Posted under Accessibility in the News & Legal & Policy
Written by: Mike Adams
I stumbled across a very important post in the accessibility world yesterday. As Attorney General Cuomo secured a nationwide agreement with HSBC which basically came under fire as their services weren’t fully accessible to those with disabilities. A blind customer in this case was attempting to dispute a credit card transaction and was repeatedly told they had to complete an online form which the customer was unable to use because of their disability. A more in depth article can be found at (http://www.r8ny.com/node/147717).
This instance took place within New York State, but this precedence should spread much farther than the state line. As corporations continue to ignore the need to make things accessible they will continue to open themselves up to possible lawsuits.
This also brings up an interesting point that often gets overlooked as many of these same laws apply internally at a company as well. Making your products and services accessible to customers isn’t where accessibility should start or stop. Any corporation potentially runs across the same issues when an employee has the same problem. Think about how many computer programs you use at work everyday and chances are 99% of them are not accessible. It’s not necessarily harder to make things accessible but it does require different knowledge.
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