I have to disagree. Text-only is really boring. It's like a bus with no windows. Even through the dumpy parts of town, windows are preferred by most humans to no windows. Similarly, cheap graphics are often better than no graphics, as long as they are not overly obnoxious.

Our tentative plan is to keep graphics small, sparse, and vague, but we have a lot of old junk to revamp and clip out images from.

detect when [ADA] software is in use?

There is no known standard. Each "reader" vendor may send hints via HTTP header variables, but there is no guarantee they will be the same on the next version.

Plus, mirroring all the "regular" content with an ADA version is a bear. Authors would have to be diligent to keep them in sync.

Maybe if we had a clean CMS it may be possible to simply generate the appropriate content format from a single set of content (data), similar to some mobile-friendly presentation techniques, but right now we have a hodge-podge and historical baggage. Plus, if authors don't use the editor it right, it can still be out of whack, such as "fake" indenting of outlines.

Is it possible to provide an accessibility specific phone number...

We considered that, but it would probably have to be staffed 24/7 to match the website's availability. In other words, if we offer 24/7 service to "regular" readers, we must do the same for the sight-impaired callers, otherwise they could claim discrimination. It's a big org such that no one help-desk person will know everything, meaning you'd have to pay specialists to sit at the phone desk at 3am every night.

All known solutions require lots of resources we don't readily have. Management keeps pressing for an easy way out and easy, cheap answers, but I cannot give any.

Excellent questions, though.

The universe is a hall of mirrors.

Management doesn't want to give up certain functionality. They want SOLID PROOF we must cater to the Lowest Common Denominator to not get sued more. I have none. I have no statistics on sue probabilities to give them. (This includes out of court settlements, not just court cases.)

Further, ease-of-reading is a matter of degree. Some pages if you look at raw HTML are readable verbally, but just not very "friendly". They are not outright "wrong", just not "smooth" to read that way. Such difficulty level is a continuum.

And what exactly is the lowest-common-denominator? If a brand of reader has a bug, is that the lowest?

"Regular" people usually don't know the difference, in my experience. Web designers pay more attention to the source of such images than most readers because it's their job. Maybe if your org is Gucci or BMW it matters more because such customers hone into style issues more. Either way, my org doesn't want to pay for "boosted" styling even if it were the "right" choice, marketing-wise. Not my call. They want cheap, I give them cheap. (It's mostly a side topic to ADA anyhow.)

Correction: rude tone of response, not of "request".

a simple question: "Will a blind person be able to navigate, read, and use your web site to its full extent?".

It's NOT a simple question because it depends on what software they are using, as I described. The software authors can make it do anything or not do anything they want.

Using your analogy, it would be like different brands of wheelchairs are capable of different things. When a building is being designed, it would have to target a series of wheelchair features to accommodate such wheelchairs. But if those wheelchair features are unknown and change every year, then it's a moving and fuzzy target.

And the rude tone of your request is unhelpful. It has no practical purpose. If you are an expert, then simply supply the reader with your grand knowledge rather than insult people.

That's true, but one product category alone is not going to keep an economy afloat. Plus, most of the money and jobs spent on their products ends up in Asia. It's not "trickle down", it's "trickle across".

China appears to gear their system (some would say "rigged") to be job-friendly rather than consumer-friendly. This is because people would riot and overthrow their dictatorial government if they had no jobs. Since they are not used to being consumers, they won't riot over lack of products. Therefore, their government subsidize exports using myriads of subtle tricks to escape the notice of "fair trade" inspectors.

Our org got hit with an ADA lawsuit recently. Our group's focus is on the web side of the lawsuit, although it encompasses many other aspects. One problem is that there are no hard-and-fast rules for what an "ADA-compliant" website is.

For one, the visual-impaired assisting "reading" software is all different. Each brand reads HTML/CSS/JavaScript differently. In theory they shouldn't need to read JavaScript-generated content, but in practice they sometimes do. And building a website without reliance on JavaScript can be really tricky and limiting. If we need to accommodate all brands of reading software, we are truly F'd and might as well file bankruptcy now.

And whether an image is merely "decorative" or "informative" is fuzzy and subject to interpretation. We are starting to toss images altogether so that we don't have that risk. But our web content is growing bland, making us "look" bad to normal readers.

And we have boatloads of content that needs to be redone.

Where's the Tums! I should sue the ADA lawyers for not being "stomach friendly". Indigestion is a disability.

The problem is that economics is tied to human behavior, and human behavior is part of the science of psychology and social science, which are still in an infant stage because we don't really understand how the human brain works; and measuring the impact of changing fads and culture and opinions of the masses is tricky.

In short, it's doing science with too many variables to isolate and tame in a systematic way. Intuition and guesswork thus have to be the substitute in many cases.

For example, let's take the analysis of Keynes-style stimuluses. The history of them doesn't look that good on paper, but it may because researchers cannot factor out the general drag on the economy from a recession. Stimuluses are usually used if it looks like a recession is coming or growing worse. The recession itself is a drag on the economy such that if the stimulus doesn't result in a return to normal, it's hard to know if this is due to the drag of the recession, or the lack of power of the stimulus.

Ideally, we'd fork Earth and run one branch with the stimulus and one branch without. But we cannot do that (yet*). Thus, we have to guess what portion of the drag is caused by the recession, which often depends on consumer and producer perception and their economic worries. Recessions are often a self-fulfilling prophecy: a feedback loop of worry.

* Quantum "splits" may someday be found and be observable

Inflation is too low. The best economies have historically had an inflation rate around 2.5% annual. US inflation has been hovering around 1.7% for a good while. More money in the economy juices things up and would flow to consumers, who have been reluctant to spend because their job doesn't pay well or is uncertain.

Thus, companies are waiting for consumers to come, and consumers are waiting for raises and job stability before they spend more.

Such a catch-22 stand-off is usually a sign to print more money (inflation). Otherwise, companies will play financial games instead of invest in expansion.

It's a difficult political sale because raw materials have been increasing in price (due to world-wide population growth and newly industrial nations), and general inflation will make it look worse. If we can get over that fear, then our economy can run at full capacity instead of the stalemate we have now. A better overall economy is more important than keeping prices of raw materials lower.

I don't think it's about superstition, it's about accepting pluralism and other opinions. Both sides realized the hard way that the religious wars were dragging both sides down, and learned how to live together. Some of it was a form of "let God decide in the afterlife" rather than let humans do all the punishing here and now. The government's role then shifted to keeping the peace instead of enforcing religious rules and doctrine.

Hey, it's sci fi, anything can happen

correction: "genetic influence", not "generic".

Let's say 5% work in the government and get there via exams. It's been going on for almost 1500 years. That's roughly 50 generations. If that 5% has say 50% more children due to more wives (concubines) and/or healthier wives, that can be a big generic influence.