Yes, it is the design they are suing over, much like companies have been sued because someone in a wheelchair can't get in the door. It has nothing to do with content.
And can you explain to me how a blind person wanting to have access to a business / for-profit website that non-disabled people can access is somehow unequal?
And no, I don't think this is one of the worst lawsuits in recent times, I think it's *really* smart. For years the disabled population has struggled to gain equal access to things that non-disabled people don't have to deal with. The ADA helped greatly by requiring businesses to accommodate people with disabilities so that they could get in the stores. Now suppose several years down the road, major book sellers close their physical locations and do all their business online. What happens then? Without some sort of standards or protections in place, they will be right back where they started.
Transportation is not as easy as you would think if you're blind. Good luck finding someone to drive you there or finding a bus that can even get you there or in a reasonable amount of time. But let's just ignore this major whole in your idea and assume that a blind person does get to the store. Now what? They walk around feeling everything to figure out what it is? They snag one of those not so busy employees that just happens to fully understand the needs of a blind person, complete with accurately and clearly describing the products in the store? Yeah right....
Because this is the way it used to be and *nothing* was an option. There are not enough disabled people to make a big enough impact on large corporations and there are more than enough non-disabled people that don't care at all.
I've attended state schoools, technical institutes, and "elite" private schools (one being an Ivy League university). From what I observed, your basic idea is correct -- that there are very bright (and very dumb) individuals in both groups. But I did notice a few differences, mostly that students at the "elite" private schools were willing to work really hard. When I spent my time in state schools it seemed like many students wasted class time asking questions that were clearly answered in the reading, fighting with the teacher over the amount of work that we had to do (and getting it reduced), and waiting until the last minute to do *anything*. At the "elite" private schools, I found that the majority of the students worked insane amount of hours, accepted the amount of work (which was much more than the state schools I attended), and were pretty much on top of their work.
There is also another difference that I noticed between the two groups too...the students at the "elite" schools acted as if they were at an elite school -- in other words, much better than everyone else. And their behavior can be so pretentious / obnoxious that I'd rather not work with them than to put up with their bullsh*t.
Yes you want to figure out all these things, but I think the bigger issue is about *how* to figure it out.
I had a job interview once where the head of the company acted like a total ass. He would ask me a question and while I'm in the middle of answering it he would interrupt me with something completely unrelated (like he put on sun glasses and ask me what movie star he looked like). He also asked me to teach him swear words in a foreign language that I'm fluent in, made fun of the clothes I wore to the interview, groaned when he found out I lived in the city rather than the suburbs, and asked someone in the office (that had interviewed me for 5 minutes, literally) to tell him what he didn't like about me -- while I was standing right there.
This is a very good example of what not to do. He probably thought his games were a good way to test if I could handle stress. But they didn't really cause stress, they just made him look like a total moron. I left the interview thinking that the owner was completely classless, disrespectful, and rude. Having clients behave this way (or even other departments) can happen, but not in my immediate team - no way.
Yes, he offered me the job, and yes, turning him down was completely satisfying.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it is the design they are suing over, much like companies have been sued because someone in a wheelchair can't get in the door. It has nothing to do with content.
And can you explain to me how a blind person wanting to have access to a business / for-profit website that non-disabled people can access is somehow unequal?
And no, I don't think this is one of the worst lawsuits in recent times, I think it's *really* smart. For years the disabled population has struggled to gain equal access to things that non-disabled people don't have to deal with. The ADA helped greatly by requiring businesses to accommodate people with disabilities so that they could get in the stores. Now suppose several years down the road, major book sellers close their physical locations and do all their business online. What happens then? Without some sort of standards or protections in place, they will be right back where they started.
visit the retail outlet
Stop and think about this one for a minute.
Transportation is not as easy as you would think if you're blind. Good luck finding someone to drive you there or finding a bus that can even get you there or in a reasonable amount of time. But let's just ignore this major whole in your idea and assume that a blind person does get to the store. Now what? They walk around feeling everything to figure out what it is? They snag one of those not so busy employees that just happens to fully understand the needs of a blind person, complete with accurately and clearly describing the products in the store? Yeah right....
Because this is the way it used to be and *nothing* was an option. There are not enough disabled people to make a big enough impact on large corporations and there are more than enough non-disabled people that don't care at all.
I've attended state schoools, technical institutes, and "elite" private schools (one being an Ivy League university). From what I observed, your basic idea is correct -- that there are very bright (and very dumb) individuals in both groups. But I did notice a few differences, mostly that students at the "elite" private schools were willing to work really hard. When I spent my time in state schools it seemed like many students wasted class time asking questions that were clearly answered in the reading, fighting with the teacher over the amount of work that we had to do (and getting it reduced), and waiting until the last minute to do *anything*. At the "elite" private schools, I found that the majority of the students worked insane amount of hours, accepted the amount of work (which was much more than the state schools I attended), and were pretty much on top of their work.
There is also another difference that I noticed between the two groups too...the students at the "elite" schools acted as if they were at an elite school -- in other words, much better than everyone else. And their behavior can be so pretentious / obnoxious that I'd rather not work with them than to put up with their bullsh*t.
Yes you want to figure out all these things, but I think the bigger issue is about *how* to figure it out.
I had a job interview once where the head of the company acted like a total ass. He would ask me a question and while I'm in the middle of answering it he would interrupt me with something completely unrelated (like he put on sun glasses and ask me what movie star he looked like). He also asked me to teach him swear words in a foreign language that I'm fluent in, made fun of the clothes I wore to the interview, groaned when he found out I lived in the city rather than the suburbs, and asked someone in the office (that had interviewed me for 5 minutes, literally) to tell him what he didn't like about me -- while I was standing right there.
This is a very good example of what not to do. He probably thought his games were a good way to test if I could handle stress. But they didn't really cause stress, they just made him look like a total moron. I left the interview thinking that the owner was completely classless, disrespectful, and rude. Having clients behave this way (or even other departments) can happen, but not in my immediate team - no way.
Yes, he offered me the job, and yes, turning him down was completely satisfying.