Pushing for Net Access San Francisco Examiner - March 26, 2000 By: Jenny Strasburg Activists point out that big profits await Web sites that accommodate the disabled http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/03/26/BUSINESS12362.dtl Caption: Earl Johnson, Founder of the Sun Microsystem's Accessibility Team, works to promote an Internet open to all users. Caption: Joyce Hakansson, Executive Director, Alliance for Technology Access, San Rafael. "It's like we've discovered a new population, Hakansson says of growing commercial interest in disabled Internet users. "Nobody likes to think of ourselves as becoming disabled as we get older - unless it means getting one of those blue parking passes." Caption: Mark Pinney, CEO, CanDo.com, a startup web site for disabled people and their families, friends, and caregivers. "The emergence of the Internet is a major motivator for us. It allows us to provide an environment for people that is so much more liberating than any other medium before now." Caption: Randy Tamez, Americans with Disabilities Act consultant, San Jose. "It's just in everybody's best interest to make sure everyone can get to their web site," Tamez says of the convergence of government and private-sector steps toward Internet accessibility. "You want to take everybody's money. Let's just cut right down to it: Everybody's got some money to spend."