(FORTUNE Magazine) – Over the past few years, as more information has become available online, the disabled have been left behind. The Web is limiting to the blind, even when they use screen-reading software. Streaming audio isn't captioned for the deaf, and complex keyboard commands present a challenge to those with limited motor skills. But a little-noted set of federal regulations may soon break down those barriers.

The regulations require that all federal Websites, as well as those of the 11,000 or so businesses that serve the U.S. government, be made more accessible to the disabled beginning June 21. All graphic images must carry text captions; information that is conveyed with color--hyperlinks, for instance--must also be conveyed without it; and users must have alternative means of accessing essential information contained in multimedia presentations. Online forms and scanned documents have to be accessible too.

The new rules--the result of amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act--may prove more effective than previous attempts to force commercial Websites to be more accessible for the disabled. The National Federation of the Blind sued America Online (now part of FORTUNE's parent, AOL Time Warner) in 1999, claiming its service violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because it was difficult for blind users to navigate. AOL later settled the case, promising to make future versions of its software more accessible to disabled customers.

The cost of retrofitting all those Web pages--as well as other hardware and software mandated by the new rules--is estimated at $690 million, much of which will be paid to tech consultants and specialized-software developers. "For IT services firms, it can be viewed as a mini-Y2K," says Paul McQuade, an intellectual-property lawyer at Greenberg Traurig in Tysons Corner, Va., who advises companies on how to comply with the new rules. Advocates for the disabled hope that companies such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Compaq, and Adobe will apply the new accessibility standards to all their commercial products.

Certainly folks like Robert Yonaitis are doing a brisk business. Yonaitis is CEO of HiSoftware, a New Hampshire company that sells a program that scans Web pages, highlights areas that don't comply with the new rules, and offers fixes. In recent weeks he has fielded calls from at least 75 federal agencies, including the Army and the National Weather Service, as well as some private businesses. "No one wants to hear in three months that the government can't buy from them because their site isn't accessible," Yonaitis says. That means that when it comes to the Web, a disability may be a handicap no more.