Civil Rights Division Pushes for Internet Accessibility

From: http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/04/22/civil-rights-division-pushes-for-internet-accessibility/

By Leah Nylen | April 22, 2010 4:17 pm

A Justice Department official told a House Judiciary panel Thursday that the Civil Rights Division will continue to push for accessibility on the internet for Americans with disabilities.

Samuel R. Bagenstos, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said that division has worked to ensure that websites for state and local governments and public accommodations comply with the American with Disabilities Act and are accessible by assistive technologies, such as text readers or Braille displays, which convert text to Braille for blind web users.

“As public servants entrusted with the welfare of our citizens, we in the federal government must provide the leadership to make certain that individuals with disabilities are not excluded from the virtual world in the same way that they were historically excluded from ‘brick and mortar’ facilities,” Bagenstos said in testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties. “If we are not careful, as technology becomes more sophisticated the gap will grow wider, and people with disabilities will have less access to our public life.”

Bagenstos also highlighted a recent case by the Disability Rights Section at Civil Rights Division involving universities that wanted to incorporate e-book readers. Earlier this year, the DOJ reached settlement agreements with five universities that had agreed to participate in a Kindle e-book reader pilot program with Amazon.com. Although the Kindle has the ability to turn text to speech, the blind have no way of navigating the menus to turn on that feature. In the agreement with the DOJ, the schools promised they would not require students to purchase the Kindle or any other e-book reader that was not fully accessible, Bagenstos said. Although it was not part of the Justice Department suit, Amazon.com also announced that it would make the Kindle accessible to the blind.