Gratitude for a Poached Egg (an Accessibility and Negotiation Strategy)

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Whenever I travel, I try to eat in local restaurants serving traditional foods. That’s how I found myself at 417 Union in Nashville last month eating poached eggs, grits and a biscuit. The eggs were perfect and I asked the waitress to thank the cook for me. She came back later and told me: “His day is going to go a lot better now that he knows he done good.” Her comment sums up my experience as a negotiator in the digital accessibility space. Everyone wants to know they have “done good.” Telling them so is a powerful negotiating strategy. Read more… Gratitude for a Poached Egg (an Accessibility and Negotiation Strategy)

Lawyers as Changemakers: The Global Integrative Law Movement

Posted on Updated on January 7, 2018
The New York Times ran a powerful obituary on July 26, 2017 about Scharlette Holdman, an unsung woman who devoted her life to inmates on death row. The obituary described those who sought to emulate Holdman’s career by saying “Many mitigation specialists who followed in her footsteps are journalists and social workers. ‘It’s the antithesis of being a lawyer; it’s all about human feeling and connection..'” Is that true? Is human feeling and connection the “antithesis” — the opposite — of being a lawyer? Read more… Lawyers as Changemakers: The Global Integrative Law Movement

Chicago Structured Negotiation and Digital Access Events in October ’17

Posted on Updated on October 14, 2017
This post has information about Lainey Feingold’s Fall speaking events in Chicago. Lainey will be presenting at the Chicago Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design MeetUp, at a free CLE for lawyers sponsored by Equip for Equality and JPMorgan Chase, and at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law with Chicago. disability rights lawyer Andres Gallegos. She is excited to return to Chicago, and is grateful for friends and colleagues in the Windy City making this trip possible. Read more… Chicago Structured Negotiation and Digital Access Events in October ’17

Web Accessibility for Grocers: Winn-Dixie Wasn’t Paying Attention

Posted on Updated on August 11, 2017
Last month the Winn-Dixie grocery chain lost the very first trial under the Americans with Disabilities Act about the accessibility of a private company’s website. A blind shopper had sued the chain when he couldn’t access online coupons and other parts of the company’s website. The judge’s verdict was big news; unlike most accessibility stories it was covered in the mainstream media. But web accessibility for grocery stores is nothing new. If Winn-Dixie had been paying attention, it would have known over three years ago that grocery chains were making their websites accessible. Winn-Dixie should not have waited for the legal knock on the door. When it came, it should not have put up a fight. Read more… Web Accessibility for Grocers: Winn-Dixie Wasn’t Paying Attention

Blind People Cook: A Web Accessibility Story

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Another day, another hit piece against law suits about website accessibility. Typically these articles are best ignored. But a recent piece in the New York Post demands attention. I’ve asked web accessibility leader and home cook extraordinaire Lucy Greco to join me in responding to the article, titled “Lawyers cash in on suits demanding ADA-compliant websites.” You’ll find out below why Lucy’s cooking skills are as relevant to this piece as her web expertise. Read more… Blind People Cook: A Web Accessibility Story

Rejected by the Los Angeles Times

Posted on Updated on July 31, 2017
On June 23, 2017, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed titled “Is your company’s website accessible to the disabled? You’d better hope so.” The piece was mean spirited and full of inaccuracies about web accessibility. I took the piece’s alternative facts personally because the author wrongly claimed that Bank of America, Charles Schwab, and Safeway had been sued for web accessibility. I knew better — my clients, co-counsel and I had worked with each of these companies in Structured Negotiation. Joseph O’Connor and I tried to submit a response to the Los Angeles Times, but our efforts were rejected. Read more… Rejected by the Los Angeles Times

Safeway Announces Website Accessibility Initiative

Posted on Updated on July 2, 2017
Safeway Announces Website Accessibility and Usability Enhancements to its On-line Grocery Delivery Website Benefiting Shoppers with Visual Impairments Customers Applaud Safeway’s Commitment Pleasanton, California (December 13, 2013) — Safeway (NYSE:SWY) today announced a comprehensive initiative to make its online grocery shopping website more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments. The site enhancements are the result of collaboration between Safeway and several visually impaired customers. Safeway has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard and has already made significant enhancements to its online shopping website to meet this standard and will continue to do so over the next year. Read more… Safeway Announces Website Accessibility Initiative

ABA Journal Highlights Structured Negotiation

Posted on Updated on May 31, 2017
Catching flies with honey is not the default strategy most attorneys use to resolve disputes. But Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian, both longtime California advocacy lawyers, have worked out a method that avoids conflict, costly litigation and protracted time in court—while still yielding beneficial results for their clients. The process they call “structured negotiations” has been used mainly to achieve improved access for the blind, including ATM machines that talk, websites embedded with code to decipher text and photos, and tactile point-of-sale devices in grocery stores. Read more… ABA Journal Highlights Structured Negotiation