Who is to Blame for Delay in ADA Web Access Regs? It’s not the DOJ

The 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) falls on Wednesday, July 26, in just about two weeks. Will that be the day that official notice of long-promised web accessibility regulations for state and local governments in the United States is finally published? The official notice, called a Notice of Proposed Rule Making… Read more… Who is to Blame for Delay in ADA Web Access Regs? It’s not the DOJ

New regulations for kiosks and self-service transaction machines? We’ve been here before.

On September 21, 2022 the United States Access Board, a federal government agency, issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) about kiosks. The Notice is about the details for making self-service kiosks (alternatively referred to as self-service transaction machines (SSTMs)) independently usable by people with disabilities. The image accompanying this article is an… Read more… New regulations for kiosks and self-service transaction machines? We’ve been here before.

$240,000.00 Jury Verdict in Blind Students’ Accessibility Lawsuit against Community College

On May 26, 2023 a jury in Los Angeles, California awarded two blind students a little over $240,000.00 in their lawsuit against the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). The suit was filed in 2017 by students Roy Payan and Portia Mason under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation… Read more… $240,000.00 Jury Verdict in Blind Students’ Accessibility Lawsuit against Community College

Two US Government Agencies Address Online Accessibility in Higher Education: Are Regulations Next?

On May 19, 2023, two United States federal agencies issued what is known as a “Dear Colleague” letter about the importance of digital accessibility in higher education. A Dear Colleague letter is a tool that government agencies use to convey policy, resources, and commitment on various issues. The higher education digital accessibility letter was jointly… Read more… Two US Government Agencies Address Online Accessibility in Higher Education: Are Regulations Next?

Early Win (and Settlement) for Deaf Plaintiff in VR Captioning Lawsuit

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 (and Settlement) for Deaf Plaintiff in VR Captioning Lawsuit

Two US Government Agencies Warn about Hiring Technology that Discriminates against Disabled Applicants

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

Podcasts Need Transcripts: December 2021 lawsuit against SiriusXM

On December 9, 2021, the National Association of the Deaf (“NAD”) and Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”) filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora. The companies do not provide transcripts or captions for podcasts. (Sirius purchased Stitcher in 2020 for 325 million dollars. In 2019 it acquired Pandora in a $3.5 billion all-stock transaction.) The… Read more… Podcasts Need Transcripts: December 2021 lawsuit against SiriusXM

#ADA32: The ADA has applied to digital for decades

Recently I had the opportunity to ask an audience the first words that came to mind when I said “law in the digital accessibility space.” I heard what I often hear: “threatening” “ambiguous” “confusing.” Yet I heard something else too. I heard reference to the law in the digital space as a “powerful enabler”and a… Read more… #ADA32: The ADA has applied to digital for decades

Legal Update: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorneys Offices, Championing Digital Access

During the previous United States presidential administration some very committed disability rights lawyers hunkered down in the Department of Justice (DOJ). They did what they could to protect the Americans with Disabilities Act during that challenging time. But there were very few proactive developments in the digital accessibility space. Today things are different! Recent developments show that the DOJ is once again a champion of disability rights generally and digital accessibility specifically, Read more… Legal Update: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorneys Offices, Championing Digital Access