On Mon, Jun 11, 2001 at 09:56:19AM +0100, Jonathan Peterson wrote:
> At 18:51 09/06/01 +0100, you wrote:
> <Monday morning>
>
> >Precisely. And using Java et al is a discrimination against the mobility
> >impaired.
>
> Not to mention the way it discriminates totally against people who can't
> afford, don't have, morally object to, are too old to learn to use,
> computers.
>
> Sure, it's kind of a crap designed website, and they should have done it in
> a way that worked on more platforms (although, to be honest, I can't see a
> way round the problems - it's very hard to do client side certificates in a
> portable way, and I'd rather see them do something than nothing).
>
> However, it's not that big a deal.
It is that big a deal. The government has legal requirements for
accessibility in other areas, I don't see why it's public interface on
the Internet should be any different. If there was no ability for
disabled people to enter government buildings at Westminster, there
would be outrage from the disabled communities.
In short, it's a big deal because they made it a big deal.
I haven't looked at the certificate issue, but most of the things I've
read so far state that it's only a problem because they've made it a
problem by using non-standard technology.
> However, it's hardly the end of the world
No, but it is the start of the long slippery slope. Which most of us
hope to avoid travelling down.
-Dom
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