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Olympics 2002 site, accessibility issues, regulations?

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From: Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns
Date: Jan 22, 2002 3:53PM

Hi, everyone,

I recently uncovered some big time accessibility problems at the new
Olympics 2002 Salt Lake site <http://www.saltlake2002.com/>; I wrote about
it here:

Accessibility Lockout for Olympics 2002 Site -- Again?!
<http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/2002_01_13_archive.shtml#8746539>;

and a follow-up:

Olympics 2002 Site, Continued
<http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/2002_01_13_archive.shtml#8830508>;

Andy King, WebReference.com, saw what I wrote and wrote even more about it
here:
<http://www.webreference.com/new/020117.html>;

and wrote a follow-up today, too, in the WebReference newsletter (it's not
online yet, though, as of my post). I've been in contact with Andy about
this, too, and I know he feels just as strongly as I do about how nuts this
is, as you can read for yourself.

What I'm also curious about is what kind of regulations the Olympics site
may or may not have in terms of creating an accessible site. I would have
thought they'd be required to follow the WAI guidelines.... especially in
light of their lawsuit from the Sydney2000 site. They did include alt tags
with descriptions this time, though, which is what they were sued for NOT
doing with the Sydney2000 site; however, they fall short in several other
critical areas that results in visitors being completely blocked from the
site. My articles above go into the details about this.

Does anyone know if they are supposed to or required to follow any
guidelines? I guess they wouldn't fall under any specific government's
guidelines, such as the U.S. 508 guidelines or other specific country
guidelines since they're not a government site. I've looked around the Web
but haven't seen any specific official regulatory policy for the Olympics
sites regarding accessibility.

So what can be done about this besides spout off and try to create a bunch
of publicity? It's ludicrous that such a major worldwide site like this
isn't following accessibility guidelines.

Warmly,
Shirley

--
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.
SKDesigns mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Website Design, Development http://www.skdesigns.com/
Pianist, Composer http://www.shirleykaiser.com/
Brainstorms and Raves http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/



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