International policy and legislation

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Wells Fargo reaches settlement that will guarantee equal access

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The United States Justice Department and Wells Fargo & Company have reached a comprehensive settlement agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act which will ensure equal access to all Wells Fargo services, including website services, for people with disabilities.

Wells Fargo has been the subject of numerous complaints by Deaf and hearing impaired people, as well as people with speech difficulties, many of which related to the company’s refusal to use the telecommunications relay service.

As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo will ensure that its 10,000 retail and banking stores, over 12,000 ATMs, and phone and website services will be fully accessible. It will also pay US$16 million in compensation to individuals, and a US$55,000 civil penalty to the United States.

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General
International policy and legislation
Web
News

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American disabilities association argues for sensible audio description regulations

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The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) has made a submission to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), making numerous recommendations about how audio description should be regulated when it is introduced as a compulsory service on television next year.

Under provisions of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 rules regarding mandatory levels of audio description will be reinstated on 8 October 2011, with required hours of described programming beginning in the first quarter of 2012.

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General
Television
International policy and legislation
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description
News
FCC, Federal Communications Commission

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Report on captioning in the European Union released

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The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People (EFHOH) has released a report which looks at levels of captioning on audiovisual media across the European Union.

The EFHOH, which has been campaigning for increased levels of captioning for the last ten years, notes that some countries have made great progress in that time. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France now have 100% captioning on their main television channels, but other countries are lagging behind.

The EFHOH notes that there are 50 million Deaf and hearing impaired people in Europe, and believes that 100% of programs on all public TV channels should be captioned by 2020.

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General
Captions
Television
International policy and legislation
Video
Deaf or hearing impaired
Cinema
The arts
News

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Study reveals most US Government websites are inaccessible

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A recent study published in the Government Information Quarterly journal has found that most US Federal Government websites are inaccessible and do not comply with legislative accessibility requirements.

The study, conducted by doctoral student Abiodun Olalere and Professor Jonathan Lazar, tested 100 popular US Government websites and discovered that 90% of home pages were in breach of the US Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 508.

The types of issues discovered on the websites were varied, with the most prominent issues relating to a lack of alternative text for images, a lack of captions on video and incorrectly labelled forms.

Taxonomy: 
General
International policy and legislation
Web
Research & policy
News
Practical web accessibility

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