“Last fall, Jason McKee was bouncing around business ideas with two friends when they realized something: all three had a family member or friend with a disability, that made it difficult to access the internet,” according to a report in marketplace.org. The story goes on to say: “They soon discovered something else: people with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or visually impaired, were filing Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits against businesses over website accessibility issues. And many of them were winning. “
“We all got together and realized the size of this marketplace,” McKee said. “Basically, the entire internet has to be retrofit,” the story explains. “The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to take a web accessibility case brought by a man who is blind against the pizza chain Domino’s, for not making its website and mobile app accessible to him.”
OUR TAKE: In most markets, you need both people focused on the little details and the people above, who can understand the bigger picture. This holds true for web accessibility. But in 2017, when the current administration abandoned its effort to evaluate whether new accessibility rules were “necessary and appropriate” it left both people with disabilities and the businesses being sued by them in a sort of no man’s land. The most positive outcome has been more companies cropping up to help businesses stay on top of their website and understand what needs to be done to help make the web accessible for all, no matter how slowly that process may go. Several of these experts will be speaking at TravelAbility Summit 2019 in November.
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