December 16, 2021
Payan v. Los Angeles Community College District is a case brought by blind students against the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). The students want the textbooks, handouts, websites, and other technology they use at school to be accessible to them. They sued in federal court under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. [...]
November 20, 2020
On Friday, November 20th, DREDF submitted comments strongly urging California's Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) to adopt proposed regulatory changes that would increase the number of required mobility and sensory access features in new Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments. The LIHTC program is one of the state's largest affordable housing development programs. TCAC initially proposed cutting these accessible housing requirements in half, but in response to overwhelming and compelling public testimony, TCAC has now proposed to increase accessible housing in new construction projects. If adopted, these regulatory changes provide an opportunity for California to address the accessibility gap in our state and set an example for the rest of the nation. [...]
June 1, 2020
DREDF, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, the National Health Law Program, and 6 other organizations that advocate on behalf of Limited English Proficient populations and people with communication disabilities wrote a joint letter to Congress May 29. The letter urges federal lawmakers to provide funding, resources, and oversight to ensure that entities supporting the health of communities across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic provide the fully accessible and translated written and oral communication needed for equally effective healthcare.
May 26, 2020
People with disabilities and their families have faced a longstanding shortage of accessible and affordable housing in California. We know that people with disabilities often experience poverty, thus increasing the likelihood that we rely on affordable, accessible housing to thrive in our communities. [...]
February 18, 2020
BOSTON—The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced today a landmark settlement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that institutes a series of new guidelines to make the university's website and online resources accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. The settlement follows a similar agreement with Harvard University in November 2019, which together represent the most comprehensive set of online accessibility requirements in higher education and provide a new model for ensuring worldwide online and digital accessibility in academia and business for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. [...]
December 16, 2019
Find out why the Harvard Captioning Settlement is the most comprehensive set of online accessibility requirements in higher education to date and how it ensures Harvard will provide high-quality captioning services for all its internet content going forward.
November 27, 2019 Settlement was reached four years after this litigation began in 2015, when it was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Massachusetts as a class action lawsuit. Under the agreement, Harvard must provide captions for all online resources, including school-wide events that are live-streamed, content from department sponsored student organizations and any new audio or video hosted by third-party platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud. The individual plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit were represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, the Disability Law Center, and the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. [...]
February 2, 2017
Blind and visually impaired Californians who are enrolled in the Medi-Cal In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program can now read their IHSS communications and submit timesheets privately and independently. Disability Rights California (DRC) and Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) reached a collaborative and creative agreement with the California Department of Health Care services (DHCS) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to ensure equal and effective communication for blind and visually impaired IHSS recipients and applicants.
November 8, 2016
Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District Court of Massachusetts denied Massachusetts Institute for Technology's (MIT) and Harvard University's motions to dismiss the National Association of the Deaf's (NAD) and other named plaintiffs' complaint that the institution discriminates against deaf and hard of hearing people by failing to caption the vast and varied array of online content they make available to the general public, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). Today's decision affirms that plaintiffs' case will be going forward.
October 21, 2016
On October 7, 2016, in response to the U.S. Department of Justice's Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rule regarding Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government, DREDF has signed onto comments submitted by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); National Association of the Deaf (NAD); National Disability Rights Network; and Paralyzed Veterans of America, among others. The comments emphasize that the internet has become a fundamental part of every day life, and state and local government websites must remove the serious barriers facing people with disabilities in accessing critical government information online.