Subjects - Internet and Businesses Online

We interrupt our irregularly scheduled series on web accessibility for a not so late breaking news flash (sans Flash, of course.) It seems that the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is on the verge of releasing a whole new set of Web Cont

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ent Accessibility Guidelines called WCAG 2.0. With numerous changes in place, it now seems that the whole set of guidelines that many of us have worked so hard to implement are all kind of up in the air.

In many ways, the

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

discussions about the document reflect the disparate philosophical positions within the community on what "accessibility" means. – Bruce Lawson, WCAG 2.0: when I want a beer, don’t give me shandy

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

Whether this new set of guidelines is the incredibly forward-looking, non-technology-dependant vision of accessibility it claims to be or whether it’s a backsliding, meaningless bunch of drivel meant to pander to corporate interests i

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

currently the subject of much debate across the Internet by people far smarter and better informed than I. Perhaps at some point these discussions will include real people with real disabilities who, for some reason, have very little t

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

do with this, but currently that doesn’t seem to be the case.

WCAG 2 backtracks on basics of responsible web development that are well accepted by standardistas. WCAG 2 is not enough of an improvement and was not worth t

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

e wait. – Joe Clark, A LIST APART: To Hell with WCAG 2

To be fair, the new guidelines are, in fact, a work in progress and not formally approved yet. Still, it’s a hard read. I mean it. I actua

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ly sat down to read the complete documentation and was only two pages into it before I found myself thinking how much I’d rather be at a dental appointment. So, I apologize for not having time to wade through the massive, unreadable doc

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

mentation. I’ll have to leave that to others.

I’m fully aware of the fact that not everyone who reads Joe’s article will wade through several hundred pages from the 3 WCAG specifications, and who could blame you? I read t

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

em, but the specs are certainly long, tedious and, in many cases, extremely difficult to comprehend. – Lachlan Hunt, WCAG 2.0

Perhaps groups like the WCAG Samurai (http://wcagsamurai.org/) woul

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

n’t have to exist if the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) committee didn’t tend to move and operate like a sumo wrestler itself. After all, there is something to be said for open discussion and actual accomplishment.

The simple fact

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

f the matter is that I actually have to work for a living. I build real websites that serve real needs in real communities and are used by real people–only some of whom have disabilities. Frankly, I don’t get paid for any of this. Not o

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

e client of mine has ever asked for or even commented on having an accessible website. It’s something that I do on my own because I consider it to be part of the job. It’s simply a matter of good design and usability.

The

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

only ray of hope I can find in the whole thing is that perhaps this will encourage website owners (especially those in the public sector) to think beyond checking the WCAG checkbox. Maybe this will make them think about how to really ma

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

e their site more accessible rather than simply concentrating on covering their collective arses. – Paul Boag, Body blow to web accessibility guidelines

What do we do in the face of all this de

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ate? Quite simply, those of us that actually make websites and care about making them useful and accessible to real people are just going to have to go on doing the best we can on our own–as, in fact, we’ve pretty much been doing. We wi

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

l continue to use our own brains to think about what we’re doing and how we can make it as useful as possible to all users. That’s all there is to it. We’re already going above and beyond the requirements of our sites.

So, before we ge

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

too carried away, keep this in mind. Even the home page of the W3C itself (http://www.w3.org/) only claims WCAG 1, level 1 compliance. Yes, we can and should go above that. Section 508 alone gets into levels 1 and 2. However, lets not

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ose track of our underlying budget and time limitations. We don’t expect an accessible building to have a hospital built into it. We don’t have to go that far with our websites either.

WCAG 2.0, like WCAG 1.0 before it, is a set of gui

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

elines. It’s not a wall or a fence. If it leads you where you need to go, great. If not, then you gotta find your own way. After all, it’s you that your clients and users depend on, not the W3C.

Thank you all, code well, and good night

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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