>
>
>
> > January 1, 2001
> >
> > Advocates of People With Disabilities Take Online Stores to Task
> >
> > By BOB TEDESCHI
> >
> > Just before Christmas, when the federal government committed itself
> > to making its Web sites fully accessible to people with disabilities,
> > it raised an issue that has been ignored by many e-commerce sites.
> > Namely, to what extent should Internet stores mirror their
> > bricks-and-mortar counterparts?
> >
> > While the Americans With Disabilities Act compels physical stores to
> > make themselves reasonably accessible to disabled people, courts have
> > not said conclusively whether the law applies to online stores. In the
> > meantime, many e-commerce executives say they have only recently
> > become aware of the needs of the disabled, and have begun to address
> > the situation in a way that will not heap even more economic stress on
> > their companies.
> >
> > But as e-commerce sites embark on that journey, advocates for people
> > with disabilities say they have been essentially shut out by as many
> > as half of all Internet stores. Furthermore, they say their patience
> > may run thin if reforms do not proceed a sentiment that could
> > translate into expensive and embarrassing lawsuits for recalcitrant
> > Web merchants.
> >
> > "When it comes to what's usable by people with visual impairments,
> > it's not better than 50 percent, in general," said James Gashel,
> > director of governmental affairs for the National Federation of the
> > Blind, an advocacy group based in Baltimore.
> >
> > Mr. Gashel, who is blind, said that 300,000 to 400,000 blind people
> > commonly relied on "screen reader" software and a speech synthesizer,
> > which turn words on the screen into a computer-generated voice. Some
> > software can even interpret images and hyperlinks on a Web page,
> > assuming the page is designed properly. But blind users encounter
> > problems when Web sites fail to design pages compatible with screen
> > readers.
> >
> > For instance, instead of a screen reader's describing a given image or
> > link, "a lot of times we'll go to a link and it'll say `link,' or
> > we'll go to an image, and it'll just say `image,' " Mr. Gashel said.
> > The problem, he said, is that the sites have not put descriptive
> > "tags" into the code used to build those Web images or links. Such
> > tags commonly substitute descriptive text for the images.
> >
> > Meanwhile, people with impaired motor skills are thwarted by small or
> > crowded links, which are often difficult to hit precisely with a
> > mouse. In addition, people with hearing impairments increasingly miss
> > audio messages that have begun to creep into e-commerce sites. In most
> > cases, sites that use audio have not yet incorporated closed-
> > captioning devices.
> >
> > "The things that need to be done to make a site accessible are not
> > that hard to do, but they get ignored until somebody raises a stink,"
> > said Jane Jarrow, president of Disability Access Information and
> > Support, a consulting firm. "It'd be hard to make a case for saying
> > that e-commerce sites are legally required under the A.D.A. to be
> > accessible to everyone, but it's silly for them not to be."
> >
> > "It just makes good business sense to be accessible, and there may
> > come a time where it will be legally required of them," Ms. Jarrow
> > said. "Above and beyond that, it's good p.r., since no one wants to be
> > accused of kicking a guy in a wheelchair."
> >
> > To date, America Online is the most well- known Internet company to
> > face such a reality, having been sued by the National Federation of
> > the Blind in late 1999. The suit was settled out of court in July, but
> > Mr. Gashel said the federation "retained the option of initiating that
> > suit again."
> >
> > "AOL is partly usable now, and they say they're going to make it more
> > usable," Mr. Gashel said. "We'll see if they get there."
> >
> > Andrew Weinstein, an AOL spokesman, said that when the company created
> > its latest software, version 6.0, "it was designed from the ground up
> > to support accessibility."
> >
> > "And we plan to make all AOL features and services even more
> > accessible in the coming months," Mr. Weinstein said. "But we've taken
> > some large and important steps."
> >
> > Web design experts generally concur with Ms. Jarrow, of Disability
> > Access, in saying that it is not hard to design a site with
> > accessibility in mind. But making existing Web pages conform to
> > accessibility standards is a much more vexing task. "It is a
> > monumental job to go back and retrofit a site," said Rich Fahle, a
> > spokesman for Borders.com, a retailer of books, music and video.
> >
> > Mr. Fahle said that to retrofit a site, designers must essentially
> > rewrite the code of tens of thousands of pages. But just as AOL is
> > making improvements with each new version of its proprietary software
> > and its Web site, Mr. Fahle said that Borders.com could more easily
> > address access issues in coming redesigns. "The A.D.A. has not been on
> > our radar until very recently. But it's in the mix now," he said.
> >
> > Mr. Fahle said that Borders.com already provided "some of the things"
> > disability advocates seek, like pages that can be translated by
> > screen-reading devices. Like some other Web sites, Borders has built
> > its pages that way because such an approach is useful to people
> > without visual impairments.
> >
> > People often set their Web browsers to ignore images, and thereby
> > improve viewing speed. Because Borders.com is "planning for a
> > completely new site architecture," Mr. Fahle said, "we can do more of
> > those things going forward."
> >
> >
> > A rare few sites have found a technological solution to retrofitting.
> > Take Amazon.com. Maryam Mohit, Amazon's vice president for site
> > development, said that since 1997, the company had provided a
> > text-only version of the site, not just for people with disabilities,
> > but for all customers who might prefer such a design.
> >
> > The company essentially built two versions of a page whenever it added
> > information to the site, Ms. Mohit said, until it created technology
> > to automate that process. "What a great day that was, when we rolled
> > that out," she said. "We were so happy.
> >
> > "But we're also conservative" about using design elements that
> > incorporate Flash and Javascript technologies, which screen readers
> > can have trouble interpreting, Ms. Mohit added, "because we want to be
> > accessible to everyone."
> >
> > On the other end of the spectrum are merchants that continue to build
> > graphically heavy, multimedia-enabled sites, which frequently
> > complicate or block the efforts of disabled Web users. "There are a
> > lot of sites now that go for look over function," said Charley L.
> > Tiggs, a Web site design consultant in Rochester. "That adds a lot of
> > extraneous information, which makes it hard for people with visual
> > impairments to use."
> >
> > Mr. Tiggs, who is deaf, said that it was possible to design a site to
> > be accessible to all disabled groups, but that even the e- commerce
> > sites he had designed had not lived up to that standard. "As much as I
> > work to make sure the site's accessible, ultimately it's the owner's
> > site. I can take what they want and make it as accessible as possible,
> > but if they want a feature and I can't talk them out of it, I don't
> > have much of a choice."
> >
> > Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company


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