Robert Scoble is wondering if the current Accessibility case against Target will require videobloggers to provide transcripts. His concerns are specifically YouTube and his ownself kyte.tv.
The short version is No. The reason is that both YouTube and kyte are not offering goods and services for sale to the public. You take your chances with free.
Target. com is selling goods and services to the public and is the latest court case to try and get folks to understand that Accessibility matters. That it is happening in California is a mixed blessing, as their laws are a cut and paste version of the US Section 508 Accessibility Standards.
Businesses are crying undue burden as their get out of customer card.
I wrote about this back in 2001
A little over a year ago I wrote an article here on the upcoming U.S. Accessibility Regulations for the web. Specifically on Section 508 of the WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT OF 1998, which required all United States Federal Agencies with websites to make those sites accessible to individuals with disabilities, within 24 months of enacting of this law.
Robert’s concerns are a bit of an oxymoron as most YouTube videos have a sound track which does go toward satisfying alternate delivery.
Accessibility has a varied and checkered past on the web. In the US, it is a requirement, which until now with the notable exception of the National Federation for the Blind’s sort of Victory over AOL, has not until this point been tested in court.
Target may just be the case that finally wakes up companies that want to do business with folks across the web, Flash designers are going to get their asses handed to them, and the folks who neglect using the
you wrote “His concerns are specifically YouTube and his ownself kyte.tv”
Just let me put that straight, Robert Scoble has nothing to do with kyte.tv, except that he uses it.
I actually myself started to use it. If you wanna try out something new, try the mobileapp. It’s really a new dimension!!
[…] podcasts). Scott Bourne had an interesting (if inconclusive) post on the subject last year, and the head lemur posits that the touchstone (in the context of the Target case presently in the news) may be whether […]
Youtube is always a good watch, there’s no question about that. But there are things they could learn from the guys at kyte tv. Like keeping all the shows and videos added by producers on the same channel rather than scattered all over according to the tags