[Athen] Do Publisher Websites Have to Be Accessible?

[Lissner, Scott]

I have rephrased Karen's question.  Captioning video would be a subset
of the a more general requirement to make the web pages accessible.

 

The very short, pragmatically true at this moment and somewhat
misleading answer is - "no".  

 

A succinct and hopefully useful answer is  that this is an evolving area
of law.  Currently it depends on how two critical  dimensions.  For most
of this list the first and most important question will be who is
providing access (in the common language use of the word rather than the
disability/assistive technology sense of the word, which I think of as
blue access to match the parking signs)

 

If an institution is requiring or offering the use of the website for
students enrolled in a particular program or course; there is no
obligation on the publisher but there is one on the institution with the
license for its students.  As argued in the recent Arizona/Kindle case
before it was settled Under Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act, programs and the services and benefits available to
program participants have to be accessible directly or by alternatives
that are substantially equivalent in their timely availability and the
time and effort required of the individual with a disability.  Section
504 goes on to specify that an federal fund recipient cannot
discriminate by contract, assigning the recipient (our institutions)
not the third party the primary obligation.  A complaint about
accessibility of a third party web based service would likely be resolve
along the same lines as the kindle complaints
<http://www.ada.gov/settlemt.htm> .    

 

 

If on the other hand we are talking about a site that is simply
available to anyone and not offered by, required or significantly woven
into course expectations by the institution, program or instructor then
the obligation for accessibility will depend somewhat on what circuit it
is in.  Some Federal Circuits have seen phone systems and the internet
as "places of public accommodation" others have not. If an entity does
not provide services in a place of public accommodation, is part of a
state or government program, or is a federal fund recipient than there
is not coverage by the ADA or 504.  In considering this dimension the
Target Settlement <http://www.nfbtargetlawsuit.com/>  would be
informative.  There is also a presentation I did in 2006 for the CIC
Accessibility Group that would be useful as well  Legal Aspects of E &
IT Accessibility
<http://cita.disability.uiuc.edu/collaborate/cic/2006/ada_files/index.ht
ml>  

 

L. Scott Lissner, 
University ADA Coordinator 
Associate, John Glenn School of Public Affairs 
Lecturer, Knowlton School of Architecture, Moritz College of Law &
Disability Studies 
Office Of The Provost, The Ohio State University 
1849 Cannon Drive 
Columbus, OH 43210-1266 

(614) 292-6207(v); (614) 688-8605(tty) 
(614) 688-3665(fax); Http://ada.osu.edu <http://ada.osu.edu/>  

Please consider the environment before printing this E-mail 

 

 

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Karlen Communications
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:01 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: [Athen] Captioned video on textbook publisher web sites

 

A colleague asked if publisher web sites with video are required to have
captioned video for students. I don't know. The site they are using is:

http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/mymarketinglab/index.html

 

Does anyone have any information about the captioning of textbook
videos?

 

Cheers, Karen

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