Discount accessibility engineering: haven't we met before?

The situation today with the existing guidelines for making new technology and information accessible (for example World Wide Web Consortium, 1999) reminds much about the state of HCI or usability engineering in the late 1980. Jacob Nielsen speaks about something he calls "the intimidation barrier" (Nielsen, 1994a, 1994b). This barrier makes most people refrain from using any usability method since most methods require a lot of knowledge, are expensive, and are too complex.