Chris, in the main I agree with your stance on this issue. However, I don't think it's important that we know whether AOL could have made a decision sooner. While I'd like to satisfy my curiosity with regard to this issue it will be very difficult to prove. Furthermore I don't believe the law mandates that every aspect of a site be accessible. I do think owners of these large sites have to make a reasonable effort to make it so. Therefore if Curtis Chung and the AOL person are working together in good faith toward a solution we need to be satisfied with that partnership and those goals for the moment. AOL has made great strides toward the development of fully accessible web content and it appears they're interested in progressing toward the same end goal as before. It will be interesting to see how quickly we have access to the on line radio back.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Chaltain Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 10:44 AM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: Unfortunate News From America Online (AOL) Well, I fully believe that law suits should be a last resort, and we shouldn't "panic". In this case though, I'd like to point out a few things. "we will take some significant steps backward as we transition to the use of a third party player. We apologize for the inconvenience" I believe Curtis Chong when he says "Mr. Wlodkowski ... is a man of integrity and a person who is deeply committed to ensuring access to AOL's services by all people with disabilities.", but it sounds to me like our inability to access AOL or CBS Radio is considered a mere inconvenience to AOL. Since we have other streaming options, I suppose technically it is just an inconvenience, but if everyone providing on line streams and media players felt this way then it wouldn't be long before this vital source of information and entertainment would be inaccessible to the blind. I agree that as blind persons and Americans, we have bigger issues facing us, but you can always say that about any given issue. Furthermore, more and more people are getting their information on these weighty issues over the internet, and the blind should be able to do the same. "The necessity of this new business model was driven by the dramatic increase in the music royalty rates paid for Internet Radio. This action by the record labels left AOL no choice but to look for an alternative way to stay in the internet radio business. Given the business demands and accelerated transition, there wasn't ample time for us to effective address the major usability issues with the CBS Player. The AOL Radio team is aware of the accessibility barriers presented by this transition, and is committed to addressing the issue with CBS Radio once the new player interface launches on June 9." When did AOL and others know about this dramatic increase in royalty rates paid to internet radio? Is it really the case that they didn't have ample time to deal with accessibility issues? Why are they waiting until June 9th to address this issue with CBS radio? Like I said, we shouldn't "panic", although I'm not sure I've seen anyone panic yet, and we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that anyone needs to file a law suit. On the other hand, although AOL and Mr. Wlodkowski are coming clean with this issue, I don't think they should be given a free pass either. For my part, I'm not convinced they couldn't have addressed this issue before June 9. Furthermore, I don't think business needs are a justification to break the law. Well, that's just my $0.02, and I know people who are a lot smarter than me and who are a lot familiar with all of these issues are looking into this. I'm just tossing out my opinion, so feel free to hit the delete key and ignore it! -- Christopher [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
