Legal Issues

In the United States, laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act require the government and certain employers to ensure that the tools and products that they use are accessible.  The Americans With Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in goods and services provided by private companies and commercial facilities.  Section 508 requires that the federal government purchase only technology products that are accessible to the disabled.  Other countries, such as Australia, Japan, and the European Union, are currently contemplating similar legislation.

If designers do not think about accessibility during the creation process of their products, they may find that they are unwittingly removing themselves as a possibility from a large market of potential customers.

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In 1999, the National Federation of the Blind sued America Online for noncompliance with the ADA, claiming that America Online’s service was not accessible using screen readers.  The case was settled out of court after America Online agreed to adopt a companywide policy of accessibility and to make their AOL 6.0 software accessible to the blind.  (NFB/AOL Press Release, http://204.245.133.11/nfbaolrl.htm)

As this document was being completed, the Supreme Court ruled on February 21, 2001 that state workers cannot file discrimination suits against their employers under the ADA.  This limits the liability of U.S. states in ADA cases but does not limit the liability of individual employers. The new change does illustrate the point that disability legislation is constantly evolving and can change during a design cycle.

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