- From: Waddell, Cynthia <cynthia.waddell@ci.sj.ca.us>
- Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 10:31:34 -0700
- To: "'jn@tommy.demon.co.uk'" <jn@tommy.demon.co.uk>, icta@tommy.demon.co.uk, wai@tommy.demon.co.uk
- Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
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