WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: What is Web Accessibility?

for

From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Mar 23, 2006 12:30PM

> Can you point to a community that has ever argued this as a
> reason for curbcuts, rather than citing the very real civil
> rights arguments which involve people with disabilities.

You are getting overly argumentative here, Kynn.

It's an analogy.

> So the answer is to pretend that it's not REALLY about those
> embarrassing cripples, and all about the soccer dads pushing
> their future football stars down the curb?

Why are you trying to play the victim here? How does 'accessible for
all' label those with disabilities as 'embarassing cripples' while
emphazising soccer dads?

My only point is that it's easier to sell accessibility to business when
they see the total sum of who it benefits. That is not 'marginalizing'
those with disabilities. It is including them.

But, we can certainly disagree.

> PS: Since 1990, far more accessibility improvements have
> been made in towns and cities across the U.S. thanks to the
> ADA than have ever been made because city commissioners want
> to improve things for inline skaters and parents with
> strollers. True fact.

That's my entire point. It took an act of congress to pass a law for
people to start caring about accessibility.

Had folks understood the broader benefits to it, perhaps improvements
would have come sooner and faster.

I don't want to have congress pass laws for web sites in the US. I'd
rather we as web developers do the right thing first.

If you prefer to 'guilt' companies into embracing accessibility as
something to help the 'embarrassing cripples' and it works, more power
to you. I prefer to point out the broad range of benefits that
accessibility can bring...from accomodating not only those with
particular disabilities, but also a wide variety of other users.

To each their own, of course.

-Darrel