Re: Judgement in the SouthWest case.

has there yet been a suit that we can point to that has been won on
this?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles McCathieNevile" <charles@w3.org>
To: <tina@elfi.org>
Cc: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: Judgement in the SouthWest case.



I am not a lawyer, and know little about american law. But I was
surprised by
the assertion that there is no evidence that WCAG is accepted widely -
it is
acknowledged in various US state jurisdictions as well as European, and
Australian one, is accepted as a policy reference in Canada, ...

(I am not sure what the comment about "the document is over three years
old
means. Is that meant to imply that it is too old to be useful in
interpreting
a 12-year-old law, or that they expect it to change? I would need to
read the
judgement to understand better.)

But the point is that a lot can be done to improve accessibility.
Implementing WCAG to somewhere around double-A is a good start - at
least for
showing that it is an accepted standard.

What can be done in the US to give more legal teeth to people trying to
enforce a right to accesssibility is something I leave to the good
citizens
of the US to decide for themselves - interfering in other countries'
self-determination isn't really my bag, however often I might give my
opinions...

But I am curious about whether a judge making an error of fact is
grounds for
appealing an appeal. Maybe I will ask a lawyer's opinion to satisfy my
own
curiosity.

Just a couple of personal thoughts from me on holiday. Without
readingthe
actual judgement these are probably worth a little less than two
cents...

Chaals

On Mon, 21 Oct 2002 tina@elfi.org wrote:

>
>
> It would seem that the Judge has passed ... a judgement in the
> SouthWest airlines cases. The story can be found at:
>
>    http://news.com.com/2100-1023-962761.html
>
> It is ... disappointing, but perhaps not entirely surprising. It
seems,
> to me, after a first reading - note the last paragraph - that there is
> a distinct lack of understanding prevalent.
>
> At this moment in time I admit, though it is emotional, that I am not
> entirely certain what - if anything - CAN be done to improve
> accessibility.
>
>
>

--
Charles McCathieNevile  http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  tel: +61 409
134 136
SWAD-E http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe ------------ WAI
http://www.w3.org/WAI
 21 Mitchell street, FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia  fax(fr): +33 4 92 38
78 22
 W3C, 2004 Route des Lucioles, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Monday, 21 October 2002 21:43:30 UTC