ZDNet News Story on Accessible Web Authoring

ZDNet has a front-page story today -- their "monday eye opener"
(yes, it's Sunday as I write this), declaring:

'Handicapped access' hits the Web

4:00 PM PT

Next month, the feds will unveil standards for its suppliers to
make sure their sites are fully accessible to the disabled. But
commercial sites may feel the impact, too.

I can never get ZDNet URLs to quote correctly, but you may be
able to find a link to this at http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/

I'm happy to see some coverage of this but slightly amused at
the idea that it's hitting the web _now_; where have these
people been for the last few years? :)

Anyway, does anyone know if the "standards" refered to are the
WAI standards and the US goverment is going to adopt them once
they are officially released as W3C recommendation, or if the
'US Access Board' is planning to release their _own_ set of
standards which may or may not cover the same thing as the W3C
sanctioned ones?

[In my opinion, a separate "standard" would be a disaster; adoption
of the WAI WCAG or a _priorities-based_ subset of those is the
only sensible thing to do, and I hope it's what the "feds" are
up to.  The story does not seem to say explicitly, although it
does quote Judy Brewer a lot.]

--
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Become AWARE of Web Accessibility!                  http://aware.hwg.org/
Next Speaking Engagement:  FedWeb 1999      http://www.kynn.com/+fedweb99
April is Web Accessibility Month!           http://www.kynn.com/+hwgapril

Received on Monday, 19 April 1999 01:52:52 UTC