Tech at Night: Accessibility, UN, Nokia, FCC

On September 13, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens
Tech at Night

Good evening. I’ve been getting some warnings for a while now about the possible next frontier in Internet regulation. I still haven’t digested it all myself, but I wanted to get the idea out there for people to think about, and be watchful for.

The Access Board is a government agency that sets rules for websites as directed under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. It only applies to government websites. I see nothing to fear here right now. However this sort of thing could grow, first to federal contractors over a certain size, then all contractors, then to all businesses over a certain size… you get the idea.

After all, there’s already a push at the UN to declare it a Right to have accessible websites. I’m all for accessibility. I’ve long written HTML and supported good coding practices that naturally help accessibility. But I’m not for a nanny state, sorry.

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Boxer doing triage in California?

On September 13, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens
Boxer Cutout

The word “triage” keeps coming up in talk of Democrat strategy lately, as the Democrats have to give up seats or even whole states for dead, leaving candidates to fend for themselves (presumably to fail).

Barbara Boxer is continuing that trend. She has a new television ad out, which the Sacramento Bee points out is running in “the Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego media markets.”

That’s interesting because of the markets it leaves out: the ones right down the middle of the state, including Bakersfield and Fresno. Boxer is giving up the bulk of the central valley to Carly Fiorina. In fact Stockton and Modesto count as part of the Sacramento Television Market Area, so technically we don’t know if the ad will be shown there, either, or just in Sacramento proper.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.