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.
[Latest UpdateJune 28, 2022] Digital accessibility is not just about websites, and the law is taking notice. This post, updated with new developments, highlights cases about kiosk accessibility. I use the term “kiosk” broadly to include tablets and any piece of technology offering services, products, and information. Who will use that technology? People — and that means disabled people.
Read more… Kiosk Accessibility: The Law is Paying Attention
When the United States Supreme Court decided not to take up the Domino’s web accessibility case in October 2019, the case went back to the US federal district court in California. This week (twenty months later) the district court judge issued an important ruling in the case. It was a big win for web accessibility.…
Read more… Another Big Win in the Domino’s Pizza Accessibility Saga
I’m always looking for ways to talk about digital inclusion without reference to legal hammers. This post gathers some yummy analogies for accessibility that can be used to raise awareness and help develop skills. Think blueberry muffins, curry and peanut butter.
Read more… Accessibility is Delicious: Food analogies for digital inclusion
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in the United States is at an unacceptable high rate. As the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in a February 2022 informational release: “Across all educational attainment groups, unemployment rates for persons with a disability were higher than those for persons without a disability.”
Two new resources from the US federal government address one type of barrier to the employment of disabled people: Algorithmic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) hiring tools that discriminate.
Read more… Two US Government Agencies Warn about Hiring Technology that Discriminates against Disabled Applicants
I finally read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I thank the Twitter accessibility community for ensuring that I did not miss this 1979 classic. Adrian Roselli’s Twitter profile got me curious: What is a “hoopy frood” I wondered, and why does its towel location deserve a spot in a Twitter 160…
Read more… The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Global Accessibility Awareness Day
In 2020, lawyers for Dylan Panarra, a deaf man, filed a cutting edge lawsuit against the HTC corporation, one of the biggest electronics companies in the world. The lawsuit stated that HTC violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because there is no captioning on the company’s Virtual Reality (“VR”) content. The first court ruling in the case came on April 15, 2022.
Read more… Early Win for Deaf Plaintiff in VR Captioning Lawsuit
This post originally shared four developments in the legal space about web accessibility overlays. Three are very troubling. One gives hope for stemming the tide of quick-fix “not-solutions” that can actually make websites less usable by people with disabilities. Updates add new content to the original four developments. New to the overlay issue? I first…
Read more… Legal Update: Accessibility Overlay Edition
In 2017 the first federal court web accessibility trial in the United States was held in a Miami Florida courtroom. When the trial was over, the judge ruled that the Winn-Dixie grocery chain violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by maintaining an inaccessible website. Winn-Dixie appealed the ruling. More than three years later, on April…
Read more… Narrow Winn-Dixie Court Opinion Limits Certain Types of Web Accessibility Lawsuits in three U.S. States
Last updated 03.04.21 with new resource from Joe Dolson. Original excerpt: Web accessibility overlays and widgets are Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tools that promise “ADA compliance with one line of code.” These products are the very antithesis of the Capitol Crawl and all that the ADA represents.
Read more… Honor the ADA: Avoid Web Accessibility Quick-Fix Overlays
Congratulations Discord! The popular communications tool recently announced its commitment to digital accessibility with the press release posted here. Discord worked in conjunction with the American Council of the Blind in Structured Negotiation on its accessibility initiative. Lainey Feingold and Washington, D.C. civil rights lawyer Matt Handley of Handley Farah & Anderson were the lawyers…
Read more… Discord Digital Accessibility Press Release
