[Athen] FW: ADA Compliant Websites

[Gaeir Dietrich]

Subject: ADA Compliant Websites

 

Hello list and please forgive cross-posts

***

I wanted to apprise you all of a situation that may affect your colleges. 

 

A law firm (Carlson Lynch Sweet & Kilpela LLP)  is contacting colleges
across the country and threatening to bring suit against them for Web site
inaccessibility. The law firm appears to be running an automated
accessibility checker on college websites and then offering to resolve the
Web issues if the campus just works with them. 

 

Colleges all across the country are being targeted. I recently met others
associated nationally with web accessibility. Between us, we personally knew
of dozens of institutions of higher ed that have received this letter, and
there could be many more.

 

The problem is of an extent that it was recently addressed in a blog post. I
am not necessarily recommending the blog author, just using this example to
point out the scope of the issue.

http://chrishofstader.com/stop-the-ada-trolls/
<http://chrishofstader.com/stop-the-ada-trolls/>  

 

Different colleges are reacting differently to these letters. Some colleges
are going straight to their lawyers to draft a reply. Other campuses are
ignoring the matter entirely. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot give legal
advice or tell you what action to take. I will say that there is a rumor
that this firm is, indeed, filing suits, so I think it might be good to at
least consult with legal counsel.

 

And, as a community, I think it is good for us to be aware of this issue. 

Good luck!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
Director
High Tech Center Training Unit of the
California Community Colleges
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
www.htctu.net <http://www.htctu.net/>   
408-996-6047

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you would like to schedule a site visit, training, or phone consultation,
please contact HTCTU Network Administrator, Dale Kan at  dkan at htctu.net  or
408-996-4636; to ensure that priority e-mails are seen, please copy Dale on
important and time-sensitive matters.Thank you.

 

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