FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February
18, 2020
Media Contact:
Josh
Levitt: 845-641-3654
cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
LANDMARK AGREEMENTS ESTABLISH NEW MODEL FOR ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND BUSINESS
Settlement
with MIT Follows Similar Agreement with Harvard University to Caption Online
Content;
Agreements Represent the Most
Comprehensive Set of Online Accessibility Requirements
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.
MIT, one of the most celebrated academic research institutes in the world, has
agreed to provide industry standard captioning for publicly-available online
content, including video and audio content posted on MIT.edu as well as MIT’s
YouTube, Vimeo, and Soundcloud pages, certain live-streaming events and online
courses such as Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), MITx and MIT
OpenCourseWare.
The terms of the settlement are included within a consent decree,
which can be enforced by the court. The court must approve the consent decree
before it may become effective.
MIT must also implement a public process to manage these requests. MIT is also
required to submit reports every six months beginning in June 2020 to NAD and
the Disability Law Center with information about the number of requests
received, among other details.
This 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. The lawsuit was prompted by the
recognition that, notwithstanding the description of MIT’s online
resources as “open and available to the world,” many of its videos and audio
recordings lacked captions or used inaccurate captions. MIT had no
published policies in place to ensure these learning tools were accessible to
people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In the United States alone, there are
approximately 50 million deaf and hard of hearing people.
During the litigation, MIT filed a motion to dismiss the case. In
response the court ruled that federal laws prohibiting disability
discrimination covered MIT’s online content.
The named plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit, NAD, C. Wayne Dore, Christy
Smith and Lee Nettles, were represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll,
the Disability Law Center, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund,
the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and also the NAD.
“The settlements with MIT and Harvard usher in a new era of accessible online
learning in higher education. The civil rights mandate is clear – all colleges
and universities must ensure that the video and audio content on their websites
are accessible through quality captioning.” said Howard A. Rosenblum, Chief Executive
Officer, National Association of the Deaf.“Providing equal access through new and evolving technologies is at the
core of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This announcement opens up a huge
new world of learning for the tens of millions of people who were previously
unable to access MIT’s wealth of online educational resources,” said Arlene B. Mayerson, Directing Attorney at
the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund.
“These agreements with MIT and Harvard are ground-breaking and historic,
opening new doorways in learning for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and
professionals and setting a new standard for civil rights enforcement for
accessibility in online learning. We urge other institutions that share their
research, case studies, and course work to the public to follow this precedent
to ensure their content is accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people,
worldwide,” said Joseph
M. Sellers who heads the civil rights practice at Cohen Milstein Sellers &
Toll.
“There’s no excuse for any institution to shortchange the millions of people
who are deaf and hard of hearing. We cannot pick and choose what types of
accessibility we want to provide—it’s a fundamental right that everyone
deserves. We’re pleased the agreement ensures all learners will be treated
equally,” said Amy F.
Robertson, Co-Executive Director of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement
Center.
“These agreements represent the most comprehensive framework for ensuring that
higher education institutions make their online and digital resources available
for the deaf and hard of hearing. Nobody should be denied the opportunity to an
education because of a disability, and the digital doors of MIT are now open
for everyone,” said Marlene
Sallo, Executive Director of the Disability Law Center.
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