Subject: Accessible Society E-Letter 10/8/2002
Website access issues in court again
Web access being what it is -- or isn't -- it is not surprising that
increasing numbers of lawsuits have been filed over the lack of
website access.
When Robert Gumson, who is blind, logged on to Southwest Airlines'
Web site to make a reservation and found the site inaccessible via
his screen-reader browser, he sued the company under the Americans
with Disabilities Act. Gumson's suit is joined by Access Now, a
disability rights group in Florida. The group has filed a number of
other web access suits in recent months.
The airline has moved to dismiss the suit, on the grounds that the
Title III of the ADA was meant to apply to brick-and-mortar
facilities rather than Web sites. Many believe that this case, or one
like it, will eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
There have been other lawsuits over web access -- the National
Federation of the Blind sued AOL a few years ago -- but this and
other suits have been settled, with no court ruling. An assistant
attorney general's letter in the mid 1990s is one of the few
documents from the Department of Justice on the matter; the letter
noted that "entities that use the Internet for communications
regarding their programs, goods, or services must be prepared to
offer those communications through accessible means as well." ) To
read about Gumson's suit, go to
http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArt
icle&cid=1032128683422)
Last year at this time, usability expert Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen
Norman Group reported that web usability was three to six times
better for non-disabled people than for people with low vision, no
vision or motor impairment. (see our E-Letter on this study at
http://www.accessiblesociety.org/e_letters/eletter103001.htm). At
that time, Nielsen's group had research subjects try buying Janet
Jackson's CD "All for You" from Target's website; find a bus
departing O'Hare airport to a specific address in Chicago using the
Transit Chicago website and find the best mutual fund satisfying
certain criteria on Schwab's website. People using screen readers or
screen magnification programs could not complete these tasks
three-fourths of the time due to the websites' inaccessibility.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that electronic and
information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by
the Federal government be accessible; the rules on this took effect
over a year ago (see
http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/webaccess/sect508.htm)
Earlier this month. Calif. Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation
requiring that websites, computers, cell phones and other electronic
devices created or used by the state government be accessible to
people with disabilities. SB 105 also establishes the Division of
Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Deaf and Hard of
Hearing (Division) within the Department of Rehabilitation (Read more
at http://www.usbln.com/news/gen_news_09292002.html).
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