web browsing and section 508 under linux

[Janina Sajka]

Well, it is probably useful to recognize who did it, and what their
credentials are for doing it. The agency entrusted with the task had no
previous experience in technology regulations. In particular, I would
warrant most of its Board not particularly qualified in technology,
though perhaps well qualified in more traditional accessibility issues.
Suffice it to say they had to change their name from "Architectural and
Transportation Barriers Compliance Board." Just a few years previous to
this assignment, they described their charge as "all the things in a
building that wouldn't fall out if you could turn the building upside
down and shake it."

I'm not saying it was unreasonable to entrust the task to this agency,
just that they were rather new to the kind of regulating being asked of
them.

The thesis suggested by David Poehlman is probably as good as any. Even
though it smacks of "in loco parentis," it's plausible. So, too, is the
notion expressed at the URL I posted yesterday that some computational
tasks should be done client side, rather than server side, as if servers
were going to be overloaded with extraneous computational loads.

Suffice it to say that 508 represents the first time fairly serious
requirements on accessibility were imposed by the world's number one
technology customer. If you look at press stories about 508 around the
year 2000, there was quite a bit of fear mongering. It should not be
surprising that significant pressure would be exerted against various
provisions or proposed provisions.

Despite any failings, and I believe 508 has failings, I still regard it
as a solid move forward. Discrepencies such as the one under discussion
cannot continue unaddressed, because technology tends to abhor
discrepencies among political jurisdictions. Industry isn't served if
entity 1 requires A, but entity 2 requires "not A." Such things need to
be resolved and eventually this one will be.

I would close by observing my own disappointment about 508 is not so
much with the regs, but with our communities failure to pose any
significant challenge to 508 enforcement or practice. I'm unaware of any
significant 508 complaint, and that is just not credible to me.
Certainly there are problems, and there are mechanisms for adjudicating
complaints. I am one who believes that the 508 regulations fall far
short of the 508 law itself and are thus excellent fodder for
complaints. But, we don't have any--at least not any significant ones.



Karen Lewellen writes:
> 
>  Go ahead, I am really interested in your opinion on this given you are
>  actively involved with some of the process.