Issue 28 June 30 2022 Skip to main content

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WAKE UP AND TAKE NOTICE: WE ARE LOSING OUR RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS

Friday’s overturning of Roe V. Wade will have devastating consequences for people with disabilities and other marginalized communities. The 5-4 decision, one of the most consequential rulings in decades, calling for the ending of Roe must serve as a wakeup call to the disabled community, the LGBTQ community, and People of color who could lose protections and rights.

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VAN HOLLEN, DUCKWORTH, DURBIN CALL ON DOJ TO ENSURE GOVERNMENT WEBSITES COMPLY WITH THE ADA

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in urging the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide better guidance and regulations to help State and local governments better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Actís (ADA) accessibility requirements on their websites, mobile applications and other forms of technology. In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Senators wrote

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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMMEMORATES THE ANNIVERSARY OF OLMSTEAD V. L.C.

Twenty-three years ago today, the Supreme Court decided Olmstead v. L.C., a landmark case interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Olmstead, the Court ruled that the ADA prohibits unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities, who have a right to live and receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Enforcement of this integration mandate has enabled many thousands of people with disabilities to live in their homes and communities instead of in institutions, and to have greater independence, autonomy, and opportunities to participate fully in their community.

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LACK OF INTERNET, WEB ACCESSIBILITY HARM EMPLOYMENT FOR DISABLED

Disparities in access to the internet and accessible websites is driving a gap in employment rates for people with disabilities, even as the prevalence of remote working opportunities has opened the door for them. While the Covid-19 pandemic made the digital world more vital for day-to-day activities including workweb accessibility for those with disabilities isn't guaranteed in the same way physical commercial spaces are. Disabled workers are 13% less likely to have internet access at home and 11% less likely to own a computing device, according to a recent report from the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.

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Government Spotlight

LAWMAKERS URGE VA TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY TO ITS WEBSITES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

Ten lawmakers wrote a letter Monday to the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough urging the agency to improve its websites to make them more accessible to people with disabilities. “This lack of compliance is a problem for the one-quarter of all veterans with a service-connected disability, as well as the 26% of the general public with a disability, including veterans, VA employees and people who might seek information from the department on behalf of a veteran," the lawmakers wrote in the letter dated June 6.

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MORE THAN 30 YEARS AFTER ADA, CITIES FAIL TO BE ACCESSIBLE

It has almost been 32 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. Its aimed at prohibiting discrimination and giving people with disabilities the same opportunities as everyone else; however, most of the country is still not built for people with disabilities in mind, especially our streets and sidewalks. This also comes at a time when pedestrian deaths are at an all-time high. A recent analysis from the Governors Highway Safety Administration found that in 2021, nearly 7,500 pedestrians were killed, the largest number in four decades.

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ARGYLE TEEN WINS GOLD WITH U.S. DEAF SOCCER TEAM

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 A TRIUMPH FOR THE BLIND COMMUNITY

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FOR THE FIRST TIME, A VISUALLY IMPAIRED CAST PERFORMS 'THE BRAILLE LEGACY' MUSICAL

Clad in a gray overcoat and tidy ascot, Ronnie Chism strides confidently in front of the camera. Chism pauses, then begins to tap the floor with his white cane, creating a rhythmic beat he raps along with. Chism wrote and will perform this song, Sounds of My Cane, for The Braille Legacy, a new production at Inglewood's Miracle Theater premiering June 24. Written by French author Sebastien Lancrenon, the musical tracks the story of Louis Braille, the inventor of the alphabet for the blind.

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Election Accessibility

 5 DISABILITY ISSUE QUESTIONS TO ASK STATE AND LOCAL MIDTERM ELECTION CANDIDATES

People with disabilities have strong reasons to focus on Midterm Elections, and not just Congressional candidates, or control of the House and Senate. Disability activism may not be the most visible cause in American life, but it is still a vast and complex movement, with many urgent and long term priorities. The highest profile disability activism tends to focus on national politics, especially the activities of Congress and the White House. There are logical reasons for this.

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TASK FORCE WILL STUDY VOTING RIGHTS FOR LOUISIANA'S DISABLED PEOPLE

Louisiana lawmakers have commissioned a task force to study the expansion of voting rights for people with disabilities. House Concurrent Resolution 14, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans, received final passage Monday with a unanimous vote in the Senate. 

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Current Legal Actions

WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY PLAINTIFF LOSES AFTER FEDERAL TRIAL ON STANDING AND OTHER GROUNDS

District Judge Dale Fisher of the Central District of California held, after a bench trial, that plaintiff Andres Gomez did not have standing to bring a website accessibility lawsuit under Title III of the ADA because he had not shown any consequences resulting from his encounter with the inaccessible website, nor a real intent to return to the website. The Court also dismissed Gomezs California Unruh Act claim, finding that the law does not apply to persons who were not physically in California (Gomez was in Florida when he visited the website) when they experienced discrimination by a California-based business.

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PERNOD RICARD CLASS ACTION CLAIMS WEBSITE INACCESSIBLE TO VISUALLY IMPAIRED, BLIND

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 OLE SMOKY DISTILLERY CLASS ACTION ALLEGES WEBSITE NOT ACCESSIBLE TO BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED

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ALCOHOL SUPPLIERS HIT WITH ADA WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY LAWSUITS

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ACCESSIBILITY CLASS ACTIONS ALLEGE MANY MAJOR WEBSITES VIOLATE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

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VISIONWORKS, DR. SCHOLL'S CLASS ACTIONS CLAIM WEBSITES NOT ACCESSIBLE TO VISUALLY IMPAIRED, BLIND

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DUNGAREES CLASS ACTION CLAIMS WEBSITE INACCESSIBLE TO BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED

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ROBLES V. DOMINO'S SETTLES AFTER SIX YEARS OF LITIGATION

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ADA CLASS ACTIONS ALLEGE WEBSITES INACCESSIBLE TO BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED CONSUMERS

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NIKE HIT WITH SOUTH FLORIDA WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY SUIT

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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FINDS MAINE IN VIOLATION OF ADA FOR OVER-INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

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Business Accessibility

 'ACCESSIBILITY IS A JOURNEY': A DEI EXPERT ON DISABILITY RIGHTS

As HR professionals dig into the accessibility aspect of DEI, potholes abound. “Accessibility is one of those terms that engenders a lot of anxiety for folks'', Kelly Hermann told HR Dive. “They're like, I don't want to do it wrong. I don’t want to be seen as the person who is going to kick the person in the wheelchair or, you know, be discriminatory”, she recalled. As VP of access, diversity and inclusion for the University of Phoenix, Hermann addresses campus accessibility concerns. She shows up for students with disabilities, as well as faculty and staff.

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ARE INCLUSION EFFORTS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY? 4 LESSONS FROM LEGO THAT SPOTLIGHT DEI DONE RIGHT

If you think that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are loaded with false promises and don’t engage the workforce in a way that's meaningful, you're not alone. New reporting from the MIT Sloan Management Review suggests that maybe organizations aren't putting the same ambition or energy into inclusion efforts or may lack the creativity that they need to get the task done. A report from The Valuable 500 (full disclosure, I am the author) also shows that while companies say they are well positioned to be inclusive in the coming years, many key efforts, from surveying consumers to making their products more accessible, remain stagnant.

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Healthcare Accessibility

BONE V. UNC HEALTH AS A MICROCOSM OF THE GREATER ISSUE OF HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS ACCESSIBILITY

In Bone v. University of North Carolina Health Care System, U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7937, 2022 WL 138644 (M.D.N.C. 2022), the plaintiffs, represented by the National Federation of the Blind, sued the University of North Carolina Health System due to insufficient access to their own medical bills and records. The January opinion from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina found that UNC had failed to meet the plaintiffs communications accessibility needs.

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STUDY: HERPES ZOSTER IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED RISK OF DEMENTIA

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is not associated with an increased risk of dementia, despite scientific speculation that nerve inflammation related to shingles could increase this risk according to the results of a study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. As a person's age increases, so does their risk of dementia, and its important to determine which factors may contribute to this risk, Sigrun Alba Johannesdottir Schmidt, MD, PhD, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, said in a statement.

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Accessible Technology

TOP TECH TIDBIT JUNE 23 2022

This Week's Featured Advertisement: Hot New Items, Convention Preorders, and Lots of Convention Deals from the A. T. Guys.

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