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'Handicapped access' hits the Web

Feds to unveil standards for suppliers to make sure their sites
are fully accessible to the disabled. Commercial sites may feel
impact, too.

By Maria Seminerio, ZDNN
April 18, 1999 3:48 PM PT

He spends a lot of time chatting with friends, even at work, but
Bill Stilwater wouldn't call the connections he makes on the
Internet any sort of a luxury.

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In fact, for him, the Net is an absolute necessity, even when it
comes to idle talk among friends.

It just so happens that Stilwater is a quadriplegic. "The only
time I get out is to go to the doctor," he says. The Web has
brought a sense of "normalcy" to his life.

Stilwater, who in 1988 founded the Computers for Handicapped
Independence Program, says Internet access "makes a difference
between living and just existing" for many handicapped people.

Yet, as Stilwater notes, the vast majority of Web sites keep
users with visual, hearing or other impairments from accessing
some of their content.

But that is about to change.

The federal government, in an effort similar to that undertaken
to open up access to public buildings and public transport
systems through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is
now focusing on the Internet.

Widespread effects
Next month, it will unveil standards aimed at ensuring that Web
sites operated by firms doing business with government agencies
are fully accessible to the disabled.

Once these standards are implemented later this year, observers
say, the same sweeping changes in store for the public sector
are likely to hit commercial Web site operators, too.

The potential? Sites that use dizzying graphics will have to
consider their impact on users with visual impairments. Those
that include audio will have to make sure they provide the text
to go with it, so deaf users have full access.

Even the makers of public Internet kiosks will have to overhaul
their designs, taking into account the necessary height
requirements for users confined to wheelchairs, experts predict.

Stilwater says Internet access 'makes a difference between
living and just existing' for many handicapped people.

The standards are being developed by a little-known government
agency called the U.S. Access Board, which was responsible for
setting the ADA guidelines after it was signed into law in 1990,
said Jenifer Simpson, manager of technology initiatives at the
President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities.

The Access Board, with the help of a committee made up of
technologists and industry leaders, will release the standards
for public comment by the end of next month. The Department of
Justice has been ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno to
oversee a yearly survey of sites' compliance with the standards.

Sites buying from or selling to government agencies will most
likely have to comply with the standards within a few months,
Simpson and other experts said.


Copyright (c) 1999 ZDNet. All rights reserved.


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