Articles
This page has short summaries of every article posted on Lainey Feingold's website with links to the full articles. Visit the Writings Page to read Lainey's articles that were first posted in other publications. Visit the Topics Page for all 300 plus articles on this website organized into 38 topics including web accessibility settlements and Talking ATM press releases.
On May 5, 1999 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued a press release announcing the publication of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0. The headline was confident: “WAI Provides Definitive Guidance for Web Access by People with Disabilities.” Let’s honor WCAG’s birthday by redoubling efforts to make the promise of the web a reality — let’s make it available to everyone, including people with disabilities.
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On March 13, 2019, I presented the 2019 Digital Accessibility Legal Update to a packed house at the annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. With so much content, and no recordings, I try to follow up the powerpoint with a post like this one — summarizing this year’s updates with links to more information for those who are curious. And since it took me a month to get this out, there are even two new items in this post that were not part of the update.
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Anaheim California is best known as the home of Disneyland, that place of childhood wonder and crass commercialism. In March 2019 Anaheim will be the site of something else: Lots of learning and conversation about the digital accessibility legal space. On March 12 Lainey will be speaking at the first ever Digital Accessibility Legal Summit.…
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[UPDATE: On June 13, 2019 Domino’s asked the United States Supreme Court to hear this case and reverse this decision. Read an article about Domino’s request.] On January 15, 2019 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave a big win to digital accessibility in a case against Domino’s Pizza. The lower court had ruled for…
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On November 2, 2018 Alameda County California, three blind residents, and the National Federation of the Blind announced a settlement designed to protect the rights of blind voters to participate fully in the county’s voting program. It is the first agreement in the United States to include WCAG 2.1 as the accessibility standard. The parties used Structured…
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For a recent keynote delivered at the third annual ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium I included the slide pictured with this post. If social media is any indication, it was far and away the most popular slide in my talk. The slide image was developed by Jared Smith of the accessibility consultancy WebAIM and is titled “WebAIM’s Hierarchy…
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The article posted here, written by Lainey Feingold, first appeared in the November 2018 issue of Just Resolutions, a publication of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. The November issue was organized by Women in Dispute Resolution (WIDR). WIDR is a “committee of professionals within the Dispute Resolution Section committed to ensuring…
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A September 26, 2018 article in the Credit Union Times brought a sigh of relief to those working for an accessible, inclusive digital world. The article was titled DoJ Refuses Request to Issue ADA Guidance for Websites. It announced that the Department of Justice was not going to issue any new regulations about web accessibility…
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During a recent presentation about the digital accessibility legal space I was asked a question. It was about a word that pops up with increasing frequency as fear of lawsuits drives too much of the digital accessibility world. The “C” word — compliance. The question was this:
If the captions on online videos are 65% accurate do you think that would comply with legal responsibilities?audience question
This is the kind of question that arises when people are driven by fear. When people forget what accessibility is about. Even forget what the law is about.
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On June 5, the city of Portland, Oregon issued a press release with the title “Major milestone reached in making Portland’s streets and sidewalks more accessible.” The announcement was reached as a result of a sweeping settlement negotiated between the city and residents who use wheelchairs. Under the agreement, Portland will install and upgrade approximately 18,000 curb ramps over the next twelve years. The agreement was reached in Structured Negotiation.
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