Rather unbelievably to me, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. That's right - until 1990 there *was* no ADA. I suppose we should be pleased that I grew up in a country where I assumed that the ADA had always been in place.
But let's think about it for a minute: in 1990, there was no real Internet. (Remember AOL? and Prodigy? ha!) There was no Google. No online banking, or airline ticket booking, or library services, or entertainment of any kind. And so the ADA contains no provisions that address such scenarios. As you might expect, there have been a number of lawsuits filed in the years since attempting to seek clarification as to whether the ADA does apply to websites offering services through their sites. Courts have gone both ways, although the DOJ - charged with enforcing the ADA - routinely offered its non-binding opinion that the ADA did apply, at least in some situations. (For you lawyers and other masochists out there, check out the suits and DOJ briefs here: NFB v. Target, Access Now v. Southwest Airlines, DOJ letter to Sen. Harkin, and the DOJ brief in Hooks v. OKBridge, which I was unable to find at press time.)
In July 2010, the DOJ announced a request for comments on the question of whether the ADA should be expanded to cover websites. DOJ Request for Public Comments. This was not a decision or anything binding - just a request for public comments on a number of specific inquiries. Go ahead and read the actual request - it's well written, and clearly sets out the problem. Millions of Americans can't access the Internet to its full capability, and those same Americans are precisely the individuals that would benefit so much from the ability to use the Internet to shop, participate in civic life, and engage socially with others.
The DOJ clearly believes that the ADA applies to at least some activities occurring online, and as clearly believes that voluntary compliance and industry self-regulation simply aren't working. I'd agree - despite the benefits of accessible design of websites for everyone's use, website designers have no real incentive to choose to make their designs as accessible as possible. So now, some of the questions are: what standards should apply, and to what types of websites? Will the regulations apply retroactively? How quickly will websites be able to comply? What are the unintended consequences of website accessibility requirements?
The comment period ended at the end of January of this year. I will definitely keep you posted on what's happening.
In "Web Accessibility: Advanced Topics" (forthcoming in April, go ahead and put it on your calendar), I'll go into detail about some of the even more complicated legal questions that the DOJ has to address in its new regulation. Teasers: is Facebook public or private? What happens if a US citizen accesses a webpage of a company based in France that's not compliant?
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