Re: Challenge: Defining accessibility

> However, would you (could you) draw the same parallels with Television or
> radio? There is a certain amount of economic divisiveness here also - cost

The UK certainly makes this sort of distinction for telephones; there is
a "public service" obligation on telephone companies to provide service
at a reasonable cost to people who would not be profitable on a purely
commercial basis, because universal telephone access is considered good
for the country as a whole.

Where this is done for internet access it tends to be done in terms
of subsidising hardware for schools rather than in terms of encouraging
universally accessible content.  Like any such government subsidy, there
are companies that live off it.  It also pushes up the expectations of
consumers, leading to more hardware sales, so business likes it.  (This
has happened since the dawn of the PC.)

Received on Wednesday, 25 October 2000 02:54:01 UTC