Compass slapped with lawsuit over website access for the blind
Inman.com
Compass is being sued for allegedly failing to make its website fully accessible to blind people, raising the specter that real estate brokerages remain exposed to a legal risk about which the National Association of Realtors had previously warned members.
The suit, which is seeking class-action status and was filed on Dec. 12 in a New York district court, accuses Compass of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for “its failure to design, construct, maintain, and operate its website to be fully accessible to and independently usable by Plaintiff and other blind or visually-impaired people.”
The complaint claims Compass‘ website posed barriers to blind people, including a lack of “alt-text,” which screen-reading software can use to describe pictures to blind people, as well as links that contain no text.
Such challenges meant the plaintiff, who last visited Compass’ website in October, was “unable to find the locations and hours of operation of Defendant’s physical real estate sales offices on its Website and other important information, preventing Plaintiff from visiting the locations to purchase items and to view the items.”
The plaintiff is asking a judge to order Compass to make changes so that its website “will become and remain accessible to blind and visually-impaired people,” a process that the plaintiff requests be overseen by a consultant to help Compass comply with WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
Hiring People With Disabilities Is Good Business
New York Times
For years, companies have maintained low expectations about hiring people with disabilities. Most of these companies believed that employees with disabilities could not perform well in the workplace and that actively hiring them would drag company performance and profits down.
Thankfully, over time, many employers have come to understand that these perceptions are untrue. And new research strongly suggests that the opposite — that hiring people with disabilities is good for business.
A recent study has shown, for the first time, that companies that championed people with disabilities actually outperformed others — driving profitability and shareholder returns. Revenues were 28 percent higher, net income 200 percent higher, and profit margins 30 percent higher. Companies that improved internal practices for disability inclusion were also four times more likely to see higher total shareholder returns.
These findings, presented in a report from Accenture, in partnership with Disability: INand the American Association of People with Disabilities, give companies a new reason to hire people with disabilities. The results are based on an analysis of the financial performance of 140 companies that averaged annual revenues of $43 billion and participated in the Disability Equality Index,an annual benchmarking tool that objectively rates company disability policies and practices.
M&T Bank to pay $700000 to settle Hudson City Savings disability lawsuit
Westfair Online
M&T Bank Corp. has agreed to pay $700,000 to former employees of Hudson City Savings Bank who were fired or not accommodated because of disabilities.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued in 2017 in federal court in White Plains for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Hudson City Savings had denied reasonable accommodations for disabled employees, according to a consent decree filed Dec. 19, required them to go on involuntary leaves or fired them because of their disabilities.
The decree covers two years, from 2013 until late 2015, when M&T Bank of Buffalo acquired Hudson City Savings. The EEOC complaint and consent decree were filed against M&T’s Wilmington Trust Corp. subsidiary.
Hudson City was based in Paramus, New Jersey, and had numerous branch offices in the New York City metro area, including 11 in Westchester County. It had $35.4 billion in assets, according to the Federal Reserve System order approving the M&T acquisition, and $18.2 billion in deposits that made it the 49th largest depository organization in the U.S.
The EEOC complaint gives four examples of discrimination, but names only Carmen Gaillard, a teller in the Harrison branch.
Gaillard had Achilles tendinitis and bone spurs that limited her ability to stand and walk. She asked for permission to wear an orthopedic boot that would have enabled her to perform the essential functions of her job.
Hudson City denied her request, according to the EEOC complaint. Bank policy required employees with “potential disabilities” to take a leave of absence and return to work only if a doctor provided a written notice stating that there were no restrictions on the employee.
The bank also did not allow employees to remain on medical or disability leave for more than 26 weeks, according to the complaint. After 26 weeks of involuntary leave, Gaillard was fired.
The EEOC complaint describes similar circumstances with unnamed employees at three other branch offices: a clerk with a broken foot in Staten Island, a teller with pregnancy complications in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and a clerk with arthritis in Jersey City.
In signing the consent decree, Wilmington Trust denied engaging in the kinds of “alleged activities” described by the EEOC, after acquiring Hudson City in 2015.
Grant Will Help Open Sandwich's Public Places To People With Disabilities
CapeNews.net
The town has received a $35,000 grant from the Massachusetts Office on Disability to evaluate how Sandwich can make its buildings and programs more accessible to people with disabilities.
“We originally applied last year but we were denied,” Assistant Town Manager Douglas A. Lapp said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “We’re very excited about the grant. We’ve talked about doing this for a very long time.”
The grant will allow the town to hire and work with a consultant to determine what steps are needed to best comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Credit unions fight lawsuit related to ADA requirements
Financial Regulation News
Credit Union National Association (CUNA) is partnering with the Illinois and Wisconsin Credit Union Leagues to fight a lawsuit against a credit union related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The organizations filed a brief this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in support of the credit union that’s being sued in the case, Carello v. Aurora Policemen CU. The suit is over uncertainty in how the ADA applies websites.
“CUNA and the leagues are continuing their aggressive advocacy on behalf of credit unions that are being hit with predatory lawsuits due to uncertainty with how the ADA applies to websites,” CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle said. “We feel this case could be an important milestone in our push back against these lawsuits that are exploiting a law designed to protect disabled Americans.”
CUNA and the other organizations argue that the appellant had not suffered “concrete and particularized harm because he does not meet the eligibility requirements to become a member Aurora Policemen FCU.” Further, they argue that a website is not a place of public accommodation, and therefore the ADA does not apply. In addition, they contend that applying Title III of the ADA to websites renders the statute impermissibly vague in the absence of any implementing regulations by the Department of Justice.
A new law aims to crack down on fake service dogs — with big fines for their owners
WAFF
Do you try to pass your furry loved one off as a service dog? You might face a fine under a new law set to go into effect Jan. 1.
Act 217 establishes a civil penalty for those who knowingly misrepresent a pet as a service animal.
And pet-loving violators can face fines of $100 to $500.
The problem of fake service dogs has been agrowing one in Hawaii and nationally.
The internet has made it easy for pet owners to purchase misleading vests, patches, and ID tags.
In fact, at least 21 states have passed laws governing service animals in an attempt to keep unruly pets out of grocery stores, movie theaters and eateries.