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Redbox sued over access for visually impaired

This article came to my attention and I thought some of you would like to read it. This is a growing problem for people with vision impairments. While, as a person with albinism, I can see some of the touch screen technology well enough to use it, there are some I find very difficult to use as well. My blind friends (and sometimes myself) find that as this technology increases in usage, it can be limiting to our independence.

Personally, when companies use this technology in this way, it's the same thing as setting up a brick and mortar building but making the doors so that a wheel chair can't get through - something that hasn't bee legal in this country since 1992.

It's never desirable to have to make a court case out of such things, but I fear it will take a number of cases like this to get corporate America's attention.

My biggest pet peeve are ATM machines. When I'm dealing with my money, I don't want to guess that I'm pushing the right buttons, and I don't want to have to ask anyone for help. It's private!

I can see most ATMsl, yet it irritates me that several ATMs in my neighborhood have been replaced recently with no attempt to make them more accessable to the blind.

Okay, stepping off the soap box now.....

Here's the article for those who are interested:

Redbox sued over access for visually impaired





A San Francisco group that advocates for the visually impaired on Thursday sued a company that makes DVD-rental kiosks and the grocery store chain that hosts them, alleging that they discriminate against blind customers.






The group Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired said the touch-screens on Redbox rental kiosks, which can be found on the premises of many Bay Area Save Mart and Lucky stores, make it impossible or difficult for visually impaired customers to use the kiosks.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/12/BA0F1MOO29.DTL
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