Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

The New York State Attorney General’s Office [published a press release][1] this Thursday announcing that [Priceline][2] and [Ramada][3] had agreed to make their sites more accessible to visually impaired visitors:

>Under the terms of the agreements, the companies will implement a range of accessibility standards authored by the Web Accessibility Initiative (“WAI”) of the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”), an organization that recommends Internet standards. For instance, graphics and images must have comprehensible labels, tables must have appropriately placed row and column headers, and edit fields (boxes where the Internet user inputs information) which must be labeled to indicate which information is requested. The companies must also implement a wide variety of other initiatives, based on guidelines authored by the W3C.

These settlements follow investigations over the last couple of years into the sites’ compliance with the provisions of the ADA, which the New York AG alleges that they must adhere to as “places of public accommodation.” It is important to note that, under the terms of the settlements, neither company admits that the allegation is correct, and they are making the changes voluntarily in order to prevent the state from filing suit.

Who knows? Maybe Priceline visitors will even be able to choose between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy voices.

\[And belated thanks to Chip Adams for the pointer.\]

[1]: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/aug/aug19a_04.html
“Spitzer Agreement to Make Web Sites Accessible to the Blind and Visually Impaired”
[2]: http://www.priceline.com/
[3]: http://www.ramada.com/

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