- From: Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 00:19:22 -0400
- To: love26@gorge.net, Judy Brewer <jbrewer@w3.org>
- Cc: WAI Education & Outreach Working Group <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>
William Loughborough wrote: quote When the Digital Signatures act appeared, the story said it had been being worked on for a year. How did we miss this? This law will have major impact on the community yet none of the lists I'm on ever mentioned that it was in the works hence we never (to my rather imperfect knowledge) had any opportunity for input to the process. How can we prevent this sort of thing from coming as a complete surprise again? unquote 1. contact disabled groups' lobbyists, and get them to track the issues, once we make them aware of what the issues truly are... AFB has something called Words From Washington (WFW) which is an alerting service that notifies subscribers of impending legislation, its implications, and what action to take -- more info at http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/blist.html#wfw other disability related organizations have similar alert systems, many with redundant means of obtaining the info (you can have WFW faxed to you, for example, or you can phone a telephone number to listen to the latest alert.. NFB and ACB, i believe, offer similar services, as do scads of other disability related alphabetic organizations... all of them have lobbyists, and if PF flags EO in time, when legal requirements are being advanced as arguments for final form objects, EO could provide these organizations' lobbyists with background materials on the technology in question, so if it ever is raised in congress assembled, they will not only start working the phones themselves, but alert their constituents to raise a ruckus with their elected officials, as well... 2. utilize publications like AccessWorld to alert the masses as to the dangers posed by final form objects, and provide digital signaturing examples in the WCAG Techniques modules, wherever appropriate, in both the W3C technologies modules (such as when XFOs are addressed) and the section of the non-W3C technology module on creating gracefully transforming PDF 3. there are also professional and think-tank type organizations that track web-and-the-law type issues, and EO should liaison with them (not just monitor them), so that we can educate them as to what sorts of things constitute accessibility barriers, so that they, in turn, can alert us when issues such as the digital signature legislation are still but rumors 'round the hill... sorry that the language in which this post was couched was extremely US-centric, but the strategies are equally applicable elsewhere slash everywhere that disability groups have lobbyists gregory ------------------------------------------------------------------- CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_ ------------------------------------------------------------------- Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net> Camera Obscura: <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html> VICUG NYC: <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html> Read 'Em & Speak: <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/books/index.html> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Friday, 16 June 2000 00:31:48 UTC