WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: No decision from the Appeals court

for

From: Hall, Kevin (K.M.)
Date: Sep 30, 2004 7:22AM

You're right, that was really vague and broad sounding... happens sometimes when I write quickly...

If we can prevent the nightmare that is copyright law in the U.S. (see the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Honorable Senator from Disney, and the new Induce Act) from spreading to web design and accessibility I would be very happy. The similarity to web accessibility lies in the fact that there are substantive qualitative differences between copyright in print and digital media - just as there are fundamental differences between online and offline accessibility. Failing to recognize and embrace the fundamentally different nature of digital products has lead to serious errors in reasoning and faulty policy decisions in both areas.

Software patents are another area where an offline concept is being regularly misapplied to digital products often to the detriment of the public good. One thing that may be worth re-reading for discussions like this one is the U.S. Supreme Court's Sony Betamax decision from 1983. It is extremely well written and does a good job of framing discussion of modern technological issues. See savebetamax.org for more information (it's focused on the Induce Act but has lots of good material and a link to the decision).

Part of the problem is that we try to talk through analogies, which leads to people thinking of two disparate concepts as more similar than they really are. Web designers have had discussions recently about letting go of the old concepts of absolute control of layouts and the user experience from print design and embracing the true, flexible nature of web sites. When dealing with web accessibility I think we have to do some letting go of rigid offline accessibility concepts and consider flexibility and innovation in our designs in order to achieve the real accessibility potential of the web. These are really two largely distinct areas that are brought together under the large umbrella of accessibility.

Regards,
-Kevin Hall