[thelist] Color Chooser Review -- correction

[Laurel Nevans]

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> > Show me one case where a closed, proprietary intranet system
was
> > successfully sued for non-comliance to one of the silly laws
you keep
> > quoting. You won't, because it doesn't exist. The next thing
you know,
> > you'll be trying to sue the Indianapolis speedway because
they don't
> > allow blind drivers to race in the Indy 500.
>
> you're not going to find that for a couple reasons...
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Actually, I used to be an Assistive Tech Trainer for a government
contractor.  Social Security WAS successfully sued by their
employees b/c they did not have "equal access" to the SSA
intranet.  None of the employees I trained had internet access
from their desk, but ALL used the SSA intranet.  As a trainer, I
wasn't aware of ALL the leagl issues involved, just the fact that
SSA's new LAN/WAN system was being deployed nationwide in
response to a lawsuit by employees.  Of course, this was AGES ago
in internet time (circa 1997 or so, and BEFORE 508 was
reauthorized and revamped).  BUT a lot of SSA IT vendors
(including MS) worked with the US government to ensure their
products worked for the employees with disabilities.

I primarily worked w/ "legally blind" SSA employees.  Many of
those folks used screen magnifiers (part of the reason a
magnifyer was included in windows versions after 95), rather than
screen readers and/or braille displays.  (One trainee had her 25"
screen magnified so that only 1.5 windows desktop icons were
visible w/o sideways scrolling).  Many long-standing SSA
proprietary apps had to be completely redeveloped so they were
usuable by the blind and visually impaired employees.
Previously, SSA had employed PT "readers" for blind/VI folks to
help them perform the tasks that required vision, but the lawsuit
found that this solution violated "equal computer access" regs
that were already in place.

I'm sure there have been similar intranet suits along the way; we
just never heard about them.

BTW--this has been an absolutely fabulous discussion.  I've
enjoyed reading the opinions on BOTH sides of the fence here.
It's made me think twice about some of the "exceptions" I've
chosen to make in my own coding life.

Laurel Nevans