For URLs to all the testimony at the hearing see the info after this article.
Internet, Disabilities Act Examined
> By Janelle Carter
> Associated Press Writer
> Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000; 4:57 p.m. EST
> WASHINGTON -- The constantly-evolving technology of the Internet makes it
> difficult to develop regulations to apply the Americans with Disabilities
> Act to the World Wide Web, a top Internet industry official told Congress
> on Wednesday.
> But advocates for the disabled argued they were being denied access to the
> "window to the world."
> "The Internet is not just a window on the world. More and more the
> Internet is the world," Gary Wunder, a University of Missouri programming
> analyst who is blind, told the House Judiciary subcommittee. "It is where
> we shop and it is where we make our living."
> Dennis Hayes, chairman of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, said the
> industry has made progress but continued education is needed. He asked
> Congress for money to fund research on ways to bridge the gap.
> "The application of the ADA to the Internet in some kind of
> 'one-size-fits-all' mandate is not the right approach," Hayes said. "The
> answer to the problem of accessibility is not regulation, but rather
> education and participation."
> The hearing came as lawmakers begin to look at the impact the 1990 ADA law
> has on the Internet.
> The world has become more computer savvy since the law's enactment, and
> many Americans use the Internet daily to communicate and do business.
> Disabled groups complain that the technology has grown without them.
> In November, the National Federation of the Blind filed a federal lawsuit
> against America Online Inc., charging that the world's largest Internet
> service is incompatible with software programs that convert text to audio
> or Braille.
> Wunder told of how he had to give up his job as a manager because of the
> lack of compatible software.
> "What we need is achievable. What we're asking is reasonable," Wunder
> said.
> Some people have questioned whether applying the ADA to the Internet would
> stifle its growth and hinder free speech exhibited through the millions of
> existing Internet web pages. Others questioned how to make ADA regulations
> apply when the Internet exists beyond the United States.
> Walter Olsen, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, expressed
> concern that regulations would result in "hundreds of millions" of
> webpages being torn down.
> "It would be hard to find a better way to curb the currently explosive
> upsurge of this new publishing and commercial medium than to menace
> private actors with liability if they publish pages that fail to live up
> to some expert body's idea of accessibility in site design," Olsen said.
> © Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
***
Dennis Hayes
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/hay30209.htm
Gary Wunder
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/wund0209.htm
Dr. Steven Lucas
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/luca0209.htm
Judy Brewer
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/brew0209.htm
Susyn Conway
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/conw0209.htm
Elizabeth K. Dorminey
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/dorm0209.htm
Peter D. Blanck
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/blan0209.htm
Walter Olson
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/olso0209.htm
Charles J. Cooper
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/coop0209.htm
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