I called Southwest Airlines customer service yesterday and left a message
explaining my position.  They called me back today and thanked me for
contacting them.  They confirmed that the suit is real.  They also told me I
am the only blind person who has contacted them so far.  I would encourage
everyone who agrees with my position that this lawsuit is inappropriate to
contact Southwest.

I am an activist when it is called for.  I therefore feel that I must
respond to anything which is inappropriate just as vigorously.

Access now is a law firm (if I remember correctly) which goes around suing
anyone they think they can pressure in to giving them money.  Many of their
suits are non-warranted.  Recently, they attempted to sue several small
shops in San Francisco.  We held a large meeting to educate the store-owners
on what they are and are not legally responsible for.  When access now
settles a suit, they give no instructions on how to improve accessibility.
They appear to only be interested in the potential financial gains.

David Chittenden

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Chittenden" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: Suit Over Airlines' Web Sites Tests Bounds of ADA


> The only comment I have is I have found Southwest's web site to be fairly
> accessible.  In fact, since they removed the time limits and labeled the
> submit button, I find it easy to buy tickets, and did so last night.
>
> David
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kelly Pierce" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:28 AM
> Subject: Suit Over Airlines' Web Sites Tests Bounds of ADA
>
>
> > Suit Over Airlines' Web Sites Tests Bounds of ADA
> >
> > Matthew Haggman
> > Miami  Daily Business Review 10-07-2002
> >
> > When Robert Gumson logs on to the Internet, he uses a software program
> > that converts Web site content into speech. But when he logged on to
> > Southwest Airlines' Web site to make a reservation, Gumson, who is
blind,
> > found that the site was incompatible with his screen-reader program.
> >
> > So Gumson and a Miami Beach, Fla.-based disability rights group, Access
> > Now, filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Miami in June and July
> > against Dallas-based Southwest and Dallas-based American Airlines under
> > the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are doing so under an untested
> > legal theory. Namely, that ADA provisions on the accessibility of public
> > accommodations to the disabled apply to Internet Web sites just as they
> > do to brick-and-mortar facilities like movie theaters and department
> > stores.
> >
> > The parties are arguing over what Congress intended when it passed the
> > landmark disability legislation in 1990. The plaintiffs claim that
> > Congress wrote the ADA so broadly that the Internet is covered, while
the
> > defendants take the position that Congress never meant to include the
> > Internet. Cyberspace was in its infancy at the time the law was crafted.
> > In legal terms, the argument is whether a Web site is a "public
> > accommodation" under Title III of the ADA.
> >
> > Gumson is an Access Now member who lives in Albany, N.Y. The Southwest
> > case is before U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz and the American
> > case is before U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan.
> >
> > In both lawsuits, the airlines have responded by filing a motion to
> > dismiss on grounds that the Title III of the ADA was meant to apply to
> > brick-and-mortar facilities rather than Web sites, which exist digitally
> > rather than physically.
> >
> > Disability rights and corporate defense attorneys are anxiously awaiting
> > the trial court rulings, because many anticipate that this issue could
> > wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
> >
> > "If the court were to find that the ADA applies to the Internet, it's a
> > potentially huge development," said Mark J. Neuberger, managing partner
> > of Buchanan Ingersoll in Miami who heads the firm's labor and employment
> > group. "Already the ADA is a hotbed of litigation."
> >
> > "This is cutting edge litigation because there is very little case law
> > and authority on the subject," says Anamarie Maltzman, an associate
> > focusing on employment law at Steel Hector & Davis in Miami who recently
> > clerked for U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages in Miami.
> >
> > There have been previous lawsuits alleging that the ADA applies to the
> > Internet, but all have settled without a ruling on the merits.
> >
> > In 1999, the National Federation of the Blind sued America Online in
U.S.
> > District Court in Boston alleging that AOL's service was inaccessible to
> > blind users and therefore violated the ADA. In July 2000, AOL agreed to
> > make all of its sites compatible with screen reader technology and the
> > case was settled without a substantive ruling.
> >
> > Over the past two years, Access Now has sued bookseller Barnes & Noble
> > and retailer Claire's Stores for maintaining Web sites that allegedly
> > violated the ADA. Both cases settled.
> >
> > Gumson and Access Now are represented by Steven R. Reininger and Howard
> > R. Behar of Rasco Reininger Perez & Esquenazi in Coral Gables. Southwest
> > is represented by K. Renee Schimkat, a partner at Carlton Fields in
> > Miami. American is represented by Anne Marie Estevez, a partner at
Morgan
> > Lewis & Bockius in Miami. Neither Schimkat nor Estevez returned calls
for
> > comment.
> >
> > "The Internet has become a huge shopping mall and is very important to
> > blind people who sometimes have trouble getting around," said Reininger.
> > "It is critical that there be access."
> >
> > Since it was founded four years ago, Access Now has filed more than 440
> > ADA lawsuits in courts across the country, but only now is it targeting
> > Internet sites. "We are quite tired of being shut out of some areas of
> > life," said Phyllis F. Resnick, vice president and executive director of
> > the 740-member nonprofit group. Resnick started the group with her
> > husband, Edward S. Resnick, president of Access Now, who uses a
> > wheelchair.
> >
> > In their motions to dismiss, attorneys for the airlines argued that the
> > ADA identifies 12 categories of "public accommodation" that include
> > physical spaces such as museums, banks and grocery stores.
> >
> > But the attorneys for Gumson and Access Now cite open-ended language in
> > the law to bolster their claims that the ADA includes Web sites as
public
> > accommodations. For example, under the law, a public accommodation can
be
> > a "place of exhibition or entertainment" or an "other service
> > establishment."
> >
> > With no court opinion directly on point, each side has turned to various
> > commentaries and legal dicta in search of favorable language.
> >
> > Earlier this year, Access Now pointed out, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court
of
> > Appeals wrote in a case called Rendon v. Valleycrest Production that
"the
> > definition of discrimination in Title III covers both tangible barriers
.
> > and intangible barriers."
> >
> > Access Now also cites a 1999 opinion by Richard Posner, the chief judge
> > for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. An influential
> > conservative, Posner said in a nonbinding dictum that the ADA applies to
> > Web sites.
> >
> > "The core meaning of this provision, plainly enough, is that the owner
or
> > operator of a store, hotel, restaurant, dentist's office, travel agency,
> > theater, Web site or other facility (whether in physical space or in
> > electronic space) that is open to the public cannot exclude disabled
> > persons from entering the facility and, once in, from using the facility
> > in the same way that the nondisabled do," Posner wrote in Doe et al. v.
> > Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co.
> >
> > In 1996, Deval L. Patrick, then assistant attorney general heading the
> > Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote in a
> > letter to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, 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."
> >
> > Eight years ago, in a 1994 case, the 1st Circuit commented, "It would be
> > irrational to conclude that persons who enter an office to purchase
> > services are protected by the ADA, but persons who purchase the same
> > services over the telephone or by mail are not."
> >
> > But in May, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami wrote in an
> > opinion that "no court has held that Internet Web sites made available
to
> > the public by retail entities must be accessible. The likelihood of
> > prevailing on this issue at trial is clearly uncertain."
> >
> > In that ruling, Moore approved the class-action settlement between
Access
> > Now and Claire's Stores. Moore wrote: "Some of the ways that
> > accessibility is being provided, including the Web site, are not
> > addressed in Title III regulations or ADA access guidelines, and
> > therefore, are not required under the ADA."
> >
> > In 1999 U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado, in a case styled Hooks v.
> > Okbridge in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, wrote, "If there is no
> > physical structure or facility, there is no place of public
accommodation
> > and Title III of the ADA is not applicable."
> >
> > Some attorneys argue that there's no need to make Internet reservations
> > available to the disabled as long as the airfares people receive through
> > the telephone reservation system are just as low as those available via
> > the Internet.
> >
> > "The goal of the ADA is to allow equal use and enjoyment," said Buchanan
> > Ingersol's Neuberger. "A blind person who wishes to make a plane
> > reservation online can use the telephone."
> >
> > Neuberger noted that airfares online are often cheaper than over the
> > telephone and that airlines would have to give disabled customers the
> > online fares.
> >
> > Some experts, and the airlines, have said that Congress could not
> > possibly have had the Internet in mind when it enacted the disability
> > rights law.
> >
> > "The Internet was not even on the radar in the late 1980s and 1990 when
> > the ADA was passed," said Paul Lopez, a partner at Tripp Scott in Fort
> > Lauderdale. "For the Internet to be covered by the ADA, Congress will
> > probably have to pass an amendment."
> >
> > Unless there is a settlement, Judges Seitz and Jordan are expected to
> > rule on the airlines' motions to dismiss in the next few months.
> >
> > Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1032128683422
> >
> >
> > VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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> >
>
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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>


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
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