Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible • Hacker News Board

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#21

Post by Retric » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

Restaurants don’t need a Braille menu to accommodate blind customers, a sighted employee can walk them through the ordering process. With websites that’s not always an option, which is legally and morally an issue.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#22

Post by tootie » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

ADA in general has different levels of mandatory compliance based on business size and type. I can't find specific rules about website compliance though.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#23

Post by smnrchrds » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

I am not familiar with the details of ADA. Would it not suffice if a server reads the menu out loud upon request by a blind patron?

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#24

Post by brickpaste » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

Target.com is accessible because of a similar case from 2006. This appears to be a decent summary: https://www.jimthatcher.com/law-target.htm

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#25

Post by anonytrary » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:03 AM UTC

Then the Supreme Court is wrong (which isn't impossible, by the way). If I draw on my street with chalk, should I also be compelled to play a cassette on repeat outside my driveway describing what the picture is? This is absurd.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#26

Post by diebeforei485 » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:03 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #21

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

Restaurants don’t need a Braille menu to accommodate blind customers, a sighted employee can walk them through the ordering process. With websites that’s not always an option, which is legally and morally an issue.

But you can call your local Domino's on the phone.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#27

Post by jasonhansel » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:05 AM UTC

There has been a long standing precedent around the ADA requiring web accessibility: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Federation_of_the_B....

A number of companies have been (more or less) blatantly violating the law in this area. Framework authors in particular have often ignored the value of accessible, semantic markup. Many devs come to the web knowing only frameworks (and not the underlying web technologies), which is dangerous if those frameworks aren't accessibility-focused.

Hopefully this decision finally scares companies into action, and inspires a lot of valuable future litigation on behalf of the visually impaired.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#28

Post by weberc2 » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:05 AM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

I’m not usually one for more regulation, but I think this is a good thing. As far as regulations go, this is one of the cheaper ones, or at least it will be when developers are properly trained in accessibility and every serious CMS supports accessibility out of the box.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#29

Post by tibbon » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:05 AM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #12

Does the ADA really apply and enforced at all publicly available businesses? Does every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown have a Braille menu? If we really start enforcing this, only larger businesses will survive.

It’s a myth that reasonable accommodations are too much of a burden for a small business to handle. Having a menu made into Braille for example isn’t going to cost a ton. On the upside, they would also now have business available that they didn’t have in the past.

Re: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

#30

Post by wbl » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 3:06 AM UTC

nvahalik wrote: post #9

This seems like overreach. Clearly the law doesn’t cover websites. Why can’t congress just pass a law to make the ADA apply to websites? It’s not SCOTUS’s job to create law.

How is a website not a public accommodation?