The Society of Human Relations Management (SHRM) describes itself as “the foremost expert, convener and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally.” Now, as a result of a lawsuit filed in…
Read more… Professional development courses must be accessible: New lawsuit settlement in case against SHRM
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
On August 17, 2021 judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld sanctions against a Florida lawyer (Scott Dinin) and his client (Alexander Johnson) because of unethical conduct in cases brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar Florida law. Sanctions are a way that a court can punish lawyers and clients for bad behavior. In this case the sanctions included requiring Johnson and Dinin to pay money to a disability-based nonprofit or the court and preventing them from filing ADA cases without the court’s permission.
Read more… U.S. Federal Appeals Court Slams Unethical ADA Practice
On December 4th, 2016 60 Minutes aired a 13 minute story on “drive by lawsuits” under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The segment, which followed a puff piece on Paul Ryan, questioned lawsuits filed by three lawyers, two of them being sued by their disabled clients for malpractice. Anderson Cooper, the show’s host, did not…
Read more… 60 Minutes Slams ADA, Boosts Trump Agenda
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)
I’m sitting in the airport on my way home from two conferences put on by #A11yTO. I’ve been trying to figure out what made the three days in Toronto so great. This post is what I’ve come up with. #A11yTO is a volunteer-run digital accessibility community in Toronto. Puzzled by the title? A11y (that’s A-eleven-Y)…
Read more… Community in Toronto: What Made the #A11yTO Conferences So Spectacular?
A 177% jump in the number of web accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court over two years. A handful of lawyers filing hundreds of cases, settling quickly, with no public statement about any accessibility improvements. Industry associations looking to roll-back the ADA, state legislatures limiting the right to sue about digital accessibility. So called experts…
Read more… Ethics in the Digital Accessibility Legal Space: ADA Enforcement Cases or Something Else?