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What Will a Trump Presidency Mean for Digital Accessibility?

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, many are wondering how the new administration will affect the digital accessibility space.

The federal government plays a key role in driving digital accessibility policy and enforcement.  The incoming Trump administration anti-regulation stance has caused concern in the accessibility community.  What changes could be coming to digital accessibility?  Is the political and legal environment about to turn hostile?  Here are four different articles to offer perspective.

SSB Bart Group – What Will a Trump Presidency Mean for Digital Accessibility?

SSB Bart Group feels that in the short term the status quo will reign.  However, long-term consequences are less predictable.

In the short term, we see it as unlikely that a Trump presidency will have a major impact on the status quo.

Donald Trump has never specifically addressed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so it is difficult to predict what his stance would be. In the past, scaling back rights for people with disabilities has proven to be politically unpopular. Given that neither advancing nor curtailing the ADA is among Trump’s priorities, it is unlikely that the Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement of digital accessibility will change in the short term. Looking further down the road, it is possible that that the DOJ may shift its priorities away from the ADA, including a possible reduction in public sector enforcement for state and local governments under ADA Title II. However, all of this is speculative.

How Will A Trump Administration Change The ADA Title III Landscape?

In  Seyfarth Shaw’s ADA Title III Blog. Kristin Launey, a Seyfarth partner, put together a strong analysis on the possible effects a Trump presidency may have on the ADA.  Key points are:

  • The new administration will have a more sympathetic ear to efforts to curb ADA lawsuits.  However, this effort is likely not going to be a top priority.
  • The incoming Attorney General for Civil rights will have significant influences on DOJ policy and proposed rules going forward.  DOJ is currently working on proposed rules for websites, movie captioning and audio description.  All of these could be affected.
  • The Trump Administration may be less inclined than the current administration to pursue enforcement actions until final DOJ website and mobile app standards are in place slowing down progress.

Original Article:  How Will A Trump Administration Change The ADA Title III Landscape?

Digital Accessibility in the New Political Reality

Disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold wrote an article before the election where she stated her concern about:

Fear of how a Trump presidency could turn back the clock on disability civil rights. Fear about the impending threat to two decades of forward movement to include disabled people in everything the digital world has to offer.

and now..

Now I feel a new responsibility: to remind us all that digital accessibility is here to stay. That despite obstacles the new administration will throw in the path of progress, disabled people will continue to insist on their civil rights. And the law, possibly battered and bruised, or temporarily in retreat, will be there to help.

There are multiple forces pushing for Digital Accessibility and Lainey Feingold outlines them well in her article:

  • State law protects digital accessibility and will remain in place
  • Multiple State Attorney Generals are accessibility champions and will continue to push forward
  • ADA, Section 504, Section 508, CVAA are still the law
  • Federal Court judges, in place before the Trump administration, will continue to enforce the law
  • The Disability Rights Community  will continue to press for accessibility
  • The inherent value of accessibility in satisfying customers is important to many companies.

Original Article:  Digital Accessibility in the New Political Reality

Why Blind Americans are Worried about Trump’s Tech Policy

The New Yorker article focuses on the FCC delaying discussion of policy until after the inauguration of President Trump.   While multiple items were shelved in the last FCC meeting one that affected digital accessibility was discussion of an item titled Video Description: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.

“To see that all our progress could be stopped so fast by this election—it’s really spooked people,” Mark Richert, the director of public policy at the American Foundation for the Blind, told me. Fazlullah agreed. “I think for most of the advocacy field, it’s a little bit baffling to see this particular item get pulled off,” she said.

It took Congress another eight years to explicitly vest the agency with that authority. “So, on Thursday, after all these years of down-in-the-weeds, incredibly aggravating history, you had this proposal that has been negotiated for months, that is literally printed and ready to be voted on,” Richert said. “To have it be pulled at the last minute is deeply frustrating.” Given Trump’s behavior and rhetoric on the campaign trail, Salsiccia told me—in particular, his mocking impression of a disabled journalist—“a strong fear of regression on accessibility issues is setting in.”

Original Article:  Why Blind Americans are Worried about Trump’s Tech Policy

 

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Six MIT Engineering Built a Text-to-Braille Translator Prototype Device

A group of MIT engineering students built a device that will allow people with low or no vision to read everything from textbooks to menus by converting words into Braille on a display roughly the size of a candy bar. It is exciting to see accessibility become a focus point of a Hackathon at the world’s best engineering school.

The group  known as Team Tactile, are now among four groups of innovators accepted into the new Microsoft #MakeWhatsNext Patent Program, giving them the chance to get the legal help they need to navigate the complicated and often expensive process of obtaining a patent.

The engineering students behind Tactile hope their device will allow people living with low or no vision to read everything from textbooks to menus, all in real time, by converting the words into Braille that appears on a refreshable handheld display.

In the wee hours of that morning in February, they were awarded a first-place trophy for their invention: a device that could turn printed words into Braille. It was a moment that left them even more energized to create something that could help blind people around the globe — and to cement their place in the growing subset of the world’s inventors who are women.

Bonnie Wang, an engineering and materials science major, recalls it as “one of the most hectic 15 hours of my life, ever.”

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Emma Cronin from the Presidential Personnel Office #ADA26

Hey Instagram! I’m Emma Cronin, and I work for the Presidential Personnel Office. I was born three months premature with cerebral palsy, and couldn’t breathe on my own when I was born. Simple tasks like walking were challenging, even with the help of weekly physical therapy sessions. I had a muscle lengthening surgery when I was twelve, and taught myself how to walk again in the six months that followed. Needless to say, my cerebral palsy taught me to never back down from a challenge. Everyone struggles with something—whether it is noticeable or not—and my cerebral palsy has taught me to be empathetic to those struggles. My disability will never define me, but I would not be the person I am today without it. Learning to walk again definitely helped prepare me for the commitment and persistence it takes to work at the White House! Working for President Obama has been the honor of a lifetime. I’m originally from the Southside of Chicago, so I grew up with President Obama as my senator. I’ve always felt a very personal connection to his presidency. After working as an intern on the 2012 campaign, I was lucky enough to be selected as a White House intern for the following summer. And now, I serve on the Climate and Domestic Team in the Presidential Personnel Office. Our office helps to bring people into the Administration because the President depends on his political appointees to move his priorities forward. We have a saying in our office: People are policy. That’s because policy implementation doesn’t happen without passionate, dedicated public servants. So, thanks for following along today as we got to tell some of their stories to celebrate #ADA26! (Image description: Emma stands on a balcony made of grey stone at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.)

A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on

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Srikanth Bolla – The Power of Accessible Education for All

Srikanth Bolla was born blind in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh (on India’s southeast coast).  His birth was viewed as a burden on his parents by many, thankfully not by his parents.  They enrolled him in a nearby school for the blind where he excelled.   Despite strong qualifications he was rejected by IIT–India’s premier university.  Mr. Bolla persisted and applied to a number of US schools and was admitted to and graduated from MIT.   Returning to India Mr. Bolla decided to focus on the issue of employability of the disabled.  In 2012 he started Bollant Industries Pvt. Ltd., with the aim of providing livelihood opportunities to the physically challenged.   Today Bollant Industries is a 11 crore company (approximately $10M) and provides help to many.  Truly an inspirational story.

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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2016

The fifth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is on May 19, 2016.   The purpose of GAAD is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities.

Learn about how GAAD started in response to a single blog  , an accessibility professional from Toronto.

Check out the Global Accessibility Awareness Day website if you would like to learn more about GAAD.

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Website Accessibility Litigation on the Rise

An interesting article on Dykema’s Food and Beverage Law Blog from Phil Slinkard and Nicholas Monaghan  who are Corporate Attorneys at Dykema, Cox Smith on the increasing amount website accessibility litigation.

The legal landscape is uneven because most of the cases have been settled before a court can render an opinion.  Despite that Mr. Slinkard and Mr. Monaghan state:

…any commercial enterprises that interact with the public through their websites should assess their accessibility with an expert in the matter, or at a minimum, with its IT managers to determine whether  changes can be made to reduce the threat of litigation or an enforcement action.

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Tweets from CSUN 2016 – International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference

The 31st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference held in San Diego is one of the premier accessibility conferences on the calendar.  A must attend if you are interested in accessibility.

The hashtag for this year’s conference was #CSUN16.   To give you a flavor of the conference we have curated some of the best tweets below.   You can grab a couple of exceptional presentations and resources as well as learn about a few of the best accounts to add to your personal learning network for digital accessibility.

If you weren’t able to visit #CSUN16 here’s Rasha Said explaining the experiential benefits AWARE offers http://bit.ly/25stHeP 
The Great Big List from the 2016 #CSUN16 International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference by @mactoph http://curbcut.net/tag/csun16/ 
CBT Live from #CSUN16: On the Go with Low-Vision Devices from Hims Inc – Cool Blind Tech https://www.coolblindtech.com/cbt-live-csun16-go-low-vision-devices-hims-inc/ …

Read more Tweets from CSUN 2016 – International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference