WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: What is Web Accessibility?

for

From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Mar 23, 2006 11:10AM


> While limiting it to blind people only is a problem, so also
> is the idea that we can somehow magically eliminate the
> concept of people with disabilities from "web accessibility."

Since when to people with disabilities NOT fall under the label of 'for
all'?

> There are a multitude of benefits for other people from web
> accessibility, just as curbcuts for wheelchairs also help
> people with shopping carts, strollers, and wheeled luggage.
>
> But the curbcuts weren't put in for moms with strollers; they
> were put in for people with wheelchairs, because the people
> with disabilities have a moral, legal, and ethical right to
> access. (Moms with strollers DON'T.)

No one is arguing that. The point is that if you sell it as soley 'for
those with disabilities' it is seen as a burdern, rather than smart
business.

If you want to sell the ideas of curb cuts to the taxpayers, don't try
to tell that it's for the minority of folks that use wheelchairs. Tell
them it's for people that use wheelchairs...and inline skates, and
bikes, and scooters, and those with canes, and walkers, and strollers,
and carts, etc.

If you just try to sell accessibility as some sort of legal/moral issue
to appeal to a few minorities, folks that write the checks find it a
burden. They SHOULDN'T, of course, but I realize that they do.

-Darrel