Voluntary Compliance Agreement:
Florida federal judge holds that supermarket chain's website must must be accessible to disabled
Lexology
In the first trial on the merits involving website accessibility, a federal judge in Florida ruled on June 13, 2017, after a two-day bench trial, that supermarket chain Winn-Dixie violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make its website accessible. Juan Carlos Gil, a blind Florida man who attempted to use Winn-Dixie’s website to locate Winn-Dixie store locations, fill and refill prescriptions, and obtain store coupons, sued Winn-Dixie alleging that he was unable to access these services because the website was not integrated with his screen reader technology. Screen reader technologies such as JAWS read the content of websites to blind users and assist them through voice prompts in navigating websites.
Give Your SEO a Boost With These 12 Accessibility Improvements
Search Engine Journal
For those of you with a brick-and-mortar business location, you’re familiar with the concept of accessibility and why it’s a necessity for any company that intends to engage with the general public. In the United States, not accommodating those with disabilities is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities act; reasonable accommodations must be provided to everyone who visits your establishment.
But accessibility isn’t something that should be relegated to storefronts that receive a steady amount of foot traffic each day.
Accessibility is an especially pertinent matter for companies that do business online.
When you think about it, people with accessibility issues would probably be more interested in doing business online as any physical, visual, auditory, speech, or cognitive barriers they have wouldn’t be as much of a problem virtually. Or so you would think.
United States: What Real Estate Lawyers Need To Know About The ADA
Mondaq News Alerts
"Most real estate lawyers are aware of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), but few attorneys negotiating a lease for their tenant-clients actually advise them to undertake an ADA inspection prior to executing the lease," James O'Brien, Jr., Co-Chair of Pryor Cashman's ADA Defense + Consulting practice, wrote in a recent article for Real Estate Weekly. "By not doing so, tenants may unwittingly be signing on to substantial modification costs."
Is Medical Marijuana Use Becoming a Protected Class Under State Laws
The Legal Intelligencer
Few topics these days are blazing as brightly as the issue of medical marijuana. In April 2016, Pennsylvania became the 24th state to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Used to treat an enumerated list of "serious medical conditions" including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer, Pennsylvania lawmakers have emphasized the scientific research supporting the improvements made in patients suffering extreme and debilitating symptoms.