Well, At Least TMZ Will Be OK
Can websites be forced to change to accommodate the disabled — by using “simpler language” to appeal to the “intellectually disabled or by making them accessible to the blind and deaf at considerable expense?
Apparently, the White House is gearing up to force costly changes on websites in the name of ADA compliance. The implications could be staggering, and in certain scenarios would basically force me to certainly close down this site, and likely close down many of my business sites.
Generally, the First Amendment gives you the right to choose who to talk to and how, without government interference. There is no obligation to make your message accessible to the whole world, and the government can’t force you to make your speech accessible to everyone, much less appealing to them. The government couldn’t require you to give speeches in English rather than Spanish …
But now, the Obama administration appears to be planning to use the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to force many web sites to either accommodate the disabled, or shut down.
mesaeconoguy:
"Apparently, the White House is gearing up to force costly changes on websites in the name of ADA compliance. "
No, those are actually “bathroom user instructions for leftists/morons.”
May 9, 2013, 11:39 pmMNHawk:
Why wouldn't websites just move to other countries? What's the administration to do? Block all international websites that aren't dumbed down to the level of the Obama voter?
May 10, 2013, 7:03 amrxc:
This will be hard on Phys.org, and the legal web sites, but at least there will be one good result - all the post-modern discussions will have to shut down because absolutely no one understands what they are saying.
May 10, 2013, 7:06 amrxc:
One other comment. There was a push in the government during the Clinton administration to write more official documents in language that was easy to understand. Admittedly, there was a LOT of verbiage that was unnecessary, but a LOT of that was driven by the lawyers and legal decisions and convering one's ass. But for us technical people it was quite difficult to write or explain things like "Maximum Average Planar Linear Heat Generation Rate (MAPLHGR)" in terms that could be understood by someone who is "intelectually disabled".
May 10, 2013, 7:17 amirandom:
Isn't alcoholism a disability too? So how would they accommodate both drunk and intellectually disabled?
http://www.ada.gov/q%26aeng02.htm
May 10, 2013, 8:09 amwintercow20:
My classes are already moving in this direction Coyote ... but I'm not at liberty to share what I have to do. So this would basically mean the end of college too, right? Or make us all move to pure chalk and talk?
May 10, 2013, 11:14 amdc:
wtf'n f??? the crazy asinine stuff coming from these folks never ceases to amaze me.
May 10, 2013, 11:59 amArthur Felter:
That won't work unless you move the business overseas as well.
May 10, 2013, 3:42 pmmarque2:
Well professors generally like this because it will prevent colleges from moving onto the Internet, where the best profs in the country can start teaching kids rather than some local loser who has a beef with everyone and decides to use the classroom to proselytize about the grievances instead of teaching the subject at hand.
Obama wants to stop this because all his lefty college friends will end up being unemployed
May 11, 2013, 1:16 pmmarque2:
You have to program your webpage to have wider keys and look good through a layer of vomit.
May 11, 2013, 1:16 pmmarque2:
That is probably what will happen. The McDonalds and Pepsi's of the world will accomodate. Some shopping sites will have to close, and the rest of everyone else will go overseas, or have an overseas subsidiary handle the web pages. Look for more dot in, dot tv dot lx and dot any other free state in the world.
May 11, 2013, 1:20 pmmarque2:
I love reading all the anti-Semite comments on the Daily Kos!
May 11, 2013, 1:21 pmDifster:
...Harrison Bergeron...FTW.
May 14, 2013, 10:51 pm