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THE INTERNET AS A COMMON CARRIER: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DISABLED
Timothy J. Stanton

Last modified: 2018-01-14

Abstract


The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act extended a host of civil rights to the disabled. The law and its subsequent amendments, however, did not explicitly address Web accessibility. Understandably, this issue has grown in importance over the years. During the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission moved to guarantee net neutrality by effectively making the Internet a common carrier. At the time of this article, the Trump administration is still formulating policy on net neutrality. This paper investigates the implications of common carrier status for Web accessibility for the disabled. If common carrier status for the internet survives the regulatory and legal processes, then advocates for the disabled can more forcefully argue that common carrier status mandates that Web content be accessible to those with disabilities.


Keywords


net neutrality; Americans with Disabilities Act; web accessibility