All This needs to be addressed as a priority. Besides the cost of being sued, the PR backlash would not be beneficial. Howard, please have the folks at Murtha contact Bob immediately. _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office:512-445-6262 Cell:512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 *_______________________________________*** ** On 8/1/19 1:40 PM, Bob Famiglio, K3RF via arrl-odv wrote:
Howard:
If our lawyers claim we are compliant, I would be surprised. I'd love to talk with them in case I misunderstand something. I have not found front page/home page ADA functionality on our site, but perhaps I have just missed it or misunderstand what they are doing. And it is not a saving if we mean well or have a compliant legal opinion - we either are or are not. Not knowing or honest intent is of no moment.
I had dealt with this issue professionally last year as general counsel for a reputable, well-run national franchise. I spent a day studying the issues as I too thought it was nonsense. Ria raised the issue months ago, so I thought it was under way. It was indeed shocking to find my client as a defendant in federal court. In their case they had actually been in compliance for 45 days before the suit was served from a federal district court, but we still had to prepare to defend under those facts and that cost more than settlement did.
Attached is the complaint - it is public record, is sent with my client's blessings, and has been the subject of other publicity as well- available on the public access page of the court files. I settled it for considerable money for nuisance value. That was 5 figures -very unfair, highway robbery, but a good lesson. This is still happening, and law firms are making big bucks handling it as class actions. It is only a matter of time. We may not have insurance coverage for ADA compliance, many policies exclude it.
GOOD NEWS, it cost very little to get into compliance. See the snippet I attached as a sample of how the fix appears on a home page. There are off-the-shelf IT tools now available. Ria will know and raised this issue as well. My client spent less than $1000 to fix it, miscellaneous in the scheme of things.
If you like, call me now or if you like have our lawyers call me today. I would be most pleased to assist - it is my obligation to help and not stick my head in the sand. It may be taking more time to talk about it than to fix it. And, we can brag that we are inclusive regarding our impaired members. Did I just miss the function on our site? Where is it? We can fix this in a few hours of time.
Bob Famiglio, K3RF Vice Director - ARRL Atlantic Division 610-359-7300
www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF
-----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv On Behalf Of Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 10:22 PM To: Jairam, Ria, N2RJ, (Dir, HD) <rjairam@gmail.com>; arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:28492] Re: Concerns about ADA accessibility
Hi Ria,
Yes, we have had Murtha Cullina look at our compliance under the ADA act, first when you passed along a similar threat about providing QST for blind hams, and at my request to look at our web site and other possible areas of problems. Their reading is that we are expected to provide as "reasonable accommodation" and we are doing that.
If you think that this threat of legal action is real, or if you have specific information that I should pass to Murtha Cullina, call me in the office tomorrow. Otherwise I assume that we don't need to involve our lawyers or insurance broker at this time.
73, Howard
On 7/31/2019 8:05 PM, mailto:rjairam@gmail.com wrote:
A ham who wishes to remain anonymous for now has alerted me to the possibility that we may not be in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and that there has been even talk of legal action. I can't say if that is serious or not but you have to take every threat seriously.
Do we have any assessment of our current websites and other media with regard to accessibility?
Have we contacted counsel about the possibility that this may happen?
I would hope that we are on top of this.
Ria N2RJ _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv
-- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur RadioR 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: mailto:hmichel@arrl.org
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