Obviously, this is much more difficult to overcome then the "racial" digital divide or the economic digital divide... this requires actual technology to be developed, but it's chicken and egg right now. Why should private industry develop good technology for a non-market, and how will it become a market without the technology?
As a counterpoint of sorts, Disabled people represent the true digital divide says The Register. "Only twenty-four percent of disabled Americans own computers compared with a national average of over fifty, and only ten percent use the Internet compared with a national average of thirty-eight, according to a report from the Disability Statistics Center at the University of California, San Francisco, written by David Keer of the US Department of Education."
It may be "insensitive", but it usually makes sense to try to identify the problem if you really want the problem fixed and not reputation or political power.
Except that when you try to fix the wrong problem, the real problem doesn't even come close to being fixed. (This applies to lots of things.) What if the problem truly is one only of income? Wouldn't that change the strategies that should be used?
The thing that most annoys me about "political correctness" is that a "problem" is diagnosed... generally one of the Big Three of Race, Gender, or Culture, it becomes "insensitive" to claim it could possibly be anything else, and government programs and private enterprise rush to fix the problem.
Does anyone know if the March 25th meeting is going to be web cast? I'd really like to know...
'Tis a start, but I'll believe it when I see it.
"Nearly all members of an advisory commission on Tuesday afternoon said that the privacy implications of taxing electronic commerce are worrisome enough that Congress should hold hearings on the topic."
Mixed on Taxes, Not Privacy: "A federal panel that couldn't agree on Internet taxes managed to tell Congress to pass laws to protect Americans' privacy online.
DVD Player at Apex of Controversy: "Unlike other DVD players, the Apex can play DVD movies created anywhere in the world. Regions are assigned specific numbers so, for example, DVDs created in Region 1 –- the United States -– can only be played in that area. But by accessing a hidden menu in the Apex player, users can turn off regional encoding.