One thing most people are missing is that with HTML1.0 the www was accessible to a screenreader, there was no images, no tables etc. The only way to make it inaccessible to any members of the community was badly written or organised content.
Since that time a bunch of new features have been added and since that time these "features" have been implemented by "web designers" with out understanding the implications. Off my soapbox and look at the implications of the current court action. 1. The current argument before the court is does the Americans with Disabilities Act cover websites. This is a fairly important precedent that needs to be made/overturned (Southwest Airlines in 2002) because use of the internet has become far more mainstream in the last few years. 2. Target made the decision to fight it on these grounds not the National Federation for the Blind or it's member whose name is used because the way the court system works in California 3. Like the SOCOG vs Maquire in Australia in 2000 are fighting it in court because they think it is easier than to fix their website. It cost SOCOG and IBM roughly $500,000 in legal costs instead of less than $50,000 to fix the site. 4. From what I have been told, the Target site is a bad implementation of the Amazon e-commerce engine. If the result goes against Target, expect to see an improved version all round. If you Americans think the Disabilities Act is bad law then lobby your congress/senate/big cheese to get it changed. Me, I believe the internet is very liberating for people with disabilities as the can interact just like everybody, until some lazy or ill-informed "web designer/developer" stops them because the do not understand what they are doing. -- Nick Cowie http://nickcowie.com ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
