NFB

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-fetched notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind in the US and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a
blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called "nonvisual interfaces," uses sensors to let a blind driver manoeuvre a car based on information transmitted to him about the surroundings:
whether another car or object is nearby, in front or in an adjacent lane.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people, and three blind students who have applied or
are considering applying to law school in California-Deepa Goraya, Bruce J.
Sexton, and Claire Stanley-filed an amended lawsuit yesterday against the Law School Admissions Council and four California law schools for violating
provisions of the California Disabled Persons Act, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The suit was filed because the law schools require or encourage applicants to use a centralized Internet-based application process provided by the Law
School Admissions Council (LSAC) through its Web site (
www.lsac.org )
that is inaccessible to blind law school applicants. Blind students must
seek sighted assistance to use the LSAC system. Furthermore, blind law school applicants cannot perform other tasks on the LSAC Web site, such as
downloading official study materials for the Law School Admissions Test
(LSAT) that is required by almost all U.S. law schools.

Over the last couple of years more attention was brought to Section 508 lawsuits. It is due to the fact that people started taking advantage of their rights, namely, that electronic information should be accessible to them despite of their disabilities. There are many more organizations which could theoretically be threatened by a Section 508 lawsuit, and it is highly probable that in the future it will be more difficult to get away with non-compliance. It is almost a pattern that the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is part of these Section 508 lawsuits. One of the reasons is that as an organization, they support the complaints of an individual, as an organization. Also, this sends a message to agencies which choose not to comply, namely that there is an organization which will help enforcing Section 508, even if on a case by case basis.

Here, we’ll take a look at the major Section 508 lawsuits filed against agencies and businesses regarding their web sites. Our main goal is to learn from these events so we could avoid facing the same legal problems they have encountered.

PHOENIX, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the American Council of the Blind (ACB), and Arizona State University
(ASU), today announced a settlement agreement resolving litigation filed by NFB and ACB against the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) and ASU. The lawsuit
arose from the university's participation in a pilot program using the Kindle DX, a dedicated device for reading electronic books, or e-books, developed
by Amazon.com, Inc. The NFB and ACB alleged that the Kindle DX was inaccessible to blind students and thus violated federal law. ABOR and ASU denied and
continue to deny any violations of the law.

The settlement agreement among the parties was reached in light of several factors, including: (1) ASU's commitment to providing access to all programs
and facilities for students with disabilities, including students who are blind or have low vision; (2) the fact that the pilot program will end in the
Spring of 2010; (3) Amazon and others are making improvements to and progress in the accessibility of e-book readers; and (4) the university's agreement
that should ASU deploy e-book readers in future classes over the next two years, it will strive to use devices that are accessible to the blind.

The National Federation of the Blind is applauding the decisions of Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison not to Amazon.com's Kindle DX as a textbook replacement.

The universities cited the Kindle's inaccessibility to the blind as the problem.

Just recently, the National Federation of the Blind filed the third Section 508 related complaint in a row. Will this change how seriously Section 508 compliance will be taken?

BALTIMORE, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind people and the leading advocate for equal access by the blind to information technology, and Carlos Mora, a blind resident of Baltimore, Maryland, filed an administrative complaint today with the United States Department of Education. The complaint asserts that one of the United States Department of Education's Web sites, U.S.A. Learns, violates Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act because it is inaccessible to blind people who use text-to-speech screen access technology or Braille displays to access information on the Internet. Because of the inaccessibility of the U.S.A. Learns Web site, blind people cannot access or navigate through the content of the English vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation lessons that are offered through the site.

BALTIMORE, and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind people and the leading advocate for making mainstream devices accessible to the blind, and Motorola Inc., a leading manufacturer of cell phones and other mobile communications devices, announced today that they have entered into a cooperation agreement to promote technologies that improve the accessibility of cell phones to blind consumers.

Target's out-of-court settlement with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) last year has thrown the spotlight on accessibility in web design.

This is according to experts speaking to Internet Retailer, who suggested that the complaints made to the NFB about the accessibility of Target's website for disabled web users has prompted more businesses to look at their own sites more closely.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and Target announced that they have settled a class action lawsuit regarding access to the Target.com Web site by blind people.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Access to Web sites is critical to the full and equal participation of blind people in all aspects of modern life. The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to have reached a settlement with Target that is good for all blind
consumers, and we recognize that Target has already taken action to make certain that its Web site is accessible to everyone. We look forward to working with Target in the coming months to help make additional improvements that will enhance the experience of blind visitors to Target.com. It is our sincere hope that other businesses providing goods and services over the Internet will follow Target’s example and take affirmative steps to provide full access to their Web sites by blind consumers."