On Mon, 26 Jul 1999, David Poehlman wrote:

> with the new regulations coming online and the importance of distance
> learning and online education, I present this to you.

Thanks David.  the accessibility concerns of distance learning will be of
increasing importance as more courses are offered, it becomes more
popular, and some courses available will only be offered in a distance
learning environment.  Even without the upcoming web accessibility
guidelines to be issued by the federal government, protection is likely
possible under current law, particularly if the school is a state
university.  the ADA requires all government services to be accessible to
people with disabilities, including those of higher education.  I believe
that an argument could be made successfully that this would include
educational services using information technology.  This law along with
standards and guidelines of accessibility can be used by local activists
in supporting college students in their community to obtain access.
Schools could implement different software designs or ask the software
producer to add changes to the software that the school purchases for its
distance learning program to increase accessibility.

Just because the w3c is not totally compliant with its own guidelines is
no justification, legal or otherwise, to exclude others from learning
opportunities.

kelly


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