Web Accessibility News

Web accessibility is an on-going legal and ethical commitment and therefore must form a part all companies thinking in the development of new technology in the online world. To achieve and effectively manage this commitment, developers should look to consider accessibility from the outset and to design new technologies with accessibility as a fundamental consideration.

Back in the early days of the internet, when having a computer at home usually meant a single room with a bulky desktop tower, web accessibility was barely a thought for those in the IT industry, let alone an afterthought. As the early 2000s wore on, third party software manufacturers began to develop bespoke desktop access solutions, often at a hefty mark-up. The “Mobile First” digital landscape, which was to emerge a decade or so later, changed the game forever. Suddenly, using their smartphones out and about, “ordinary” able-bodied folks found themselves plunged into situations that temporarily mirrored those routinely experienced by disabled people…

When the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was passed to prohibit employment discrimination based on disability, it was supposed to protect disabled people and ensure their rights in the United States. “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States,” Section 504 of that law reads, “shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”…

Gabriel Guimaraes grew up in Vitória, Brazil, in a yellow house surrounded by star-fruit trees and chicken coops. His father, who wrote software for a local bank, instilled in him an interest in computers. On weekends, when Guimaraes got bored with Nintendo video games, he programmed his own. In grade school, he built a humanoid robot and wrote enough assembly code to make it zip around his home. In Vitória, an island city, his most ambitious peers dreamed of attending university in São Paulo, an hour away by plane…

The number of companies that scored an 80% and above on The Disability Equality Index (DEI) more than quadrupled to 205 from 43 in 2015, according to a report released July 15. The DEI, facilitated by Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), is an annual benchmarking tool for the Fortune 1000 companies and the top 200 revenue grossing law firms in the U.S. to measure their inclusion against competitors. In 2020, 247 companies participated in the DEI, representing a U.S. workforce of 11 million people, according to Disability:IN and AAPD…

As businesses scrambled to create remote work infrastructure following pandemic-driven shutdowns, they may have also unintentionally advanced accessibility for workers with disabilities. Before the pandemic, many individuals with disabilities faced difficulties attending interviews and finding consistent travel options for work. Kirk Adams, CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, pointed out in an opinion piece for HR Dive that nearly 40% of people with blindness or low vision report having turned down a job offer just because of transportation concerns…

The podcasting company Gimlet Media now faces a class-action lawsuit for failing to make its podcasts accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. In the complaint, filed today in New York, plaintiff Kahlimah Jones argues that Gimlet violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide closed captioning on various podcasts. As the suit points out, about 36 million people in the U.S. are deaf or hard of hearing. As the suit points out, about 36 million people in the U.S. are deaf or hard of hearing; as we know, precisely 99 percent of Americans are making podcasts…

As summer kicks into high gear, and the Americans with Disabilities Act’s 30th anniversary looms large at the end of this month, businesses in many jurisdictions are in the process of gradually reopening to the public. And if the long and difficult spring wasn’t trying enough, businesses now face yet another challenge — balancing maintaining the safety of employees and patrons against complying with Title III of the ADA, and applicable state and local laws, which can significantly vary depending on the jurisdiction…

“Nothing About Us Without Us” may be a long-standing maxim within the disability rights movement but a sizable proportion of creators of digital content appear yet to receive the memo.

Over the past eight years, the number of cases filed in courts across the country alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has more than quadrupled, with thousands filed each year.