Structured Negotiation Articles

West Valley College improves technology for students in Structured Negotiation

On August 26, 2020, the TRE Legal Practice announced a settlement with West Valley College that ensures blind students have access to critical educational technology, including immersive virtual language tools. Reached in Structured Negotiation without a lawsuit, among other things the agreement mandates that future procurement contracts must include provisions requiring technology vendors to deliver… Read more… West Valley College improves technology for students in Structured Negotiation

First Accessibility Agreement in U.S. to Use WCAG 2.1: Reached With Structured Negotiation

On November 2, 2018 Alameda County California, three blind residents, and the National Federation of the Blind announced a settlement designed to protect the rights of blind voters to participate fully in the county’s voting program. It is the first agreement in the United States to include WCAG 2.1 as the accessibility standard. The parties used Structured… Read more… First Accessibility Agreement in U.S. to Use WCAG 2.1: Reached With Structured Negotiation

Feingold and Dardarian Receive California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award

The Law Office of Lainey Feingold is honored to announce that Lainey has received a 2014 California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award for her work in 2013. She shares this year’s CLAY award for disability rights with Linda Dardarian of the Oakland civil rights firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho. While maintaining their own law firms, Linda and Lainey have worked as partners in the truest sense of the word since 1994. Read more… Feingold and Dardarian Receive California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award

Marlaina Lieberg and Ken Metz: Advocates Extraordinaire

The past two months have seen too much loss in the blind advocacy community in the United States. In April I wrote about the death of Sue Ammeter, the blind activist behind a successful Structured Negotiation with the American Cancer Society. Then in May came news that Marlaina Lieberg and Ken Metz had died within days of each other. Both were committed advocates and Structured Negotiation champions. Read more… Marlaina Lieberg and Ken Metz: Advocates Extraordinaire

Book Launch Celebration!

More than 100 people gathered in Berkeley, California on October 16, 2016 to help me celebrate the publication of Structured Negotiation, a Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. The atrium at the beautiful Ed Roberts Campus was perfect place for the party. Blind activists who have helped Structured Negotiation flourish as a way to resolve legal claims without lawsuits, members of the local disability community, and friends and colleagues from so many strands of my life turned out to celebrate the book despite the first big rain of the season. Read more… Book Launch Celebration!

Patience: A Negotiation (and Accessibility) Strategy

Last week I delivered the annual Lawrence Lecture at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University (OSU). My talk was titled: “Forget the Shark, Be a Dolphin Instead.” The focus was captured in the sub-title “Advancing client interests with collaborative negotiating tools.” It was fun presenting to a room full of students and… Read more… Patience: A Negotiation (and Accessibility) Strategy

Structured Negotiation Book Turns Three. Gratitude Abounds

This month marks the three year anniversary of my book, Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. This post is about gratitude and memories. About the global and national interest in collaborative problem solving and digital inclusion. Although the official pub date for the book was in August 2016, the official book launch happened in… Read more… Structured Negotiation Book Turns Three. Gratitude Abounds

Forget the Shark and Be a Dolphin Instead: Structured Negotiation Skills for Practitioners

The article posted here, written by Lainey Feingold, first appeared in the November 2018 issue of Just Resolutions, a publication of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. The November issue was organized by Women in Dispute Resolution (WIDR). WIDR is a “committee of professionals within the Dispute Resolution Section committed to ensuring… Read more… Forget the Shark and Be a Dolphin Instead: Structured Negotiation Skills for Practitioners

Spring 2015 Presentations about Digital Access Law, Structured Negotiations

Interest in digital accessibility law is growing. During May 2015, the month in which we celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Lainey Feingold will be speaking four times about legal developments impacting digital accessibility. In this post read more about her in-person presentations at Austin’s AccessU and at the Global Accessibility Awareness Day MeetUp in San Francisco, and about her virtual presentations as part of the AccessU Summit and the ADA National Network’s Accessible Technology webinar series. Lainey will also speaking to the Collaborative Law Section of the Dallas County Bar about Structured Negotiations. Read more… Spring 2015 Presentations about Digital Access Law, Structured Negotiations

Becky (Welz) Griffith (1971 – 2015)

Becky Griffith was a valuable member of the blind community and a valued Structured Negotiations participant. She died earlier this month at the too-young age of 44. Becky was a claimant in successful Structured Negotiations with Safeway grocery chain. (A Structured Negotiations claimant is the equivalent of a plaintiff in a lawsuit. We use different terminology to emphasize that Structured Negotiations is a collaborative, not an adversarial process.) The Safeway effort convinced the company to upgrade its online grocery shopping site to satisfy the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA so blind people (and everyone else) can use it. In this post you can read more about her participation in the Safeway negotiations, and about the qualities that made Becky a strong advocate for the rights of blind people. Read more… Becky (Welz) Griffith (1971 – 2015)