Digital Accessibility News

A recent lawsuit filed in California federal court serves as a good reminder to all our readers that it’s so important to be mindful of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”). For the past several years, we’ve seen a steady flow of cases filed against cannabis companies for their alleged failures to run websites and point-of-sale terminals that interfere with a...

Sam Ash Music Corp. has failed to make its website fully accessible and independently usable for people who are blind or visually impaired, a new class action lawsuit alleges. Plaintiff Jahron Black, who is legally blind, claims Sam Ash is denying individuals who are blind or visually impaired equal access to the goods and services offered on its website by not making it fully accessible...

Fonts, or typefaces, are just about everywhere, but they're not something the average person thinks about every day, although they have a surprising importance to nearly every aspect of life. It's a choice that underpins how well a person can understand any message and even conveys a message itself depending on how it’s set up. They're everywhere from emails to street signs to advertisements and...

When it comes to accessibility in games, the first aspect people always look for is an options menu. From customizing controls, adjusting subtitle size, or even activating varying colorblind filters, these settings help to dismantle any inaccessible barriers that could appear. And this constant search for features has become the primary topic when examining a title’s overall accessibility. Disabled players praise or criticize developers on...

Papermaker Moleskine does not make its website accessible to blind and visually impaired people using a screen reader, in violation of the law, a new class action lawsuit alleges. Plaintiff Miriam Cruz filed the class action lawsuit against Moleskine America Inc. on Feb. 27 in a New York federal court alleging violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)....

After a decade, the Justice Department finally offered some more clarity on how well federal agencies are meeting website accessibility requirements. Several agencies are still missing the mark when it comes to compliance with Section 508, according to a DOJ report published in February. Section 508, a provision of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requires agencies to make electronic information and data accessible to individuals...

Hunched over a soldering table with safety glasses and deep intent on his face, Nick Scaperdas, a third-year bioengineering student at Northeastern University, focuses on the task at hand. Electrical wires stick out of an electric keypad in front of him, like the grasping tentacles of an octopus, as he connects yellow wires to what will eventually be a functioning doorbell. But this isn’t an...

Colorado will now be offering a digital tool, Aira, to help Coloradans who are blind or have low vision navigate the world around them more easily. In a video introducing the new tool, a user is connected with a representative who is able to give detailed directions through the state Capitol building. As government services become increasingly digital, there is a related push to ensure...

The Department of Justice this week released a report on the accessibility of the federal government’s websites and digital technologies for the first time in more than a decade—and the data shows that federal agencies still have work to do when it comes to making their electronic services available to all Americans. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which was last amended in 1998, requires...

Twitter Spaces, the company’s social audio rooms, no longer lets you use captions if you’re listening on iOS. Twitter still advertises that you can turn on captions through the three-dot menu in a Space, but on iOS, that option currently isn’t there. On other platforms, it seems like captions should work but don’t. When listening to a Space on the web, captions don’t show, and...

On February 14, 2023, Assembly Bill 950 by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) was introduced to address internet website accessibility. AB 950 would add Civil Code Section 55.565 and would amend Government Code Sections 4469.5 and 14985.6. Section 1 of the bill would amend the heading of Part 2.53 of Division 1 of the Civil Code so that Part 2.53 is called “Attorney’s Fees and...

Trying to join her friends at a restaurant on a recent Friday required real effort from Allyson Mallory. First, she had to find a handicap-accessible parking space at a grocery store across the street. Then she had to maneuver her electric wheelchair across snow-covered sidewalks — or try anyway. Finding they had not been shoveled, she had to turn around, go back and find a...