THE FIRST BLACK JOURNALIST WITH A DISABILITY IN THE UNITED STATES MAKES HISTORY
New Jersey’s very own Steven McCoy has made history, knocking down barriers as the first Black journalist that is both blind and deaf. McCoy took to Instagram to thank Hollywood Unlocked for the interview by reposting the picture of being the first Black, blind, and deaf journalist. His caption stated: Thank you @hollywoodunlocked, you guys were great! The disabled journalist has a show called session with Steven and is the founder of Spoken Entertainment, a platform on YouTube to interview people in the media.
GODSPEED IF YOU'RE FORCED TO USE THESE HIDEOUS FEDERAL WEBSITES
You don’t need to be a user interface designer to spot a bad-looking site. Anyone who spent any time on the internet in the days pre-Facebook might remember bland, white webpages, tiny font, and links upon links upon links like a black hole slowly sucking you into the great whirlpool expanse of incomprehensible electronic morass. The standards have improved since then, or at least they have for most sites. Government websites have long been notorious for lagging behind the rest of the world in both usability and appearance.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SECURES AGREEMENT WITH JEFFERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY, OFFICIALS TO ENSURE POLLING PLACE ACCESSIBILITY
Sponsored by VOTEC
The Justice Department has secured an agreement under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with the Jefferson County, Kentucky, Board of Elections to ensure that the Boards polling places are accessible to individuals with disabilities. The department identified architectural barriers at numerous polling places after it reviewed the Jefferson County Boards voting program for compliance with the ADA. These barriers included inaccessible parking, ramps that were too steep, walkways that had steep cross slopes or had gaps and bumps and voting machines that could not be accessed by voters with mobility disabilities.
FINAL APPROVAL GRANTED TO $112,500 JUICE COMPANY WEBSITE ACCESS CLASS SETTLEMENT
A federal judge in California on June 23 granted final approval of a class settlement providing injunctive and monetary relief in a lawsuit accusing a juice company of failing to offer a website accessible to those with visual impairments (Valerie Brooks, et al. v. Pressed Juicery, Inc., et al., No. 19-1687, E.D. Calif.). U.S. Judge Troy L. Nunley of the Eastern District of California wrote in his order that defendant Pressed Juicery Inc. will have 18 months to carrying out the steps outlined in the settlement agreement that will increase accessibility of its website for users with disabilities.
DELMONICO'S LAWSUIT ALLEGES WEBSITE INACCESSIBLE TO BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED
WEB DESIGN ACCESSIBILITY CAN AID ENFORCEMENT OF TERMS
MORGAN STANLEY, ALLY FINANCIAL CLASS ACTIONS CLAIM WEBSITES NOT ACCESSIBLE TO BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED
UBER COMMITS TO CHANGES AND PAYS MILLIONS TO RESOLVE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWSUIT FOR OVERCHARGING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The Department of Justice filed in court today a multi-million-dollar settlement agreement with Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Uber violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the agreement, Uber will offer several million dollars in compensation to more than 65,000 Uber users who were charged discriminatory fees due to disability. In November 2021, the department filed a lawsuit alleging that Uber violated Title III of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination by private transportation companies like Uber.
TECH JOURNALISM'S ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEM
Six years ago, Apple introduced the touch bar, a thin touchscreen strip that replaced the usual row of function buttons on its MacBook Pros. To say it has been controversial would be an understatement. Among tech medias elite, it’s one of the most widely and consistently bemoaned gadget features in recent memory. In several years it’ll just be a useless appendage, like the last protohuman with a tail, Engadget wrote in its review of the most recent MacBook Pro.
MISUSE OF TWITTER'S ALT TEXT FEATURE DRAWS CRITICISM FROM ACCESSIBILITY ADVOCATES
When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration uploaded the first photo of the early universe from its James Webb telescope to Twitter, it included a highly detailed description of the deep-field snapshot. Most stars appear blue and are sometimes as large as more distant galaxies that appear next to them, I read one portion of the 126-word description posted by NASA on Monday. A very bright star is just above and left of center. It has eight bright blue, long diffraction spikes.
TIKTOK ROLLS OUT NEW ACCESSIBILITY AND TRANSLATION TOOLS TO BRING ITS CONTENT TO MORE USERS
MANY TRY TO RETURN TO NORMAL FROM COVID, BUT DISABLED PEOPLE FACE A DIFFERENT REALITY
Beth Kenny is immunocompromised but found a routine that worked for their family during the pandemic, leaning into safe protocols to protect themselves from COVID-19. Kenny's wife could pick up the groceries, and social distancing measures and vaccines allowed their family to do activities together outside safely. And the precautions helped Kenny's wife safely ride the bus and go to the library with their child Vyla without putting their family's health at risk.
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