Was the accessibility statement generator, viewed and commented by lawyer(s)

[DavidMacDonald]

There appears to be quite a variety of opinions about accessibility statements and liability in the US where there is particularly a lot of litigation. I'm not sure that an organization would want to say

"You are entitled to escalate a complaint to the national authority, should you be dissatisfied with our response to you."

Why would an organization say that? It seems to be "leading with the chin". I'm wondering if lawyers that regularly represent defendants have contributed and commented.

[nitedog]

Thank you for your feedback @DavidMacDonald

Yes, we are aware of the issues across different regions. This is why nothing is required by the tool. Please see the additional information about this particular item, which says:

In some situations you may want to or may be required to provide information about a formal complaints procedures. For example, a quality management process within your organization may require you to establish a formal complaints procedure with clear escalation paths. The EU Web Accessibility Directive foresees EU countries to have legal “enforcement procedures” when users are not satisfied with the responses from public bodies. Inform users about any such formal complaints procedures. This may also motivate them to provide you with valuable feedback about the accessibility of your content.

Please re-open the issue if that does not address your concern.

[DavidMacDonald]

@nitedog I think it should be vetted by a lawyer involved in the defence of organizations that normally would post this type of information. I would also put a disclaimer on the tool

"this tool is not providing legal advice [blah blah blah], if you have questions please consult a qualified attorney."

[shawna-slh]

Hi @DavidMacDonald

Shadi says the statement that you quote in the beginning of this issue was in a draft and is not in the final published work. (after I spent time searching for it! ;-)

I think that at least one lawyer was involved this work. And at least one actively supports it:

NEW: Check out the Accessibility Statement Generator from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It’s part of a great new page of information titled “Developing an Accessibility Statement.” [reference]

This resource (and others) are covered by the W3C disclaimer, which is available from a link in the footer:

COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE DOCUMENT OR THE PERFORMANCE OR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONTENTS THEREOF. [reference]

I spent some time considering additional disclaimer wording that we might want to add to this resource. I haven't convinced myself that it is needed or even particularly useful. Can you provide use case(s) / scenarios that you think we might want to address?

Or, does the info above compel you to say OK and close this issue? :-)