Live data from Hacker News

Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

lifemichael.com

211–220 of 450 posts

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely do not understand how they can sleep at night. Thanks for pushing back.

"If it were wrong it would be illegal."

It is illegal, that's why they sued.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#212

This is like saying you can't post a poster on a bulletin board if it doesn't follow a specific format. These laws make no sense and are a perfect example of out-of-touch policy. It should be my prerogative as to whether or not I care about the disabled market. I _should_ care if I'm a good person, but it shouldn't prevent me from being able to serve other markets.

One Saturday morning 3 months ago I got on my bike like I had the week before, and the week before that. Less than 30 minutes later I was splayed out on the ground with my lower right leg broken clean in half and my tibia sticking out of my shin while an onlookers called me an ambulance. For 2 months afterwards I was confined to wheelchairs and walkers, and I only just recently was able to start walking independently…

Also worth noting, building accessibility into your product doesn't just help those with disabilities. Oftentimes it provides a good experience for all users.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#213
post #177

Similar to https://reason.com/2017/03/07/berkeley-deletes-200000-free-o... > Berkeley had two choices: spend a fortune adding closed captioning to the videos, or remove them from public view. Cost-conscious administrators chose the latter option. If the hosted on youtube, they would get auto generated captions for free correct? In this day and age, which open source models like Open AI whisper, almost every video cou…

The court determined that auto-generated captions were not good enough.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#214
post #33

This already happens in the US with ADA laws, and it will happen with California's new privacy and wage transparency laws. Unfortunately every time you create a new law with a private right of action, lawyers will monetize it at industrial scale. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-d...

There was a disabled guy in the Bay Area going around suing all sorts of restaurants and other places if they didn't have ramps. Small hole in the wall restaurants couldn't afford renovations and had to just close, resulting in more Mc-chain restaurants moving in that can afford to play ball. Disabled people need access, but I (perhaps controversially) don't think they need access to 100% of the things. I'm reminded…

And when those mcchains go out of business the next business will have a ramp

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#215

There's a firm in Southern California that's suing restaurants / small theaters / community organizations / etc after bulk-scanning web sites for embedded video that lack links to caption files. It's all ADA abuse, lawsuits in the $5k-$7k range. A huge percentage of those sued don't have the means to fight back, and settle. The company that's suing people had some incompetent coder write their scanner, so it only par…

I genuinely do not understand how they can sleep at night. Thanks for pushing back.

Discriminating on disability is not cool, and it also happens to be illegal. If people on HN can complain about how some websites are unusable with Javascript disabled (by choice), I think those who depend on screen readers[1] have a more cogent case, as they don't have options.

For all the hate the "bloated" web frameworks get, the one thing they usually have out of the box is accessibility.

1. Or other assistive tech.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these types of blog posts are always worded like the law is the issue instead of the people who exploit it. The law is the issue. To say otherwise would be like saying that we didn't need to fix Log4shell and should have instead just tried to do something about the people who exploited it.

Laws are not programming. All laws are vague, it's the entire purview of the justice system to work through the vagueness and ambiguity, ask any judge.

You mean the judges who belong to the same guild as the lawyers and most lawmakers (who are lawyers) that use the ambiguity of the laws they make to profit?

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> companies doing that Doing which, making services unavailable to disabled people or suing those that do? I mean if my health insurer, for example, couldn't accommodate a disability of mine, especially something as common as low vision or hearing, I'd certainly feel like getting revenge but doesn't everyone feel that way about every health insurer every year or two? If you meant the other way around, like if someone…

You'll recognize the same rage that there was against the mcdonald's coffee lady. These cases get stoked by tort-reform interests to show "what's wrong with the legal system." It took several decades and a documentary for people to understand they were misled about that personal injury case, it will take a while for them to understand disability law.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a disabled guy in the Bay Area going around suing all sorts of restaurants and other places if they didn't have ramps. Small hole in the wall restaurants couldn't afford renovations and had to just close, resulting in more Mc-chain restaurants moving in that can afford to play ball. Disabled people need access, but I (perhaps controversially) don't think they need access to 100% of the things. I'm reminded…

If you're handicapped you don't expect to be able to go hiking. However you do expect to be able to go to restaurants

Why do you expect that?

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#219
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're arguing for a dichotomy that doesn't exist. I've heard excuses my entire life why accessibility laws are impossible and costly to apply. Meanwhile most infractions I see are egregious, easy to fix, and not punished. With Covid we changed our entire lifestyle, we modified facilities with plastic screens, markers on the floors, instituted work from home, all of this practically overnight. Meanwhile all over the…

> You're arguing for a dichotomy that doesn't exist. It literally exists: https://reason.com/2017/03/07/berkeley-deletes-200000-free-o...

I've seen this link posted at least 4 times on this post as evidence of some kinda excessive ADA overreach. If it's this pervasive, there'd be more recent examples than a site purporting "Free minds. Free markets." from 2017.

Re: Thanks to the Israeli accessibility law, I have to delete my websites

#220
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe in making things accessible, and strive to do that on all my projects. I object to abuse of the ADA. Businesses / organizations should be given an opportunity to remediate their web sites before an automated script files an erroneous lawsuit.

It should be an easy legal fix - you have to give notice and ~120 day window to fix before you are allowed to file a lawsuit. Also, not sure private parties should be plaintiffs here.

Without private action, they would need funding for enforcement. To have funding for enforcement, they would have to either levy fines against offenders or raise taxes. Those are non-starters for getting the legislation passed, and the opponents hope that they can later claim that the private action is an abuse of the legal system.
Post reply on HN