Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
I wouldn't call it "catering" though, because often it doesn't involve anything more than semantic markup and avoiding exclusively mouse-driven navigation.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_Amendment_to_the_Re...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#Legally_requi...
It's already a de facto requirement for anyone selling software to the government. When I was a PM at Microsoft working on Visio, I was surprised and amazed at how much time and energy went into accessibility of all the Office product. It's not easy to make a visual design program like Visio work well for the blind or visually impaired!
I'm trying to think how a blind user could effectively use a visual design program or its output. Do you output text representation of diagrams? Does a blind user put the product to some use and purpose that's different from the average sighted user?
Not all visual applications can be made accessible.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/03/amazon-quietly-begins-the-l...
Changes to the law seem unlikely given the dysfunction in Congress now and in the foreseeable future. Hence, we may end up with a regulatory patchwork quilt made up of rulings like this one.