This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by Ruth Burchell [log in to unmask] EASI SUBSCRIBERS And another Technology based article for access to the WEB. Ruth Burchell [log in to unmask] /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ LOOKING FOR A TRULY HIGH-SPEED INTERNET EXPERIENCE? Then visit Alcatel.com and see what makes us the world's leading supplier of DSL solutions. Alcatel, world leader in DSL solutions. http://www.nytimes.com/ads/email/alcatel/index.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Advocates of People With Disabilities Take Online Stores to Task http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/01/technology/01ECOMMERCE.html January 1, 2001 E-COMMERCE REPORT 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." The New York Times on the Web http://www.nytimes.com /-----------------------------------------------------------------\ Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the most authoritative news coverage on the Web, updated throughout the day. Become a member today! It's free! http://www.nytimes.com?eta \-----------------------------------------------------------------/ HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson Racer at [log in to unmask] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [log in to unmask] Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company