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From comments: web accessibility trips up a state medical board

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:10:31 +0000

Thanks to reader Hugo Cunningham for spotting this in a new Boston Globe report on the failure of the Massachusetts state medical board to post physicians’ disciplinary problems and other performance issues online:

Another major omission has resulted from a Catch-22-like requirement in state law. Russell Aims, the … chief of staff
[of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine], said the board used to post digital copies of its disciplinary orders [for medical malpractice]. But an online accessibility law requires that documents be available in a text-to-speech format for the visually impaired.

Because the PDF format of the disciplinary records is not compatible with text-to-speech software, Aims said, the law dictates that such records cannot appear in the database. If the visually impaired cannot access the information, then no one can.

Tags: Massachusetts, medical, web accessibility

From comments: web accessibility trips up a state medical board is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:06:48 +0000

Supreme Court orders rebriefing in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum case, could address extent of permitted extraterritoriality in Alien Tort Statute [Kenneth Anderson/Volokh quoting John Bellinger, Point of Law featured discussion, Ilya Shapiro on Cato brief]
UN “food rights” official: trade, investment pacts should not go forward without “human rights impact assessments” [De Schutter; his paternalist food-policy agenda] UN panel reviews Canada’s record on race, lectures on need for more multiculturalism [OHCHR]
Courts still reluctant to restrain parents’ physical discipline of kids, but UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for which ratification push is expected in the U.S. this year, could change that [Elizabeth Wilson, ConcurOp]
Golan v. Holder: “Copyright Case May Have Profound Effect on Treaty Power” [Ilya Shapiro, Jurist]
Web accessibility litigation spreads to UK [Disability Law, related on role of U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, earlier and background]
New tone under Ambassador Joseph Torsella: “Obama Comes Around on U.N. Reform” [Brett Schaefer, NRO]
Reviewing new John Fonte book Sovereignty or Submission, Temple lawprof Peter Spiro contends that trend toward transnational governance isn’t “reversible…. It’s mostly wishful thinking to suppose that we can stick to the vision of the Founders.” [OJ, earlier here, etc., and see chapters 11-12 of Schools for Misrule]
Dante’s Divine Comedy “offensive and should be banned,” per UN anti-discrimination consultancy [Telegraph]

Tags: Alien Tort Claims Act, children's rights, international human rights, international law, United Nations, web accessibility

International law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A roadblock to e-readers in schools?

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:02:22 +0000

Assisted by a foundation, Baltimore has proposed putting Nook e-reader devices in some school libraries, but a complaint from the National Federation of the Blind says that would violate Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). [Business Wire]

Tags: Baltimore, disability & schools, web accessibility

A roadblock to e-readers in schools? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Judge declines to dismiss ADA suit over streaming Netflix

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:07:18 +0000

A Massachusetts federal judge has declined to throw out an ADA suit against Netflix demanding captioning of its streaming movie service, but “stayed the case pending rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission.” [Qualters, NLJ] Relatedly, Arizona’s largest movie chain will install closed captioning and headset systems in all its outlets following an adverse ruling by the Ninth Circuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). [East Valley Tribune, earlier] Meanwhile, following an audit negotiated in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, “The city of Tucson may have to find an estimated $17 million to bring many of its facilities into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” [Star]

Tags: Arizona, disabled rights, movies film and videos, web accessibility

Judge declines to dismiss ADA suit over streaming Netflix is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“What Online Businesses Need to Know About the ADA”

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:33:45 +0000

Dangerous, far-reaching web-accessibility proposals haven’t gone away. [Kelly L. Frey Sr. and Shameak Belvitt, Law.com]

Tags: web accessibility

“What Online Businesses Need to Know About the ADA” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:18:50 +0000

“Teen beauty queen portrayed as spoiled brat on ‘Wife Swap’ files $100M lawsuit” [NY Daily News]
“Viva el cupcake!” NYC parents and kids protest the Bloomberg administration’s anti-bake-sale rules [Philissa Cramer, GothamSchools] Bill in Congress would thrust federal government much more deeply into school food issues [Al Tompkins, Poynter]
For improved disabled access to online resources, look to technical advance, not regulation [Szoka, City Journal]
“Ministry of Justice Rolls Out New Measures to Reform U.K. Libel Law” [Legal Week/Law.com] “Success Fees in U.K. Libel Cases to Be Slashed by 90 Percent” [same]
“They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” (Markopolos critique of SEC, cont’d) [Gordon Smith, Conglomerate]
A sentiment open to doubt: Prof. Freedman contends that lawyers’ ethics are higher than doctors’ [Legal Ethics Forum]
Quotas for women executives in boardroom and top corporate posts spread in Europe. Maybe someday here too? [NYT "Room for Debate"]
Yes to better indigent criminal defense, no to a court order taking over the subject [Greenfield]

Tags: broadcasters, ethics, NYC, obesity, racial quotas, schools, web accessibility

March 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: judge dismisses vision-impaired gamer’s suit against Sony

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:22:54 +0000

A California federal judge has dismissed Alexander Stern’s case against the Japanese entertainment company, ruling that online multiplayer games such as EverQuest, unlike bricks-and-mortar establishments, are not “places of public accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act [OnPoint News, opinion in PDF courtesy OnPoint, earlier here and here] (& Darleen Click, Protein Wisdom)

Tags: disabled rights, videogames, web accessibility

Update: judge dismisses vision-impaired gamer’s suit against Sony is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: Kindle not helpful enough to blind users

Walter Olson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:03:28 +0000

“Two organizations representing the blind have settled a discrimination lawsuit against Arizona State University over its use of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader device. … The university, which denies the pilot program violates any law, agreed that if it does decide to use e-book readers in future classes over the next two years, ‘it will strive to use devices that are accessible to the blind,’ according to their joint statement.” [AP/ABC News; earlier] Related: Berin Szoka, “An Internet for everyone” [L.A. Times/City Journal]

Tags: Arizona, colleges and universities, disability & schools, disabled rights, publishers, web accessibility

Update: Kindle not helpful enough to blind users is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:51:53 +0000

Already-infamous Coakley-for-Senate rape-ad mailer: did they really line up all those photo permissions? [Lopez, NRO] Earlier on photo-permissions legal exposures here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.
“Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas: Blame the Libertarians!” [Balko, earlier]
Georgetown lawprof Robin West takes such a rude tone with homeschoolers, it’s enough to make you wonder who brought her up [Common Room, Izzy Lyman/Big Journalism, "The Harms of Homeschooling" (PDF)] Parents charged with child endangerment for homeschooling their kids without submitting lesson plans [Albany Times-Union]
Videogames and the ADA: “Sony Launches Defense to Gamer’s Equal Access Suit” [OnPoint News, earlier]
Regulations may spell end for independent New England fishermen [AP/MSNBC, earlier]
Veteran California pol Willie Brown criticizes civil service entrenchment [Kaus] Government employment has its privileges [Stuart Greenhut, Reason]
New Jersey appeals court reverses $260K award over student’s fatal window fall at Fairleigh Dickinson U. [Star-Ledger]
Georgia federal judge orders plaintiff to pay $268K costs of discovery for stretching patent claims [Fulton County Daily Report]

Tags: art and artists, civil service, colleges and universities, disabled rights, discovery, loser pays, Massachusetts, patent litigation, Phoenix, schools, videogames, web accessibility

January 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:48:21 +0000

“A Patient Dies, and Then the Anguish of Litigation” [Joan Savitsky, NYT, more]
“Kern County’s Monstrous D.A.” [Radley Balko]
“Former N.Y. Judge Sentenced to 27 Months in Jail for Attempted Bribery” [NYLJ]
“ADA Online: Is a Website a ‘Place of Public Accommodation’?” [Eric Robinson, Citizen Media Law, background here and here]
“The New Climate Litigation: How about if we sue you for breathing?” [WSJ editorial]
Saratoga school district agrees to overregulate, rather than ban, students’ bikes [Free-Range Kids, earlier]
“Head of BigLaw pro bono department fails to pay income taxes for 10 years? How’s that happen?” [WSJ Law Blog]
Municipal subprime suits: “The Most ‘Evil’ Lenders Are Also, Conveniently, The Richest” [Kevin Funnell; more at Point of Law]

Tags: medical malpractice, mortgages, nonmonetary costs of litigation, pro bono, prosecutorial abuse, web accessibility

January 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system