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Re: FTP site opinion

for

From: Trafford, Logan
Date: Feb 28, 2014 11:07AM

Thanks Jared.

We're talking about documents such as detailed site plans that are targeted for companies bidding on contracts (as an example).

The wording in the AODA legislation is a bit vague as to whether or not an FTP site is considered public domain or not..thus opening up a loophole that everyone wants to jump on. It'll probably take a hundred lawyers 5 years to figure it out...;-)

Logan

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 12:13 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] FTP site opinion

Trafford, Logan wrote:

> we are faced with resistance from certain departments whose material,
> while posted to a public site, is not necessarily meant for true
> public consumption.

I'm not sure I understand this. Who else would it be meant for? If for internal employees, US law is much more clear about employment discrimination than it is about discrimination due to inaccessible content intended for the public.

> So my question is this. Are there times when an FTP site is an
> acceptable practice for target audiences (thereby bypassing the "law"
> per se).

I can't speak to whether AODA would apply to FTP sites. WCAG (which is the basis for AODA) does not limit itself to HTTP protocols. It applies to all web content (though one could make a stretching argument, I suppose, that a PDF file on an FTP server isn't 'web'
content).

Unfortunately, the reality of AODA (and probably future US law) is that many companies are simply removing content from the web to avoid liability rather than making it accessible. A large insurance company recently sent the following to all Ontarian customers...

"Due to technical limitations, starting December 8th 2013, most or possibly all documents you view online will no longer be available.
Unfortunately, this is a necessary step as we improve the overall accessibility of our site."
(http://blog.xenos.com/2014/02/update-on-aoda-for-document-accessibility/)

Of course the real intention is that by not providing the documents to Ontarians, AODA would not apply to them. In this situation, everybody loses.

Jared
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