Norway to force some websites to follow usability guidelines

You have completely misunderstood my meaning. Q: How do we get rid of [slavery|child labor|80 hour work weeks|polluting the waterways] when no one else does? It will be horrible for our industries! A: Convince the other countries to get rid of [slavery|child labor|80 hour work weeks|polluting the waterways] as well. My answer is similar - if Norway's desire to support the human rights of the disabled is so burdensome that business is no longer possible, then a possible solution is to convince other countries to also support the rights of their disabled populations.

"often building things speculatively"

It really depends on what they are building, does it not? If it's the Norwegian equivalent of Amazon, with 150 people working on the project then that's different than a group of 4 undergraduates with a bright idea.

In the main thread, I pointed out that the actual Norwegian laws has exceptions for when there's undue burden. This parallels equivalent ADA exceptions in the US. (In the US: "Employers are not required to provide accommodation where doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business". In Norway, "There is an exemption from the requirement for universal design, if this causes an "undue burden" for the business, see § 13 subsection.")

Almost certainly small speculative startups will not be subject to this law, if it's anything like the ADA. To resolve that will require reading the Norwegian laws directly, which is beyond my powers. (What little I've found says that they are still working on the details.)

I'm hardly calling for a Harrison Bergeron solution. We've had the ADA in the US for 24 years and that hasn't hobbled the able. It's has required companies and owners to spend money (making money is a huge part of a person's life) to redress someone else's disabilities. Many people don't like the ADA for exactly the reasons you don't. It's still the law.

I pointed to successful lawsuits in the US which have established that web sites in the US are subject to the ADA requirements. I pointed to the rule making process which has started to establish what that means. Something equivalent will be happening in the US, either through regulations or piecemeal through lawsuits. Do you want your startup to be surprised by an ADA lawsuit someday? Or would you rather a set of rules where you can figure out when to start with ADA support, once your startup is successful enough?

That web site says "Solutions that are not covered by the regulations are ... Social media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter spent in the private context. ... television media, including movies and network television."

A YouTube competitor sounds like it would fall under one or both of those exemptions.

A hypothetical for you: you want to sell quilts that you made yourself, and use the living room of your house to show and sell the quilts. But now that you're open to the public, you need to adhere a whole bunch of guidelines, like wheelchair access. You'll either have to hire an expensive carpenter or break the law.

I use this to point out that your example isn't unique to a web site, but is generally true of any accessibility requirement. That's why (looking around a bit) "There is an exemption from the requirement for universal design, if this causes an "undue burden" for the business, see § 13 subsection."

Or in Norwegian: Det er gjort unntak fra kravet til universell utforming, dersom dette medfører en «uforholdsmessig byrde» for virksomheten, jf.§ 13 tredje ledd.

You'll have to track down what that means. In the US context, that usually means that a single person with a small web site - or someone selling quilts from their home - is not subject to the same ADA requirements as, say, NetFlix.