Jennifer Howath & Shelagh Patterson just gave a presentation about making library web sites accessible. How sad then to read Judge: Disabilities Act doesn't cover Web.
"In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces such as restaurants and movie theaters and not to the Internet.
'To expand the ADA to cover 'virtual' spaces would be to create new rights without well-defined standards,' Seitz wrote in a 12-page opinion dismissing the case. 'The plain and unambiguous language of the statute and relevant regulations does not include Internet Web sites.'...
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The ADA says that any "place of public accommodation" must be accessible to people with disabilities. The law, enacted in 1990, lists 12 categories, including hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, universities and bowling alleys.
Seitz said that because Congress was so careful to specify what kinds of physical spaces are covered by the ADA, it's clear the act does not apply to the Internet. She noted that the World Wide Web Consortium had drafted accessibility guidelines, but said the document was over three years old and there is no indication that the guidelines are 'a generally accepted authority.' "
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