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Re: thoughts from Jim Thatcher re the DoJ ANPRM

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Jan 21, 2011 2:51PM

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Terrill Thompson wrote:

> 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.

There are some Level AA success criteria that are trivial - defining
the language and providing visible focus indicators (which Jim
recommended be included, and very rightfully so), for example.

But others can be very difficult and expensive, especially for
existing sites. Supporting text sizes to 200% and color contrast, for
example, will fail to some extent on nearly every large corporate web
site out there. And these are not simple things to fix (despite what
many would have you believe) - they can require entire site redesigns,
rebranding, code and infrastructure overhauls, and very expensive
retrofitting of tens of thousands of pages. Live captions and audio
descriptions are not inexpensive. In working with clients that are
spending millions of dollars on web site accessibility alone, we
should not flippantly suggest that there is no burden involved or that
there's no reason to NOT jump directly to Level AA.

Now I'm not saying they shouldn't be considered for the ADA
requirements. Not meeting these Level AA success criteria can
certainly impact the user experience. But the DOJ has asked for
feedback regarding the impact these requirements might have - and
requiring Level AA by law would have a significantly higher impact
than Level A alone.

Jared