Updating the ADA for Cyberspace
Federal officials are seeking ideas for expanding the Americans with Disabilities Act twenty years after the law was enacted. The government wants to move the regulations beyond wheelchair ramps and accessible elevators and into cyberspace and personal technologies.
The effort to update the law begins Thursday, November 18th with a Justice Department hearing in Chicago. Additional hearings are scheduled for Dec. 16 in Washington and Jan. 10 in San Francisco.
The meetings are designed to gather input from the disabled and from industries that may be affected.
“We think it’s important as a way to generate interest,” said John Wodatch, chief of the department’s disability rights section.
New rules could take effect as soon as 2012.
For more than a decade, the Justice Department has interpreted the ADA to apply to websites that offer goods and services. But now that idea could be clarified, and timetables for compliance could be set.
Websites are becoming increasingly accessible, in part because of lawsuits. In 2008, Target Corp. agreed in a California class-action settlement to pay $6 million to blind plaintiffs who were unable to use its site.
Will some website operators resist the changes?
Disability attorney Lainey Feingold hopes not.
“Web accessibility should not be a new concept to any company with a website,” said Feingold, who is based in Berkeley, Calif. And the ADA has an “undue burden” defense, which means that no company will have to make changes if doing so would require significant difficulty or expense.
“Fortunately for the millions of Americans with disabilities, making accessibility improvements does not cost a lot of money,” she said.
The Justice Department also is considering rules requiring more accessible medical equipment in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. That might include mammography equipment for women who cannot stand up, adjustable exam tables and mechanical lifts.
To learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act, visit www.ada.gov
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