifically different than denying, such as denying access to blacks in the 60's.
if i owned a diner and i said that i wasn't going to serve blacks, then i am specifically denying someone access, and by default denying their freedoms. but, by making this practice illegal, it does not require me to do anything other than open my doors to all. this does not infringe upon my freedoms at all. i am still free to think as i like, regardless how repugnant.
rights impose no burden or cost upon anyone. by being forced to do something, then we are stripped of our freedoms. if some freedoms can be taken away, then they all can.
while we should rejoice that the judge used some common sense, what is at issue is the larger idea, something that the judge didn't address, and sadly, somebody needs to. That is:
is congress, under article 1, section 8, empowered to do such things. i don't believe they are.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Excuse me, but with all due respect, youre completely wrong.
No, he's completely correct, you're completely wrong.
the website I run (which neither works in Lynx nor is it accessible by blind people) is solely oriented around visual arts, so no, Im not rude, discourteous or odious.
Yes you are - you just weren't aware of it.. which (ironically) is pretty much the reasong that others are rude and discourteous.
Lynx is a terrible browser which doesnt conform to the HTML standard with any degree of accuracy
Care to back that up?
Lynx is a great browser for text-based access. That's what it was designed for.
Nor does it support most of the techologies which have enriched the internet: Java, Javascript, Flash, Graphics, Animation, streaming media.
Ahem, HOW STUPID ARE YOU?
Of course it doesn't support visual gimmicks, as I said, it's a text-only browser.
You need to get real.
No, YOU need to get real.
The web was created as a tool for sharing information, not to let would-be artists show off the pretty graphics they can make. HTML is a platform-independant language for information exchange. It isn't a graphics language, despite the best efforts of bigots like you.
Hmm, I think I've just been trolled.