Well, most of us have heard about Cable Modems and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). What is the difference? They are both fast, but the cable modem seems to be more feasible. Why you ask? Well for starters, the phone company has been promising for months DSL would be available. It is not as available as promised and installation is not very good. I had DSL for a few weeks before I was required to move. What a billing and installation nightmare. I called to find our where I could move and get the service and the phone company has no clue. At least the cable company knows where their crews are working and about when they will be able to provide service.
Now, back to the original theme. All the bandwidth in the world does not account for accessibility. Most people have no clue that most websites must be accessible to persons with disabilities. The American with Disabilities Act, The Technology Act and Section 504 and 508 come together to provide access for us who are disabled. Oh yes, even private web sites. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ruled that E-Commerce must be accessible. Why you ask? It seems the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed suite against American On Line (AOL) to force the online service to be accessible to the blind. In a rare back step, AOL agreed to make their product accessible if the NFB would stay the suite. It was done and the DOJ issued a memorandum stating all e-commerce sites need to be accessible to everyone.
For the disabled this is a great Civil Rights Issue. For the e-commerce business it is a fearful experience. Make it accessible and they will come. With a population of over 54 million, the disabled community is a large buying block generally ignored by e-commerce. The federal government started this by orders and laws to make all their sites accessible, next the state and local governments must comply. Now E-commerce is supposed to be accessible.
There are no magic bullets to prepare e-commerce for the transition. It is a shame that all the web designers have totally ignored the disabled for so long. Now they want zillions of bucks to fix their mess up. I was speaking to a web owner the other day and he told me that his web gurus wanted $35,000 to repair the site. What a shame! It takes time, but why should the web owners pay for the training of the so-called “Webmasters”? Do your pay your mechanic to learn how to change your oil?
