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Re: Lawyer's Question

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From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Oct 20, 2019 2:22PM

Hello,
Sadly, a right to an autonomous and accessible work environment in the
position of choice is not a right we have in the U.S. Until that happens,
the only thing I'm aware of that a lawyer can do is educate people on
benefits of an inclusive workplace, and file lawsuits against websites that
do fall under the existing 508 laws.

Sadly, if I'm a blind bookkeeper looking for a job, I am still limited to
positions that use accessible bookkeeping software, which to my current
knowledge are 3: Quickbooks, Cash Manager, and Excel. Even within those 3,
accessibility is not very good. This excludes me from most of the
bookkeeping positions in the U.S. and even though the U.S. says you can't
discriminate against disability, the moment a business chooses an
inaccessible piece of software, they are discriminating against future
employees. This type of discrimination is so rampant that even blindness
related organizations sometimes purchase inaccessible or extremely
difficult to use software.
I have talked to numerous lawyers about this problem, and the response I
have received is that no, there is nothing you can do if your new employer
has all their books on an accounting system that you can't use and you are
the bookkeeper. It is an undue burden to switch, and the only other options
are you quit, or you get sighted assistance (AKA, hire another person to do
most of my job).

If the lawyer can figure out how to use the existing laws to solve this
problem, I am more than willing to be the plaintiff, but I have repeatedly
been told that legislation is the only way forward.

I want to see every web app, both for internal and external use be WCAG
compliant. It's completely possible. If there are features (like maps) that
are not accessible, please tell me and I will build a component to solve
the problem that will be WCAG compliant.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;


On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 11:58 AM Peter Shikli < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Message-ID:
> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
> Brandon,
>
> As much as I completely agree with you, most lawyers are not
> legislators. Their specialty is to stand between legislation and judges
> on behalf of their clients. With so much conflicting legislation, I
> feel their greatest value is sometimes to make sense of it for the folks
> on both sides whose emotions cloud their vision, that is, negotiators
> for the many rights with which we are blessed in this country.
>
> What could that person do for the disabled?
>
> Cheers,
> Peter
>
>
> > > > >