Government To Require Websites Be Handicap Accessible?

[UrielDagda]

Well, I have a blind friend that is able to use the internet and IRC (He's only gone blind in the last few years, mind you), seems like he already has a program that does a lot of this.

 

[krotch]

News flash big guy. Handicapped people pay taxes too. We're no more, no less entitled to anything you guys are. Quit making it sound like we're ENTITLED to something. Entitlement has nothing to do with it. Legislation was made for network bandwidth, internet regulations and television and radio airwaves, weren't they? By your logic it'd be ok if I cried "oh noes my tax dollar is being used to pay for things I can't use myself!" right?

News flash, read my post. Did I say handicapped ppl don't pay taxes? No. Do they make the majority of the population? No. So why try to force those who won't make use of certain technologies catered to the disabled to pay for it.

What government regulations is there for internet networks? I mean, if they did jump in, maybe we'd actually have high bandwith speeds, more ISPs, and cheaper costs. Last mile anyone?

TV and radio wave regulations where there to help the FCC regulate the needs for their emergency broadcasts and such. They also step in to protect the public as a whole. Things like TV ratings and such. Guess how many times they step in to force companies to provide a service to the few, as opposed to the many.

No of course not. You're too self-centered and selfish to see beyond your personal needs.

It's called being human. I need a car, to get to work. I need a phone, so work can call me. I need a roof over my head. I need food. I need clothes. I need a small amount of money in my account for possible future emergencies.

I don't need a blind enabled website. Neither do the blind. Tell me, what websites do blind ppl need? Do they have multiple other ways to retreive the same information? If you answered yes to the last question, then a blind enabled website is not a need. It's a want. I myself want a lot of things, but I don't ask taxpayers to pay for it.

It’s not like people with disabilities don’t pay taxes either. OMG they have a disability! They must be a complete drain to our society right?

Again, when exactly did I say such? But do you know what is a drain on society? Asking the majority to pay for a want of the minority.

And I’m in the field of developing websites for clients and we have to have them 508 compliant. Going back and fixing typical service sites does not take that much effort. And we've had to convert some reaaaal shit jobs too. You obviously never made a website since it wouldn’t take MONTHS to go back and update.

Sounds pretty obvious you've never worked on an extremely complex site. Last website I worked on was for an Operation Weather Squadron. It'd take months just to look at the code, let alone update any of it. God forbid if we'd have to ever rebuild the site from scratch. That could easily take half a year, not to mention the requirement to change configurations of other servers that aren't even the front end or back end of the webpage (would be easier to do this, as opposed to figuring out the current configurations).

A typical service website, ya. Probably a week job. But exactly where do you stop? Bank sites? Amazon.com? Facebook? Twitter? I mean seriously, who decides on what needs to be disabled accessible?

I do not. Looked up a bit. I understand there are extremes and things that are "Just stupid. Use some common sense" This does not fall in that realm of extreme.

A visually based communications and entertainment device having to be designed for the visually impaired.

Yep, not extreme at all. Might as well require radio stations to transmit all audio as beeps and dashes also, so that the deaf can feel the vibrations and understand what they are saying

 

[krotch]

Well, I have a blind friend that is able to use the internet and IRC (He's only gone blind in the last few years, mind you), seems like he already has a program that does a lot of this.

Many times, if there's a gap to be filled, it gets filled on it's own. VRS is an example of that. Sprint was doing it back in 95. Didn't get any government intervention until 2002.

 

[Azhar]

News flash, read my post. Did I say handicapped ppl don't pay taxes? No. Do they make the majority of the population? No. So why try to force those who won't make use of certain technologies catered to the disabled to pay for it.

What government regulations is there for internet networks? I mean, if they did jump in, maybe we'd actually have high bandwith speeds, more ISPs, and cheaper costs. Last mile anyone?

TV and radio wave regulations where there to help the FCC regulate the needs for their emergency broadcasts and such. They also step in to protect the public as a whole. Things like TV ratings and such. Guess how many times they step in to force companies to provide a service to the few, as opposed to the many.



It's called being human. I need a car, to get to work. I need a phone, so work can call me. I need a roof over my head. I need food. I need clothes. I need a small amount of money in my account for possible future emergencies.

I don't need a blind enabled website. Neither do the blind. Tell me, what websites do blind ppl need? Do they have multiple other ways to retreive the same information? If you answered yes to the last question, then a blind enabled website is not a need. It's a want. I myself want a lot of things, but I don't ask taxpayers to pay for it.



Again, when exactly did I say such? But do you know what is a drain on society? Asking the majority to pay for a want of the minority.



Sounds pretty obvious you've never worked on an extremely complex site. Last website I worked on was for an Operation Weather Squadron. It'd take months just to look at the code, let alone update any of it. God forbid if we'd have to ever rebuild the site from scratch. That could easily take half a year, not to mention the requirement to change configurations of other servers that aren't even the front end or back end of the webpage (would be easier to do this, as opposed to figuring out the current configurations).

A typical service website, ya. Probably a week job. But exactly where do you stop? Bank sites? Amazon.com? Facebook? Twitter? I mean seriously, who decides on what needs to be disabled accessible?



A visually based communications and entertainment device having to be designed for the visually impaired.

Yep, not extreme at all. Might as well require radio stations to transmit all audio as beeps and dashes also, so that the deaf can feel the vibrations and understand what they are saying

Holy fucking shit are you for real?

 

[Netrat33]

News flash, read my post. Did I say handicapped ppl don't pay taxes? No. Do they make the majority of the population? No. So why try to force those who won't make use of certain technologies catered to the disabled to pay for it.

We don't elect people into office and have everything debated by votes do we know? Everything in a budget voted? really. Seriously. You pay taxes anyway. You REALLY freaking watching where your small part of it all goes to? No I didn't think so. Because if you did I'm sure you'd be much more upset about other fundings than actually doing good. But hey, i'm sure if we did put this to a vote and you'd see people not having a problem with this, you'd probably bitch about that too.

TV and radio wave regulations where there to help the FCC regulate the needs for their emergency broadcasts and such. They also step in to protect the public as a whole. Things like TV ratings and such. Guess how many times they step in to force companies to provide a service to the few, as opposed to the many.

oh so you like more censorship? That's already forced on you.

It's called being human. I need a car, to get to work. I need a phone, so work can call me. I need a roof over my head. I need food. I need clothes. I need a small amount of money in my account for possible future emergencies.

I don't need a blind enabled website. Neither do the blind. Tell me, what websites do blind ppl need? Do they have multiple other ways to retreive the same information?

I'm not blind, or no anyone blind, but seriously...fuck off. Wow. Transportation, bus schedules, getting forms for anything housing/property related, taxes, just any fucking help period. Technology moves forward and becomes a part of our lives. Laws are changed and debated all the time because of it. Why don't we just treat everything and everyone like it's 1820 (random date)?

If you answered yes to the last question, then a blind enabled website is not a need. It's a want. I myself want a lot of things, but I don't ask taxpayers to pay for it.

Really...you don't expect anything from the government despite you paying taxes for it......ok...sure.

Again, when exactly did I say such? But do you know what is a drain on society? Asking the majority to pay for a want of the minority.

Once again you don't vote on everything on a budget.

Sounds pretty obvious you've never worked on an extremely complex site. Last website I worked on was for an Operation Weather Squadron. It'd take months just to look at the code, let alone update any of it. God forbid if we'd have to ever rebuild the site from scratch. That could easily take half a year, not to mention the requirement to change configurations of other servers that aren't even the front end or back end of the webpage (would be easier to do this, as opposed to figuring out the current configurations).

no actually I have, i'm just not dumb enough to talk about potentially sensitive topics on a public forum like you have.

A typical service website, ya. Probably a week job. But exactly where do you stop? Bank sites? Amazon.com? Facebook? Twitter? I mean seriously, who decides on what needs to be disabled accessible?

Did...did you read the article. Figuring no. Because it would be more for sites that are serviced based. Not a facebook or twitter. Not mom and pop. Amazon I'm pretty sure is already 508, but if it isn't, they just stab themselves limiting their customer base.

A visually based communications and entertainment device having to be designed for the visually impaired.

Yep, not extreme at all. Might as well require radio stations to transmit all audio as beeps and dashes also, so that the deaf can feel the vibrations and understand what they are saying

You're an f'ing joke. No where are there rules establish for what exactly the internet is. It is many things and by such an extention of public government services and those do need to be accessible to the blind. Your example is just reaching and childish.

 

[jiminator]

The original purpose of the federal government was for interstate commerce and to defend our borders. And now they have gotten their fingers into every damn thing. If you want all these rules, regulations and laws, fine, get your state to pass them. If I don't like the tax burden and the burden on business I can opt out by moving to another state. The ability to opt out by moving enforces a type of economic sanity/limitations on the decisions that states make.

The laws, regulations and so forth by the federal government supersede all of these. The federal government is not a substitute for your family. Whatever happened to individual responsibility? 100 years ago social security meant having kids that would support and take care of you in your old age. But the family unit fractured in the US. So big government stepped in and became the substitute family unit. Now old people are thrown away into nursing homes. Out of sight, out of mind, until they die.

Anyway, all I am saying is that the federal government needs to get back to its constitutional mandates. All this other stuff needs to go to the local level where it belongs. States that are irresponsible should crash and burn and should not get bailed out by states that spent their money more wisely.

 

[Dillirium]

hmm... so how would websites like 2g 1c work? I really want to see the blind people's response to that one. Hearing your computer describe the details of the movie... hmm...

 

[krotch]

We don't elect people into office and have everything debated by votes do we know? Everything in a budget voted? really. Seriously. You pay taxes anyway. You REALLY freaking watching where your small part of it all goes to? No I didn't think so. Because if you did I'm sure you'd be much more upset about other fundings than actually doing good. But hey, i'm sure if we did put this to a vote and you'd see people not having a problem with this, you'd probably bitch about that too.

I don't vote. Why? Cause I don't like the few, choosing for the many. I'd much rather that these kind of things were voted by the whole population. That'll never happened. Also, if the many voted yes for certain non-government websites to be handicap accessible, I'd be fine with it. I wouldn't like it, but I'd be fine with it.

I try to look at where federal tax revenue goes, yes. The problem is, there simply isn't a nice breakdown of it and the government definitely isn't going to tell us where it all goes.

oh so you like more censorship? That's already forced on you.

Huh? At what point of this whole arguement have I ever wanted anything forced on me. Especially paying for something I'll never use. Course, I'm in the military. I do a lot of things I don't want to do, but I still do them, cause I have to.

I'm not blind, or no anyone blind, but seriously...fuck off. Wow. Transportation, bus schedules, getting forms for anything housing/property related, taxes, just any fucking help period. Technology moves forward and becomes a part of our lives. Laws are changed and debated all the time because of it. Why don't we just treat everything and everyone like it's 1820 (random date)?

1820, no problem with that. Guess what problems we didn't have back in 1820. Pollution, school shootings, drugs, overpopulation, etc.

Really...you don't expect anything from the government despite you paying taxes for it......ok...sure.

I've lived outside the US for the past 10 years, yet I still pay federal taxes. I pretty much expect a whole lot of nothing, except for my military benefits.

Once again you don't vote on everything on a budget.

Of course not, that's what the seperate organizations are for. They get a budget, they spend it on whatever it is they do. Now they might vote on increasing/decreasing the budgets of these organizations.

no actually I have, i'm just not dumb enough to talk about potentially sensitive topics on a public forum like you have.

Yes, because the US government hides the weather from everyone...somehow. Also all the information on the COTS equipment/software used is also not freely on the net already. There was also zero mention of what hardware, software, software versions, ip address, actual configurations, etc even mentioned. Doesn't sound like you even understand anything about sensitive topics.

Did...did you read the article. Figuring no. Because it would be more for sites that are serviced based. Not a facebook or twitter. Not mom and pop. Amazon I'm pretty sure is already 508, but if it isn't, they just stab themselves limiting their customer base.

I did read the article, did you? I also mentioned, where does it stops. Guess what Facebook and Twitter provide? A service. They are a service based site. They might not provide a service as in purchasing goods, utilities, banking, etc, but they provide communications. Who exactly decides that Facebook and Twitter won't be forced to comply?

You're an f'ing joke. No where are there rules establish for what exactly the internet is. It is many things and by such an extention of public government services and those do need to be accessible to the blind. Your example is just reaching and childish.

Internet is a global network of networks connected via TCP/IP. It's 1 thing, communications. You can break it down to things like internet messaging, online shopping, financial services, etc, but it's all still just communications.

You know what would be cheaper? Just create a software that you install on a computer that will convert all sites to 508 compliance locally. Then charge like $500 for it.

Better yet, why don't you provide a free 508 compliance conversion service. I mean, you want to help them out.

 

[THEMorUS]

Wheel chair ramps for the information superhighway?