via forwarded e-mail by Lucia Greco, Assistive Technology Specialist,
UC Berkeley:
Subject: Oracle sued by blind workers in Texas
The National Federation of the Blind and three blind State of Texas employees filed a lawsuit this week against Oracle and the State of Texas. The suit claims that they were not provided adequate access to software used in their employment functions. Despite a state law and guidelines requiring accessible software and after several complaints and requests for a remedy, the State of Texas and Oracle did not take adequate measures to provide screen reader access to the Oracle software that is required in the plaintiff's employment.
This lawsuit is somewhat different from the Target lawsuit. This case focuses on the accessibility of software, not specifically web content. However, it may provide a test of state accessibility legislation that requires "the same access to electronic and information resources as state employees and members of the public without disabilities." It is interesting that both parties of the State of Texas and Oracle are named in the suit. This may suggest that Oracle overstated it's accessibility and that the state did not adequately meet it's own internal policies in the state procurement process.
For more information, see: webaim.org/blog/2007/02/07/oracle_lawsuit.
For more about the Target lawsuit, see the NewsCenter's interview of the UC Berkeley student who filed the lawsuit here. (Be sure to read the informative sidebar.)
