Priceline.com and Ramada.com pledge accessibility to blind

[toicontien]

Just ran into this at usatoday.com. The ADA has taken action against Priceline.com and Ramada.com to become disability compliant. I don't think it's a court action, more like a request, and both sites have agreed to make their content accessible to screen readers.

Travel Web sites agree to be accessible to blind (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-08-20-lowsighted-sites_x.htm): ' "This is a precedent-setting decision," said Carl Augusto, president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. "We hope it's going to be influencing other companies throughout the United States so that the 10 million blind and visually impaired people can fully participate in our society at all levels." '

It's beginning. Just like the folks at A List Apart predicted (http://www.alistapart.com/old/ticking) :)

[Reli4nt]

Its an inevitability really. Especially now that accessibility compliance has become very easy to achieve and very cheap to maintain.

[David Harrison]

Originally posted by Reli4nt
Its an inevitability really. Especially now that accessibility compliance has become very easy to achieve and very cheap to maintain.That's not the problem, it's converting to table-less layouts that means the wallet takes a hit. Think about it, if you have a massive site, it would run into millions to convert it to CSS based.

If you need a site redesign anyway then it's not so much of a problem. That's when I think most of the conversions will happen. Eventually sites die and need replacing, that's when CSS will move in for the kill. ;)

[Reli4nt]

Very true

[Charles]

But as the judge ruled concerning the 2000 Olympics, since at the outset an accessible site is easier than an inaccessible one, there's no excuse.

And to the US DOJ applying the ADA I can only say, Huzzah!

[David Harrison]

Originally posted by Charles
But as the judge ruled concerning the 2000 Olympics, since at the outset an accessible site is easier than an inaccessible one, there's no excuse.Is that site still up? I never saw it and I think I'd like to have a gander at the code, just to see how accessible they made it.

[toicontien]

I'm not sure if sites have to go completely CSS-based to satisfy the ADA. The courts will have to grandfather content that was posted before some date. Having a template-based design and database-driven content management would be easier to convert to a tableless layout. What you'll likely see happen is that all new content would be held to a more stringent accessibility standard, but previously published content wouldn't.

Companies just don't have the money to essentially redesign entire Web sites they've spent thousands or millions to design already. Plus you've got to pay for the ADA investigation if you're found at fault. At least that's what the above article makes it sound like will happen.

So just as Charles said, make it accessible to begin with. But we'll see several large companies get burned before Web design companies start changing their practices.

The company I work for right now provides stock templates for college online newspapers. I was responsible for the coding side, and you can be sure that the templates are accessible, tableless layouts. But the individual clients are responsible for keeping the content accessible.

That could bring up some other legal questions: If you get a stock template that's inaccessible, who's to blame? You or the company that gave it to you? Who pays for the ADA investigation?

The judges will decide that.

[Charles]

Cynthia Waddell has had a few interesting things to say about the legal side of things. (http://www.icdri.org/CynthiaW/cynthia_waddell.htm#Articles)