NEW RULES WILL PROVIDE ACCESS FOR THE DISABLED
Disabled individuals may find it easier to use federal government Web sites
now that legislation mandating that those sites make themselves accessible
to the blind, the mobility-impaired, and others is going into effect. The
new rules say all but a few federal sites must provide features such as
keyboard navigation for those who cannot use a mouse and software that reads
text aloud for blind users. One agency already implementing the changes is
the Health Care Financing Administration, which
simplified the design of its Medicare portal for easier navigation and added
multiple languages and screen-reading
software. In the time since these changes occurred, the site has had twice
as many hits. The federal legislation could be the first step toward
requiring that private-sector Web sites be accessible to the disabled. The
Justice Department has already said it believes that the Americans With
Disabilities Act applies to Web sites, and a recent lawsuit by the National
Federation of the Blind against America Online used that law as its basis.
Although AOL settled that suit, many observers are unsure whether more sites
will be compelled to improve their accessibility.
(Wall Street Journal, 21 December 2000)