(no subject)

[geekchick]

tikva, you've seen this, yes?

Disabilities Act doesn't cover Web, court says

Acting largely on procedural grounds, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a lower court's decision from October 2002, which concluded that Web sites cannot be required to comply with the 1991 disabilities law. An advocacy group for the blind had sued Southwest Airlines, seeking a redesign of its Web site.

Still, the three-judge panel noted that a future case could provide a vehicle for exploring the question in greater depth. "In declining to evaluate the merits of this case, we are in no way unmindful that the legal questions raised are significant," wrote Judge Stanley Marcus.
[...]

(PDF version of the findlaw document is here.)

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

What the 11th Circuit said was that the argument presented to the appellate court was not raised at the circuit court level. What the circuit court said was that the plaintiffs, in claiming that Southwest.com was a "place of public accomodation", failed to state a claim, since it clearly was *not* under the plain language of the ADA. On appeal, the plaintiffs raised other issues under the ADA, which the appellate court said may have merit but which they were prevented from considering by the fact that the plaintiffs failed to state them in the lower court.

This case is also made more difficult by the fact that airlines are specifically exmpted from the ADA.

I think there are interesting questions about the extent to which the ADA applies to the web, usually being tied into provision of "services" rather than the notion of the Web as a "place". The court is not addressing those, and, given the facts and the procedural history of the case, really can't.

ADA

[kytynpet.livejournal.com]

Grrrr! But i guess i'm not surprised. I was lucky enough to be on the committee with the Department of Justice and helped to write this law! One of my few "famous moments". I've followed the media as they've covered different aspects of what the Act can and cannot cover. It's rather frustrating that this is all dragging so slowly, but i'm also pretty amazed that things *are* a bit better for people with disabilities.

*gets off soapbox with a curtsy*

[tikva.livejournal.com]

Rrrrr! No, I hadn't seen it.

Y'know what sucks? The cases that make it this far are always the shitty ones. :/

Thank you, though.