The Wall Street Journal
November 5, 1999 [Tech Center]
Must Web Sites Be Accessible
To All, Including the Blind?
By NICK WINGFIELD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Do Web sites have a legal obligation to accommodate the disabled, the
way public malls and buildings do?
In what could be a key test of disability law in cyberspace, the
National Federation of the Blind has filed a lawsuit against America
Online Inc., alleging that the online service is violating federal law
by remaining inaccessible to blind users.
The Baltimore group's complaint charges that AOL's software doesn't
work with special computer programs that dictate text and otherwise
help blind users operate applications and Web sites. As a result, the
world's most popular online service is inaccessible to the 600,000 and
800,000 legally blind people in the U.S., according to the National
Federation of the Blind.
[Go] Join the Discussion: How much should an online service or Web
site do to accommodate the needs of the disabled? What software or
services currently available are best at making the Net more useful to
them?
* * *
[Go] Company Profile: America Online
Nine blind individuals were also named as plaintiffs in the suit,
filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston, which claims that AOL
isn't complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. The
landmark 1990 law compelled public places to install wheelchair ramps,
Braille signs and other accessibility features for the disabled.
A spokesman for AOL, based in Dulles, Va., says the company was
"disappointed" with the lawsuit. "We understand the desire of members
of the blind community to receive full benefits of the Internet," said
Rich D'Amato, the spokesman. "We are committed to working with blind
and disabled users until that's achieved."
The suit hinges on a basic question: does AOL represent a "public
accommodation" under the ADA? The law has traditionally been applied
to physical places like restaurants, sports arenas and shopping
centers, not the digital corridors of the Internet.
The disabilities advocates could have a strong case, some legal
experts say, given the explosion of service online, from grocery
shopping to stock trading. "I think there can be persuasive arguments
that can be made" in favor of the plaintiffs, says Gary Phelan, a
lawyer specializing in ADA cases based in New Haven, Conn. "In some
ways the Internet is becoming the shopping mall of the 90s."
Others attorneys are more cautious. "Could go either way," says Ruth
Colker, a professor of law at the Ohio State University College of Law
in Columbus, noting that courts "haven't been super-generous in
interpreting" the list of locales covered by the disability law.
Bitter Irony
The suit highlights one of the bitter ironies of the Internet: While
cyberspace represents a potentially powerful new way for disabled
people to access information and services without leaving their homes,
the Net remains a highly visual medium geared towards sighted users.
A number of software makers have attempted to make the Web more
accessible to blind users through "screen readers," software that
verbally dictates text on computer screens. In addition, some software
makers have designed their programs so that they can be easily
navigated using keyboard shortcuts, eliminating the need to use a
mouse.
Meanwhile, industry organizations, such as the World Wide Web
Consortium, have begun promoting accessibility guidelines to Web
publishers. For example, they are encouraging Web publishers to
provide textual descriptions of photographs so that screen readers can
read the material for the blind.
But while disabilities advocates agree that many Web sites have made
progress, they say AOL still remains largely unavailable to the blind.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind,
complained the service doesn't work with screen-reader software. "You
can get at some things on Yahoo, but you can't get anything on AOL" if
you're blind, says Mr. Mauer, who is himself blind. "You can't even
sign up with it."
World Wide Web Consortium
Web Accessibility Home Page
www.w3.org/WAI/References/ Policy.html#ADA
U.S Department of Justice
ADA Home Page
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
U.S. Department of Justice
comments on the Internet
and the ADA
www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal712.txt
National Federation of the Blind
www.nfb.org
Technical experts said the AOL service can easily be made accessible
to the disabled. However, in order for AOL to work with screen-reader
software, the online provider needs to provide simple technology that
allows screen-reader makers to hook their software into the service.
Henter-Joyce Inc., a software company in St. Petersburg, Fla., that
makes a screen reader called JAWS for Windows, says it has programmed
its application to dictate messages exchanged through AOL Instant
Messenger, a chatting program made by AOL. Wilson Craig, marketing
manager at Henter-Joyce, says the company hadn't yet tried to make its
software work with the full-blown AOL service.
Rather, Mr. Craig says his company has focused its efforts on making
its screen reader work Web browsers, such as Netscape Communicator and
Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. As a small company serving a
niche market, Henter-Joyce says focusing on Web browsers rather than
AOL was a better use of its resources.
AOL, meanwhile, says it is eager to make its service more accessible
to blind users. Mr. D'Amoto, the AOL spokesman, says a new version of
the service due next year will work with screen readers for the blind
and provide keyboard shortcuts for blind users. Daniel Goldstein, an
attorney for the National Federation for the Blind, says he would need
to see the changes before moving to drop the suit. "This isn't
something they've communicated to the blind community before today,"
he says.
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
|