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Articles on Web Accessibility, the ADA, and Civil Rights
"Applying the ADA to the Internet: A Web Accessibility Standard" by Cynthia D. Waddell. Paper presented to the American Bar Association's program "In Pursuit. . . . A Blueprint for Disability Law and Policy," June 17, 1998. This paper explores the legal implications of the ADA for web sites and notes: "Without the application of ADA requirements to the Internet, new barriers to effective communication and global commerce will be erected that will have a discriminatory impact upon individuals with disabilities."
"How Civil Rights for People with Disabilities Impact the Private Section" by Jennifer Simpson. Paper presented to Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference, Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe, November, 1999. This paper discusses the implications of civil rights for issues of accessibility: "The basic concept of civil rights — when applied to the marketplace — is that a person with a disability has the same right to the use and the benefit of goods and services as do people without disabilities. This is based on the understanding that: disability is a natural part of the human condition; anyone at any time in any place can become a person with a disability; society as a whole shares responsibility for disability; it is wrong to put barriers in the way of people with disabilities."
"Is Your Site ADA-Compliant ... or a Lawsuit-in-Waiting?: More ADA-Compliance Information" by Cynthia Waddell and Kevin Thomason. This article in the November, 1998, issue of The Internet Lawyer, notes that "Web sites which are perfectly accessible to fully-abled people may be impossible for people with disabilities to access. For example, that beautiful new law firm site that your high-priced designer just created may be impossible for a person using screen reading technology to navigate; particularly if they are blind/low vision or have a specific learning disability. Those 'frames' or neat drop-down Java menus on your site may be impossible to use via voice command software. Your fancy 'streaming audio' online CLE courses or video conferencing events may be impossible for a deaf person to hear."
United States Brief as Amicus Curiae of June 30, 2000, (Number 99-50891), addressing the question of "whether a company that offers services solely on the internet is subject to the public accommodations provision of Title III of the ADA." In making its case, the government quoted directly from Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act: "No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation."