RE: DDA and Web Access

Mr. Nissen,
I strongly recommend that you consider forwarding to key people in
government a copy of the 9/99 World Economic Congress book and CD entitled
"World Markets in 2000" that was published last month. My paper, "The
Growing Digital Divide in Access for People with Disabilities:  Overcoming
Barriers to Participation," was published by the London publisher World
Markets Research Center and was featured prominently in the first section on
the "Global Internet Economy" along with an article by Sir Peter Bonfield,
CEO BT plc.

The url for the book is at
http://www.wmrc.com/BusBriefing/BusBriefing/newpages/bbframes.html under
"recently published."  

Their address and phone is:
World Markets Research Centre
Academic House
24 - 28 Oval Road
London NW1 7DP
England

Tel:  +44 171 428 3030
Fax: +44 171 428 3035 

I receive no royalties from this book, in case you were wondering.

As you may recall, my paper was commissioned by the US government for the
first US national conference on the digital economy and was the only paper
discussing the impact of the digital economy on the community of people with
disabilities.  It is available online at http://www.digitaleconomy.gov under
"conference papers" or at http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/access/waddell.htm 

In addition, perhaps you should also forward a copy of the book "Boosting
the UK Digital Economy - a virtual think-tank" dated July 1999 and published
by Bull Information Systems Limited.  I am sure that Ms. Amanda Purdie would
be glad to provide a copy.  Her email is mailto:amanda.purdie@bull.co.uk .
The text of the publication is also available online at 
http://www.iib.com/reports/iib-vtt.htm.


Cynthia D. Waddell
---------------------------------------------------
Cynthia D. Waddell   
ADA Coordinator
City Manager Department
City of San Jose, CA USA
801 North First Street, Room 460
San Jose, CA  95110-1704
(408)277-4034
(408)971-0134 TTY
(408)277-3885 FAX
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/webcast/cynthia.htm
http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/access/waddell.htm 



-----Original Message-----
From: jn@tommy.demon.co.uk [mailto:jn@tommy.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 5:54 AM
To: icta@tommy.demon.co.uk; wai@tommy.demon.co.uk
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: DDA and Web Access


Hello,

The good news is that one aspect of the UK Disability Discrimination Act 
Part III came into force on October 1st 1999, with a certain amount of 
publicity.

The aspect now in force:
From 1 October 1999 service providers have to make reasonable
adjustments for disabled people, such as providing extra help or
making changes to the way they provide their services.

Today I received a booklet "An introduction for small and medium-sized
businesses", which shows that the new regulations apply to smaller
businesses as well as larger business, unlike Part II of the DDA which 
concerned employment provisions.

The Act protects the rights of a wide range of people with sensory,
mental or physical disabilities.

It covers all service except education, means of transport, and 
services not available to the public, such as provided by private clubs
to their members.

It covers all kinds of service, including information.

The bad news is that they seem not to have considered web access,
though web sites offering a service to the public are clearly covered
by the act.  Our Prime Minister has urged businesses to "embrace
the Internet or die", but he has not considered the social divide this
will cause unless businesses take web accessibility as an essential 
requirement (or make alternative accessible service provision 
such as CD-ROM with a built-in reader).  Online shopping is a prime
example, where the service is extremely useful to elderly and
disabled people, but liable to be inaccessible to them.

Cheers from Chiswick,

John
-- 
Access the word, access the world       Tel/fax +44 181 742 3170/8715
John Nissen                             Email to jn@tommy.demon.co.uk
Cloudworld Ltd., Chiswick, London, UK   http://www.tommy.demon.co.uk

---------------------------------------------------
Cynthia D. Waddell   
ADA Coordinator
City Manager Department
City of San Jose, CA USA
801 North First Street, Room 460
San Jose, CA  95110-1704
(408)277-4034
(408)971-0134 TTY
(408)277-3885 FAX
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/webcast/cynthia.htm
http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/access/waddell.htm 



-----Original Message-----
From: jn@tommy.demon.co.uk [mailto:jn@tommy.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 5:54 AM
To: icta@tommy.demon.co.uk; wai@tommy.demon.co.uk
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: DDA and Web Access


Hello,

The good news is that one aspect of the UK Disability Discrimination Act 
Part III came into force on October 1st 1999, with a certain amount of 
publicity.

The aspect now in force:
From 1 October 1999 service providers have to make reasonable
adjustments for disabled people, such as providing extra help or
making changes to the way they provide their services.

Today I received a booklet "An introduction for small and medium-sized
businesses", which shows that the new regulations apply to smaller
businesses as well as larger business, unlike Part II of the DDA which 
concerned employment provisions.

The Act protects the rights of a wide range of people with sensory,
mental or physical disabilities.

It covers all service except education, means of transport, and 
services not available to the public, such as provided by private clubs
to their members.

It covers all kinds of service, including information.

The bad news is that they seem not to have considered web access,
though web sites offering a service to the public are clearly covered
by the act.  Our Prime Minister has urged businesses to "embrace
the Internet or die", but he has not considered the social divide this
will cause unless businesses take web accessibility as an essential 
requirement (or make alternative accessible service provision 
such as CD-ROM with a built-in reader).  Online shopping is a prime
example, where the service is extremely useful to elderly and
disabled people, but liable to be inaccessible to them.

Cheers from Chiswick,

John
-- 
Access the word, access the world       Tel/fax +44 181 742 3170/8715
John Nissen                             Email to jn@tommy.demon.co.uk
Cloudworld Ltd., Chiswick, London, UK   http://www.tommy.demon.co.uk

Received on Wednesday, 6 October 1999 13:34:49 UTC