PPP

I wonder if anyone has any reason why the following Proposed
Presidential Proclamation could, should, or would not be embraced by
such people as Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, and (tada) Bill Clinton:

	****PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION****

Because "the buck stops here" I am from this date forward *requiring*
that any document put onto the World Wide Web by this ______________
[insert "organization", "company", or "government" here] conform to the
Authoring Guidelines of the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web
Consortium as published at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH.html

Although retrofitting all of our Web sites is a daunting (but ongoing)
task, there can be no excuse accepted for not making all further Web
additions (or revisions) fully compliant with accessibility guidelines.

		*****

At the LA Face2Face Phill Jenkins pointed out that as he went through
the various phases of trying to get IBM's web presence into the world of
accessibility the first methods' effectiveness (personal modification,
pleas to webmasters to comply) paled compared to going to somebody in
charge who in effect said "fix it or get fired!"

We need to start with Tim who has likely already made this a de facto
imperative, thence to all the Consortium companies (all of whom signed
on to the goals of WAI) and very importantly, (both because of the
necessity of all citizens to have access to their government's
documentation and because the breadth of reach of this edict in impact
and public notice) to the "CEO of CEOs".

Even if retrofitting efforts never fully succeed the amount of stuff
that will be posted to the Web henceforward will dwarf what's already
there so this could be a *BIG* help.
-- 
Love.
            ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
http://dicomp.pair.com

Received on Wednesday, 27 May 1998 09:45:46 UTC