Surprise? Re: NY Attorney General holds ADA ...

I'm not sure why it is a big surprise. There is not a lot of case law in  
this area, but there is some, and the general trend appears to be that  
laws meant for bricks and mortar businesses (becasue that's what was  
around when they happened to be written) apply to internet-based  
businesses too. Naturally there are exceptions to this line of  
interpretation (one of them occasioned howls of protest on this and other  
accessibility fora about a year ago).

On the other hand, while the legal landscape in which accessibility  
happens is important to know about, this is not a list filled with  
lawyers, law makers, or people otherwise in a position to do much more  
than note the fact and get on with their jobs. It is clearly potentially  
interesting, but I don't see anything obvious to discuss (beyond basic  
questions like "is the article accurate? Where do I find the rulings? Does  
this have legal implications in the province of Saskatoon?" which aren't  
always the main interests of list participants). It is a bit like an  
announcement that the browser w3m supports CSS. It might lead to  
discussions about how to use it, or it might not. But to a large extent it  
would be one of the interesting things that make up the landscape.

just my 2 cents worth. Bear in mind that I don't live or work in New  
York...

cheers

Chaals

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 18:07:08 -0500, Jim Thatcher <jim@jimthatcher.com>  
wrote:

>
> I was surprised to see no replies on this important announcement.  
> Basically
> the Attorney General of New York is holding that the ADA applies to web
> sites as "places of public accommodations."

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile         charles@sidar.org
Fundación Sidar             http://www.sidar.org

Received on Saturday, 21 August 2004 00:44:16 UTC