Assistive Technology Lawsuits to Watch
As 2011 draws to a close, TAP would like to note that it was a year that included several important or interesting AT-related lawsuits worth watching. The outcomes of these lawsuits could have a big impact on assistive technology users in the years to come!
March 2011: National Federation of the Blind filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Northwestern University, New York University, and several Oregon universities. The complaint concerned the schools’ use of Google Apps for Education in their classrooms. Google Apps for Education is a free software suite that Google describes as “free email and collaboration tools for schools.” It was discovered that not all of the components of Google Apps for Education are fully accessible to screen reader programs used by persons who use screen readers to access information on their computers. The complaint contends that by using Google Apps for Education as a primary means of sharing educational materials that are not fully accessible, universities deny equal educational opportunities to students and other members of the university community who
have visual or print disabilities.
More about the complaint here: http://www.nfb.org/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=771 It should be noted that in September, Google did make changes to Google Docs, which is a component of the Google Apps for Education suite. Read MDTAP’s review of
Google Docs in its previous post!
