Dept. of Justice Considers Web For ADA

beetle496 noted a blog entry saying "The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the Accessibility of Web Information and Services Provided by Entities Covered by the ADA (i.e., State and Local Government Entities and Public Accommodations). You can read the fact sheet, or the entire notice. In short, the Department is seeking comments on their desire to revise regulation to 'establish specific requirements for State and local governments and public accommodations to make their websites accessible to individuals with disabilities.' The Department is seeking specific comment on many things including the standards they should adopt, and if there should be any exemptions for certain entities (e.g., small business) before they publish their Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This is amazing news! The impact that this will have for individuals with disabilities cannot be overemphasized. It is time for our digital society to forever include individuals of all abilities. The period of public comment is open for 180 days."

Comments

Sick of Political Correctness

[ground.zero.612]

Hi, I am deaf. I would like to sue EMI, Sony, Universal etc. so that they make music more accessible to people such as myself.

Hi, I am blind. I would like to sue Sony, Universal, Warner, and especially Playboy, etc. so that they make movies and magazines more accessible to people such as myself.

Hi, I am a human. I would like to sue God, the Creator, etc. so that they make me into a space dwelling, universe traveling, immortal, so that everything in existence is more accessible to people such as myself.

Hi, I'm ground.zero.612. I would like to say that my life is filled with what I consider my fair share of hardships and disappointments. I have learned that I am different than others, and that my abilities and disabilities do not always mesh.

Everyone cannot do everything they think and dream. IMHO it is a wasted endeavor trying to appease people's pipe dreams. In other words "oh no the handicaps can't use something designed from the ground up to be used by the not handicapped."

On a related note, I am looking for seed capital to begin the design and production of my quadriplegic accessible extension ladders. Any takers?

Re:Sick of Political Correctness

[XanC]

Dignity went out the window when you put on your Spandex shorts and tootled around town on a kid's toy.

Re:I know businesses that ended because of the ADA

[Ephemeriis]

In my hometown, a hardware store couldn't afford to put in an ADA-compliant ramp

If you can't afford an ADA-compliant ramp you've got bigger problems than wheelchair accessibility. It isn't like they're crafted out of solid gold or anything like that. Most of the family-owned places around here just have simple wooden ramps.

he ended up working for nearly minimum wage at Walmart and couldn't afford to put his daughters through college. Another result: his two employees lost their jobs.

Some people just seem to forget that the world doesn't owe them anything. If you're unemployed, that's nobody's problem except your own. Move to a city where you can find a job.

The landlord lost a tenant (the store sat unoccupied for 2 years, in part because everyone knew that the first business to move in would get sued for not having an ADA-compliant ramp.)

Seriously?

Nobody could afford to build a ramp? Not the landlord, none of the prospective renters? None of them?

But where do we stop in defining disabilities? If I have autism, does that mean I can sue a store for being too noisy and crowded? If I have a peanut allergy, does a Thai restaurant have to give you a hermetically sealed room and special food stored, prepared, and cooked away from everything else?

Of course the line has to be drawn somewhere.

And maybe it isn't drawn in a good place now.

I don't know. I'm able-bodied and could do just fine without the ADA right now, so I honestly haven't given it much thought.

But guidelines about ramps and braille lettering are useful for an awful lot of people. Hell, you don't even have to be straight-up disabled to appreciate a ramp... When I was moving out of our old apartment it was awfully nice to be able to wheel a dolly in and out, right up the ramp. And when I broke my leg it was far easier navigating ramps with my crutches than stairs.