On 21 Aug 2008, at 17:56, Jon Warner wrote:
If I hosted a party, of course I would do my best to accommodate everyone's needs but to receive a court summons several days later because i had not installed a wheelchair ramp, for example, is surely wrong.
The wheelchair ramp analogy, whilst not perfect, is a useful one I think. To refer to the example you used, I don't see that anyone would expect you to install a wheelchair ramp for the sake of a one-off private party (although if you invited your wheelchair-using friends they might get a bit p**sed off if you hadn't catered for them). I guess the equivalent of that on the internet is a personal site or blog which, whilst existing on the public internet, makes no attempt to provide content aimed at the wider public, and is simply a vanity site of one sort or another.
However, a site that provides a service to the wider public (be that in the form of information, professional debate, selling a product or service, or anything else like that), then the analogous 'real world' experience would be that of a shop or library or seminar venue not installing a ramp, and that of course is a very different situation because the service provided has an implied invitation to the public as a whole. To use your party analogy, the private party would be a nightclub open to all-comers; whether they have to pay to enjoy the service is immaterial, the implied invitation to the public is there.
In the vanity site situation I guess that the more personal the site content the harder it would be to bring discrimination case (though I / suppose/ that someone could argue -- just -- that they were desperately interested in what you had for breakfast and that since the site is on the public internet they have a right to be able to access it); with the second situation, however, the 'service offered to the public' aspect means that the potential for a law suit is very clear.
Just my take. -- Rick Lecoat www.sharkattack.co.uk ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
