Proposed ADA Requirements May Affect Public Internet Use

An anonymous reader writes "The Associated Press is reporting on federal officials who want to expand the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to require accommodations by public websites, call centers, and technology providers. Hearings are scheduled in Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco. New rules could be implemented as soon as 2012. 'For more than a decade, the Justice Department has interpreted the ADA to apply to websites that offer goods and services. But now that idea could be clarified, and timetables for compliance could be set. ... The Justice Department is considering making it clear that some personal, noncommercial content would not be affected.'"

Comments

NOT A HELLUVALOT....

[PortHaven]

"Website operators should be asking themselves what they could be losing in market share because they are "unwittingly putting up barriers," Brewer said."

NOT A HELLUVALOT....

I am sorry, it's not our fault that you are blind or deaf. We do the best to accomodate. But it's starting to get ridiculous. I am finding myself growing more and more anti-handicap.

OMG....am I evil?

Maybe I should be. But when a start-up business can't get off the ground because they need to build a giant handicap bathroom that will take a huge chunk out of their available space. When the blind associations trash the Kindle as a textbook because the menus aren't translated. (Never mind the fact that the Kindle will read the contents of the textbook, something a paperbook cannot do.)

The cost for most businesses to make their sites ADA compliant will never be recouped.For thousands of years blind people have been unable to read books. And deaf people unable to listen to music.

We've done a lot as a society to aid those who are handicap. But it gets to a point when you keep demanding more, that we're eventually going to toss you into the road.

--

Most business' have a phone number. Seems to me that this should be adequate on many levels. If you're blind, maybe you should talk to a sales staff at Target.com rather than try to browse.

I have a number of websites. Most a small websites with very limited use. To demand that I make them ALL ADA compliant is ludicrous.

I mean, do I want the darkness of my movie broken up by a deaf person sitting in front of me with a screen display sub-titles. Heck no....I hate it when someone whips out a cell phone, which in such darkness is nearly blinding.

---

"If you were to take these things away from the general population - things like watching a movie, surfing the internet, making a 911 call - there would be an outcry," Bristo said. "All we are asking for is what other people take for granted."

But we're not. And you're not the general populace. And to expect to be able to everything that the general populace can do is just silly. And to demand the general populace enable you to do so, is wrong.

I am all for reasonably assisting the disabled. But there is a point at which I will cease to care. Is it that I am just mean or cruel, or unsympathetic? No...

I am just one who thinks people need to accept their limitations. And not expect everyone around them to bend over backwards to them. Ask for help. And I'll help. Demand it from me, and I'll ignore you.

Re:Fine with me

[icebike]

So you are fine with totally redesigning the net under government edict.

I'm not.

Re:Fine with me

[AK Marc]

And you are fine with restaurants serving food in pig bowls in the back alley for the "undesirables" whether they be black, blind, or legless.

I'm not.