Articles
This page has short summaries of every article posted on Lainey Feingold's website with links to the full articles. Visit the Topics Page for all 300 plus articles on this website organized into 38 topics including Structured Negotiation and digital accessibility.
The articles here are in chronological order, arranged by the date of publication or the date of the most recent Update when an article has been updated. Most recent articles and updated articles appear first on this list.
When an Article is updated there is a link to the Updates right below the the summary of the page.
My website just got a refresh and a dolphin swam into the header. Did I convert my law practice to an aquarium? Did I move to Miami? I did not. Many people think lawyers should act like sharks. I have chosen the dolphin instead. Dolphins collaborate and have good communication skills. That’s the kind of lawyer I try to be.
Read more… Why a Dolphin?
In January, 2018 the Applebee’s restaurant chain, kiosk maker E la Carte, Inc., and the National Federation of the Blind and LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired announced a partnership. The collaboration worked to make E la Carte’s table-top ordering and payment kiosk accessible to blind people. The system is used in Applebee’s restaurants…
Read more… Structured Negotiation Helps Parties Focus on Accessible Tabletop Kiosks
[This post updated August 2020] July 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was passed just one year after Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web. In 1990 when then-president George Bush signed the law there were exactly zero websites. Two years later there were ten. And today? Over 1,786,367, 115. Because of the brilliance of the disability organizers and bill drafters, the ADA has provided a strong foundation for advancing accessibility in the digital world.
Read more… Digital Accessibility Legal Update: ADA Anniversary Edition
In February, 2017 California disability rights organizations announced what they termed a “novel settlement” with the State of California. The settlement, reached in Structured Negotiation, guaranteed that blind state Medi-Cal In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) recipients received important government information in formats they could read, including braille, large print, and accessible electronic documents. Read the press…
Read more… Structured Negotiation helps parties resolve claims of blind Medi-Cal IHSS Recipients
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.
Read more… Happy Birthday WCAG — Now You are Twenty!
On February 12, 2018, the New York Times ran a piece in the business section titled Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It. The article explained that top computer science programs are starting to embed ethics courses in the curriculum. I was glad to see that Stanford’s course would include…
Read more… Computer Science Ethics Must Include Accessibility (my rejected NYT letter to the editor)
CVS Pharmacy announced that it has developed Spoken Rx™, a new feature of the CVS Pharmacy app that can read a specific type of label for patients with visual impairments and those who cannot read standard print labels. Spoken Rx is the first in-app prescription reader application to be developed by a national retail pharmacy.
Read more… CVS Spoken Rx™ Press Release
Congratulations to Patreon! Posted here is the digital accessibility settlement agreement the company reached with the American Council of the Blind and individual blind patrons and supporters. The agreement was reached with Structured Negotiation, a collaborative way to solve legal problems. No lawsuit was needed.
Read more… Patreon Digital Accessibility Agreement
Congratulations Patreon! The popular membership platform for creators and their supporters recently announced its commitment to digital accessibility with the press release posted here. Patreon worked in conjunction with the American Council of the Blind and blind creators and patrons including Robert Kingett in Structured Negotiation on its accessibility initiative. Lainey Feingold and Washington, D.C.…
Read more… Patreon Accessibility Press Release
The 7-Eleven V-Com Agreement was negotiated by Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian using American Council of the Blind (ACB), the California Council of the Blind (CCB), and individual blind advocates. A V-com is an advanced ATM in 7-Eleven retail outlets across the United States and 7-Eleven agreed in the settlement that they would all have audio output to allow independent use by blind customers. This was the first agreement in the country in which a non-bank retailer agreed to make ATMs accessible.
Read more… 7-Eleven Talking V-com Agreement