This is an article about a proposed change to the ADA in the United States. Two members of Congress have introduced a bill to limit the ADA and how it
applies to technology. The ADA already applies to websites and mobile apps. Disabled people can now file a lawsuit to make sure they can use websites and
apps. The new law would not allow a private lawsuit until a disabled person first went to the Department of Justice. This would take time and delay fixing
a website. Lawsuits have been important to making the ADA work for 30 years. It is not fair to limit disabled people’s civil rights.
a name plate reading “Legislation” in front of a legal gavel
On October 1, 2020 a “bill to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act” was introduced in the United States House of Representatives. Titled the “Online
Accessibility Act,” the opening paragraph might sound appealing to advocates for digital inclusion. A deeper look reveals dangerous legislation for those
who care about civil rights of disabled people in the digital age.
Kind: Reads
This is an article about Lainey Feingold’s website. The site has been updated. Lainey is very grateful to web developer Natalie MacLees who made the changes
and designed the updated site. Natalie’s company is called Digita11y. One change is that summaries of each article, like this one, are at the top of the
page. Another change is there is no more copyright symbol. Instead the site uses Creative Commons. This makes it easier for people to share what they find
on the site. The new site also has a picture of dolphins on every page. Lainey thinks lawyers and advocates don’t need to be sharks. The dolphin is a symbol
of cooperation and relationship.
Lainey’s website has been, ever since I encountered it more than a few years ago, an absolute joy to browse and use.
And it just keeps getting better and better.
It’s also a joy to link to in other contexts, (Episode 19 of the Making Better podcast, for example), because I know for a fact that if podcast listeners click the link to Lainey’s site in that episode they will find everything they could possibly want to know about either Lainey Feingold or structured negotiation.
The ease of finding things became important when I was editing the intro text for the Making Better episode because I found myself in the position of having to edit text for length while also not leaving out important stuff.
Looking forward to the reign of our dolphin overlords,
A very happy user
Improve readability of your content by using left-justified text instead of centered text.
It’s easier and faster to read text that doesn’t force the reader to search for the beginning of each line.
I figure it’s time to bookmark it somewhere and also today was a good day for it to show up in my Twitter feed because I have a call with a client on this exact subject later today.
Check out how a startup is using artificial intelligence to help businesses make websites accessible on complete autopilot. With $12 million funding, it
is all set to help businesses and disables globally.
Lifnei Iver comes to mind, which in an incredibly ironic twist is extended beyond its literal meaning to be interpreted by the Sages as misleading people, among other things.
And if you have to pay for praise, you know you’re intentionally misleading your users.
It’s another attempt to keep regulators happy.
Hello WordPress, My Old Friend
After just over a year on Hugo I’ve migrated this site back to WordPress.
It wasn’t an easy decision to do so. The truth is, I really liked the workflow I had been using for Hugo and the platform itself was nearly perfect for my uses. That said, technology alone wa…
There are things I like about Hugo but I have so many posts on either of my sites that just looking at the post/taxonomy management aspect alone was enough to make me reconsider the decision to switch before I started the work.