structured negotiation

Catherine Skivers: Organizer, Activist, Friend, Blind Community Leader

December 9, 2019

[Update: Catherine Skivers died on December 12, 2019, a week after this post was written.] Catherine Skivers came to California in 1949 at the age of 23 with the man she had married at 16. Within a year, her husband had left her, offering her a one-way bus ticket back to her family in Missouri.… Read more…

Patience: A Negotiation (and Accessibility) Strategy

September 15, 2019

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…

Structured Negotiation Book Turns Three. Gratitude Abounds

August 13, 2019

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…

LGBTQ Activists, Their Lawyers, and Lyft Use Structured Negotiation to Improve Services

August 10, 2019

When persons who were gender-nonconforming or appearing in drag were not picked up by Lyft drivers in San Francisco, they turned to Structured Negotiation to improve the company’s policies and resolve their discrimination claims. This summer the advocacy strategy paid off — no lawsuit needed. At the end of July the claimants announced they had… Read more…

Structured Negotiation Helps Washington Advocates Improve Jail Conditions

August 3, 2019

Congratulations to the Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities (AVID) project at Disability Right’s Washington. The group was recently honored for its work in improving conditions for inmates with mental illness and other cognitive disabilities in Yakima County Jail. AVID used Structured Negotiation to engage the County Jail and negotiate a settlement agreement. According to… Read more…

Ethics in the Digital Accessibility Legal Space: ADA Enforcement Cases or Something Else?

July 23, 2019

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…

ALBERTSONS DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY AGREEMENT

July 13, 2019

Congratulations to Albertsons Companies! Posted here is the digital accessibility settlement agreement the company reached with several blind shoppers from around the United States. The agreement is designed to ensure that the all the company’s online grocery shopping websites and mobile applications are available to people with and without disabilities. Albertsons Cos. participated in Structured… Read more…

More than Mickey: Digital Accessibility Law in Anaheim, March 2019

February 4, 2019

Anaheim California is best known as the home of Disneyland, that place of childhood wonder and crass commercialism. In March 2019 Anaheim will be the site of something else: Lots of learning and conversation about the digital accessibility legal space. On March 12 Lainey will be speaking at the first ever Digital Accessibility Legal Summit.… Read more…

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

November 25, 2018

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…

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

November 17, 2018

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…