By Dan Goodin in San Francisco for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The suit, filed in Texas state court, alleges Oracle's human
resources software and other products do "not provide equal access
to blind persons using screen access technology". One plaintiff
says he is unable to review or enter hours worked, leave taken or
information concerning employees he supervises without the help of
a sighted colleague.
The suit names Oracle and at least three Texas officials. It
alleges the Oracle software replaced a package that was largely
accessible to blind users.
Oracle declined to comment. Texas officials didn't have an
immediate comment.
This isn't the first time IT people have landed in hot water
with advocates of the blind. The National Federation for the Blind,
which filed the suit along with three Texas employees, sued took aim at the inability of Target's
website to work with end-user programs that read and describe
content audibly.
Today's suit is just the latest for Oracle. In December it was
sued by a former business partner in Saudi Arabia for allegedly
keeping a joint venture between the two from keeping proper
accounting books so it didn't have to pay the partner what it was
owed, according MarketWatch.
Among other things, the partner is suing Oracle for alleged
violation of Islamic duty enforced by Saudi law.
© The Register
2007
