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Re: thoughts from Jim Thatcher re the DoJ ANPRM

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From: Denis Boudreau
Date: Jan 21, 2011 1:54PM

Hi everyone,

My feeling is that Mr. Thatcher (with all due respect) is ready to settle for much too less. Anyone serious enough about accessibility will agree that AA is the absolute minimum to go for if one wants to make a real difference. The problem is not the number of success criteria. The problem is the lack of interest from developers to work with accessibility in mind. If the government can't make a stand on the appropriate level of conformance to ensure an inclusive society where every citizen has a fair chance to contribute according to his or her own potential, I wonder who will...

/Denis



On 2011-01-21, at 3:20 PM, Terrill Thompson wrote:

> Jim Thatcher recommends that the DOJ require only Level A WCAG 2.0 success criteria (plus one Level AA criterion, related to visible focus for keyboard users). His argument is that "level AA is too strong, too complicated, too much." His response lists all the Level A success criteria in order to reinforce that these are enough (there are 26 of them).
>
> However, we should also consider the thirteen Level AA success criteria - these are the ones that would *not* be required if the ADA only require Level AA.
>
> I've created a paraphrased list of them all here: http://bit.ly/h7iKGU
>
> If you have an opinion as to how strong the ADA requirements should be, you only have until Monday (January 24) to let the DOJ know! Here are instructions for submitting a comment:
> http://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/anprm2010_comment.htm
>
> Terrill Thompson
> Technology Accessibility Specialist, University of Washington
>
>