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spitfire -> What if... it became endemic? (8/19/2005 10:11:57)
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I don't mean accessibility becoming endemic (although that would be great), I mean the litigation/compensation culture winging its way around the globe from its genesis somewhere to the west of the Greenwich Meridian.
Some time ago, I was approached by five clients who had received direct e-mails from the administrator (I use the term loosely) of a private forum - membership by invitation only. The e-mails went something like this:
"Your friend Joe Bloggs (actual friend's name and contact details given) has advised us that you would be interested in joining our campaign against discrimination of all kinds all around the world. As a person who could be discriminated against, we will support you in turning that discrimination to your advantage... etc."
This was not spam nor a scam in the generally accepted sense. Each "friend" actually confirmed the provision of a contact e-mail address: it had not been harvested. There was no financial advantage to the forum owners or to those who provided e-mail addies. It was not after the ethos of the "Free i-Pod" pyramid gangs, but it was trouble-making of a potentially extreme kind.
A quick visit to the forum (looking over an invitee's shoulder) showed numerous sub forums for people who are:
blind; visually-impaired; mobility-impaired; learning-impaired; assistance-dog owners; wheelchair users; huge lists for ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, sexual preference and a solitary Miscellaneous one which was the most active. The discussions centred around how to put yourself in a position where you could be discriminated against and how to take financial advantage of that. Many topics were resolved with the participants advising what they had bought or done with their compensation payments.
On the Miscellaneous sub-forum they were discussing such issues as measuring the unevenness of paving in pedestrian areas to discern whether the depth was outside the legal requirements: then returning to the area when there were lots of people around and contriving to trip, fall over, break a little finger/toe or what have you. The assistance-dog owners were advised which sort of premises they were likely to be turned away from because of the dog; similarly for wheelchair users etc.
Individuals can only get away with this sort of thing a limited number of times before they end up on a list of "serial litigants" and the "law" ignores further protestations from them. However, as the forum shows, there are always fresh apprentice litigants being groomed to take their place.
The forum has now been reported to its ISP (not interested). It is not UK-based, but, a Department of the Government of Her Britannic Majesty is looking into it and considering reporting its existance to the country of origin/police authorities. The Department has advised the forum has switched ISP and gone through a name-change, although not country, but have no doubt the forum members were advised of this well in advance.
Meanwhile, what are implications for websites?
My clients had each been given the address of a different website, told what to look for, how to complain and how to go about suing the site-owners under the UK Disability Discrimination Act. My clients did nothing about it but I approached the web masters of each website. They were all ignorant of the law but have now taken accessibility on board and we are working together on improving the sites from that aspect. The site-owners were brought on board at the start. They are grateful that they were advised in this way, rather than by way of a solicitor's letter and all accept that ignorance of the law was no defence. Now they are plaguing me for re-assurances that the accessibility techniques they are now employing and/or planning will be considered "reasonable" in legal terms.
I accept these sites were all UK-based where there has been a law for several years that is beginning to bite quite hard. Some countries may only have enough legal teeth to provide advisory standards at this time - but what if site-owners in those countries start getting complaints? OK the law in those countries will not penalise them intrinsically or financially, but the aggravation factor (particularly for the webmaster) will cost a bit in terms of "professional" reputation, referral and repeat-business - I'll bet.
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