Bill Frezza And The ADA
Feedback and Frezza's Response

Illegal Web Pages? ADA Has Gone Too Far 
From: Internet Week - March 13, 2000 - page 26

Regarding Bill Frezza`s column "The ADA Stalks The Internet: Is Your Web Page
Illegal" (Feb. 28, page 33), this has got to be the most ridiculous thing I
have ever heard. 

What does the ADA want? Giant fonts? Closed captioning of MIDI files? I
suppose you can do it for something like streaming video, but how can they
possibly declare a Web page illegal? That`s like saying your Word document or
ASCII text file is not handicapped friendly. Of course not. It`s not supposed
to be. 

If anything, the ADA should be going after the Internet software or computer
hardware, not marked up text pages. But even then it should be optional to
comply. You can`t outlaw basic content. 

You can perhaps make some content on Web pages optionally available for the
handicapped, but it makes more sense to make equipment for the handicapped
that would deliver the content to them. Have the browser speech-enabled or
design Braille printers - there are probably devices like those alreadyÄbut
to declare a Web page illegal unless it bows down before the ADA is
ridiculous. 

Miro Hodyl
Software engineer
Mundelein, IL


Forced to Shut Site

I heard about the ADA`s campaign a couple of months ago. At that time, there
was talk that legislation was being introduced to make government Web sites
adhere to the ADA`s requirements. 

At our school district, the Web is a great low-cost method for us to provide
information to the community and the families we service. This legislation
will force us to bring down our Web site. We do not have the money or staff
to run a site that meets all the requirements of the ADA. 

The information I received said that whatever is on the Web must also be
available in print and audio tape. In addition, there would be a need to have
controls to turn animated graphics on and off, as well as strict adherence to
color schemes. 

What a great way to reduce home/school communications. 

Michael McDermot
Technology coordinator
Kimberly Area School District
Kimberly, WI


A Basic Right

I take great issue with Bill Frezza`s column on the ADA. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act is civil rights legislation. To frame it
as anything less is offensive and ignorant. We don`t expect corporate and
private largess to address most of our basic rights. The right of access to
public information is no less fundamental. 

The ADA has had a profoundly positive effect on the day-to-day lives of
millions of people. Many of the primary benefactors have not been persons
with disabilities. A few examples: Delivery people and bicyclists use curb
cuts and ramps more than persons with wheelchairs. People learning to read
benefit more from closed captioning than do the deaf. 

These things would not have happened without legislation. They`re examples of
accommodations necessitated because of man-made barriers created in our
environment. The same is true for why Web content, at least that which is
paid for by tax dollars, should be expected to adhere to reasonable levels of
accessibility. 

As the mainstream business world migrated to graphical operating systems,
there were a few bumps in the road, but not too many. During most of its
existence, the Internet was extremely accessible, too. It`s only in the past
few years that the electronic frontiers have worsened for the disabled. The
problem is not with the user, but rather with incompetent Web authors who
routinely post content that is not standards-compliant. 

The W3C HTML 4x specification mandates meaningful ALT text tags. It is ALT
text that allows an image to be machine-readable. That ALT text content makes
a page accessible to someone who uses a screen reader. It is also that ALT
text that is read by search engines, indexing spiders and Web crawlers, as
well as cell phones. You would think that it would be common sense to include
such content. It seems ludicrous that such accommodations are in need of
being legislated. 

The WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are not just a good idea,
they should be the law. There are just too many examples of poorly coded
sites. 

Frezza wrote that Internet accessibility is "a noble goal and a fascinating
technical challenge."  He could not be more wrong on either point. Access to
information is a basic rightÄnot a "noble goal." The "technical challenges"
aren`t all that tough. 

Bruce Bailey
Webmaster for the Maryland
State Dept. of Education
Div. of Rehabilitation Services
Baltimore, MD


Read more feedback regarding Bill Frezza's recent column on the Americans
with Disabilities Act as well as his rebuttal. 
http://www.internetwk.com/ADA.htm