Here is the perfect time for the national groups for the blind to seize
this oppertunity and bring suit in all areas of web access in all states
and federal venues on this topic.

   Travel Web sites agree to be more accessible to blind
   By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
   (Published August 19' 2004)
   ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - In one of the first enforcement actions of the
   Americans with Disabilities Act on the Internet, two major travel
   services have agreed to make sites more accessible to the blind and
   visually impaired.

   Priceline.com and Ramada.com have agreed to changes that will allow
   users with "screen reader software" and other technology to navigate
   and listen to the text throughout their Web sites, according to New
   York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

   Although the software and other devices, including a vibrating mouse
   that lets the blind "feel" boxes and images on the computer screen,
   have been available for years, Web sites must have specific coding
   that allows the equipment to operate, Spitzer said.

   "This is a precedent-setting decision," said Carl Augusto, president
   and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. "We hope it's going
   to be influencing other companies throughout the United States so that
   the 10 million blind and visually impaired people can fully
   participate in our society at all levels."

   "It's the right thing to do, and it's good business," said Augusto,
   who is visually impaired.

   Spitzer's settlement follows investigations over the last two years to
   determine if Web sites conform to the federal act and state law that
   require all "places of public accommodation" and all "goods, services,
   facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations" be accessible
   to the disabled.

   Priceline.com has already made the Web site accessible for the
   visually disabled to get airline tickets, said the firm's spokesman,
   Brian Ek. By the end of the year, the entire travel site will be
   accessible, he said.

   Ek said the firm encourages other firms to do the same. He said the
   firm isn't releasing the cost of making the entire site accessible for
   the visually disabled, but said it won't be enough to reduce earnings.

   A spokesman for Ramada.com didn't immediately respond to a request for
   comment.

   "Accessible Web sites are the wave of the future and the right thing
   to do." Spitzer said. "We applaud these companies for taking
   responsible and proper steps to make their Web sites accessible to the
   blind and visually impaired. We urge all companies who have not done
   so to follow their lead."

   Ramada.com and Priceline.com, which face no charges and make no
   admissions of guilt, will pay the state $40,000 and $37,500 to cover
   the investigation's cost. Spitzer said both firms were cooperative.


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