“…Charles Schwab… announced last week that they settled a year-long claim by a blind customer that its website was inaccessible to blind, low vision and cognitively challenged customers….”
 
Not only does your website need to comply with the substantive requirements for listing hotel accessible features, for example, but the website itself needs to be accessible to disabled customers.
You need to ask yourself some questions. For example:
- What standards of accessibility is your website hosting?
- How do you measure website compliance?
- How often do you audit your website for ADA compliance?
Charles Schwab joins a list of 15 prominent companies which have settled website accessibility complaints. Charles Schwab agreed that it will make its website more accessible and inclusive for all customers, and agreed to implement the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.0 Level AA which will make its website navigable by disabled customers.
An informal complaint backed by the threat of litigation and administrative investigations was lodged with Charles Schwab by the lawyer for a blind day trader. The claimant was a long-time Schwab customer and herself a computer programmer. One morning, she found that she could no longer navigate the Schwab website using JAWS software and was prevented from making trades on-line. The
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not approved and adopted any formal standards for website accessibility and recently withdrew its Notice of Proposed Rule Making for web access standards. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has been working for years and has promulgated the WCAG which is widely recognized as the “gold standard” for web access. However, given the almost daily changes in technology and the complexities of cyberspace, there are no official website standards.
Most recent DOJ investigations and settlements have focused on website accessibility. Target Corp. recently paid over $6 million to settle a website ADA class action.
For more:Â http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/05/ada_compliance_-_charles_schwab_settlement.html
