by Amy F. Robertson | Sep 22, 2016 | News
CREEC is very excited to announce that Mark Lindsay, Director of the Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals practice area of The Livingston Group LLC, has joined CREEC’s Board of Directors. Here are just some of Mark’s many accomplishments, plagiarized shamelessly from his Livingston Group page: Mark served on President Obama’s Transition Team and in President Clinton’s White House as Assistant to the President for the Office of Management and Administration. His areas of responsibility included the White House Military Office, which managed Air Force One, the White House Communications Agency, the Medical Unit, and Camp David; running the White House Operations; and the Executive Office of the President’s Office of Administration, which was responsible for finance, information systems, human resources, legal/appropriations and security. Mark’s office was responsible for the logistics of all domestic and international Presidential travel and special air missions. President Bill Clinton selected Mark to be the operational lead for the White House’s 2001 transition preparation and execution. Prior to his appointment to the White House, Mark served as senior legislative aid and counsel to Congressman Louis Stokes (D-OH). He worked closely with Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus on a number of business and economic issues. Mark was a member of Senator Hillary Clinton’s Minnesota Finance Committee for her 2008 Presidential campaign. Before joining The Livingston Group, Mark was with UnitedHealth Group, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, where he held a number of senior positions including President of the AARP Pharmacy Services Division and Vice President of Public Communications and Strategy. Mark holds a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota; a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of...
by Amy F. Robertson | Sep 21, 2016 | Accessibility
In October 2014, CREEC, on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf, filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Justice (Department) against the University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley) based on alleged violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act through its failure to provide captioning of online courses and other educational content. On August 30, 2016 the Department presented its findings and conclusions. The investigation addressed Berkeley’s YouTube channel, iTunes U, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the edX learning platform (UC BerkeleyX). The Department conducted a wide-ranging review of the university’s online content. The Department reviewed MOOCs through the UC BerkeleyX platform and determined that some videos were not captioned, documents were not formatted for those who use screen readers, and assorted other issues. Upon a sampling of the YouTube platforms, the Department found a number of barriers to access, including for example automatically generated captions that were inaccurate and incomplete, did not provide non-visual description of the content, or were not contrasted properly for those with visual impairments. Finally, the Department reviewed a sampling of Berkeley’s iTunes U platform and found that none of the videos reviewed were closed captioned, and none provided an alternative format to the visual information contained into the videos. The Department concluded that Berkeley has violated accessibility requirements. Specifically, the Department found that Berkeley “is in violation of title II because significant portions of its online content are not provided in an accessible manner when necessary to ensure effective communication with individuals with hearing, vision or manual disabilities. In addition, Berkeley’s administrative methods have not ensured that individuals...
by Amy F. Robertson | Sep 12, 2016 | News
CREEC is very excited to introduce our new paralegal, Jean Peterson! Jean graduated from the American University with a B.A. in International Studies. Following her legal interests instead of her degree, Jean began working for the U.S. Department of Justice in D.C. in their Securities and Financial Fraud Unit. In her time with the Department, she worked on both large financial and government procurement fraud cases. Through her time there, she became interested in the aspects of discrimination on everyday life for individuals across the country and is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with a group focused on that. Jean can be caught riding her horse, hiking, or exploring farmers markets on the weekends. We’re very glad Jean has joined us and very proud of Team...
by Amy F. Robertson | Sep 10, 2016 | Accessibility
One of my favorite things to do is to get out of the office and do site surveys. This week, I got to check out curb ramps with our terrific co-counsel, Maya Abela from the Arizona Center for Disability Law (who definitely had the cooler sunglasses) and brilliant expert Eric McSwain from Access Compliance Consultants, Inc. We had a hot, sunny, successful survey day. Looking forward to working with this team!...
by Amy F. Robertson | Sep 7, 2016 | Accessibility
Hulu will provide the captioning option to all subscribers, improving the entertainment experience for deaf and hard of hearing people. BERKELEY, CA – September 6, 2016 Hulu, LLC (Hulu) and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by, and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, represented by Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), entered into a settlement agreement for Hulu to provide 100 percent closed captions of its full-length English and Spanish content by September 2017. The move by Hulu to caption its extensive library of offerings will build upon Hulu’s commitment to offering a seamless viewing experience and more choice to all subscribers. Over the past few years, Hulu has built its reputation as an industry leader in digital closed captions. As a strong supporter and early adopter of digital closed captioning, Hulu continually strives to improve the quality of its captions and captions publishing systems. The new option will provide captioning access to movies and television shows that are streamed online for consumers, including the 48 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. Under the agreement, Hulu will ensure that deaf and hard of hearing subscribers receive equal and meaningful access to all content offered through the streaming service. The agreement also continues the work of the NAD, DREDF, and CREEC to ensure streaming entertainment providers are making closed captions available on their video content. Hulu is a premiere streaming television destination that offers a variety of current hit TV shows, movies and premium original content...
