- From: Joe Clark <joeclark@joeclark.org>
- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 07:34:07 -0500
- To: w3c-wai-ig@W3.org
I was reading the remarks about making a business case for accessibility, which I believe flatly cannot be done. It's purely an issue of ethics or legal compliance. (It isn't "moral" because it does not appeal to God.) Esteemed listmembers may not aware of the only two credible sources on numbers of disabled people with computers and/or online that I could find after months of looking. (I did find an opinion poll, too.) 1. A report by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce, states that 20.9% of people with disabilities in the U.S. regularly use computers (compared with 51% of nondisabled people). Figures for Internet use are similar-- 21.6% of disabled people are online compared to 42.1% of nondisabled people. <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn00/Falling.htm#61> <http://www.esa.doc.gov/508/esa/pdf/FALLING.pdf> 2. Using a more restrictive definition of disability, a University of Southern California study holds that 23.9% of people with disabilities have computers in the home (versus 51.7% of nondisabled people), while 11.1% of disabled people and 46.5% of nondisabled people use the Internet "at home" or "elsewhere." <http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/pub.taf?_UserReference=BBA8EA5F9B73A0E8BE3702FC&_function=search&recid=112&grow=1> <http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/pdf/REPORT13.pdf> (Authors of both those studies are aware of no credible statistics anywhere else.) 3. Harris poll: <http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=93> Anyway, the moral of this story is that we desperately need much better data, particularly concerning specific target groups. The World Wide Web Consortium (sic) has quite enough money to commission studies of existing statistical data and run its own opinion polls. Perhaps someone could take up that banner. -- Joe Clark | joeclark@joeclark.org | <http://joeclark.org/access/> Accessibility articles, resources, and critiques || "I do not pretend to understand the mind of Joe Clark" -- Larry Goldberg
Received on Saturday, 3 November 2001 07:35:14 UTC