Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone

Roots Rock! The Power of Grassroots Efforts

In July 1995, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a study it had conducted to examine personal computer and Internet use. Called Falling through the Net, the report was the first formal recognition by the federal government of the disparities in access to technology that existed for entire groups of people. This is the report that coined the phrase “digital divide.” Although many people have found reason to object to that term since then, due in part to a basic misunderstanding of what it meant, there can be no doubt that the phrase served as an early “heads up” to those who care about democracy and equity as they are affected by technology.

Falling through the Net raised public awareness of ...