From Googling a bit, it's my understanding that AOL and Target settled 
out of court and agreed to make their web sites accessible. I'm assuming 
they did this to avoid potentially losing these cases in court and to 
avoid any further negative press from these cases. A judge never ruled 
in these cases that the ADA applied to web sites.

Again from Googling around a bit, Southwestern Airlines apparently won 
their law suit and did not have to make their web site accessible. The 
judge actually ruled in this case that the ADA does not apply to web 
sites. The ADA lists what it applies to, and the internet is not 
specifically mentioned, creating this uncertainty. The Southwestern 
Airlines case obviously creates a bad precedent that other companies 
will be able to refer to if they're ever sued over the accessibility of 
their web sites.

Web sites are even more important now to companies and shoppers, plus 
there are more guidelines on accessibility out there, including what a 
company has to do to comply with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 
so even though there is a bad precedent out there, I think it's still 
considered generally unclear if the ADA applies to web sites or not, but 
I think it's trending in that direction and just waiting for some 
clearer wording and regulations.

On 08/17/2014 06:31 PM, Rachel wrote:
> Thanks, Christopher, for your well-thought-out response and the
> resources you mention.
>
> I did contact the company in question, based in the U.S., and asked to
> speak to their tech support department.  I was told that they don't
> speak to customers, so they connected me to someone who was playing
> customer service supervisor that day, and I explained the situation to
> him. He claimed to be taking notes on what I said and said he'd let the
> tech people know the situation.  I gave them my phone number and said
> that I'd be totally open to discussing the situation with them and doing
> tests on the site if need be.  I did threaten legal action if the
> problem wasn't dealt with, but no one can hold me to that, of course:
> People make empty threats all the time.  The thing is that I'd like to
> really know whether I have the law on my side in this or not.  And from
> all you're saying, it isn't clear that I do.  I don't understand this,
> though, and maybe you can explain it: If there isn't a clear law on the
> books that states that a private company must make its Web site
> accessible to the blind, how is it that companies such as Target and
> Southwest Airlines, to name just a few, have been sued over this issue?
>   Are either of these companies federally funded in any way? I wouldn't
> think so, but then, this is why I'm asking you.  And if the same or
> equal service cannot be provided to the blind person in another way,
> doesn't that count for something? I called this company and asked if
> they could help place an order for me, and they told me no for security
> reasons.
> Thank you for any further thoughts you may have on this issue.
> Rachel
> On 8/17/2014 12:55 PM, Christopher Chaltain wrote:
>> First, and this is just my opinion, I wouldn't start by threatening
>> legal action with my first contact to a web site administrator. I'd just
>> point out that I'm a blind user and I'm unable to use your site for the
>> following reasons. In some cases, the person or company just may not be
>> aware of the situation and will be more than willing to help out once
>> the issue is pointed out to them. I've had success contacting companies
>> like Apple, Winamp, WhatIfSports and so on and seeing my issues resolved.
>>
>> Unfortunately, if you're talking about the US, it isn't so clear that
>> there are laws on the book at the moment that apply to a private
>> company's web presence. The article at
>> http://www.uiaccess.com/us-legal.html does a good job of explaining
>> this. That being said, it also isn't clear that current laws don't apply
>> to a company's web sites, and it's just a matter of time before
>> regulations are put in place that codify a companies obligations to make
>> their web sites accessible.
>>
>> There's also the case that it just makes sense to make your web site
>> accessible. This would give you access to more customers. Further, it
>> would keep you out of any law suits while the law is currently a bit
>> murky and would put you ahead of the game when it becomes clearly
>> illegal for a site to be unaccessible. I'm talking about the US here,
>> but there are already laws in other countries where sites are required
>> to be accessible, so if you're talking to an international company then
>> they should already be aware of this. The W3 itself has a lot of
>> resources on why it makes sense to make your site accessible and
>> guidelines and tools that will help. I'd point someone at
>> http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/pol for more information.
>>
>> On 08/14/2014 10:24 PM, Rachel wrote:
>>> Can anyone tell me if private companies/Web sites are legally required
>>> to be accessible?  I'm coming across more and more sites lately that
>>> once were accessible but aren't anymore due to changes recently made to
>>> them.  Do I have a right to threaten these companies with legal action
>>> if they don't make their sites accessible?  I'm assuming so, as Target,
>>> Southwest Airlines, and so many others have been forced to make their
>>> sites accessible.
>>>
>>> Any guidance on how I might proceed would be appreciated.
>>> Thank you.
>>> Rachel
>>>
>>>
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>>

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail


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