Via Chris Elliott, Priceline and Ramada have settled with New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and agreed to invest in making their websites accessible to the blind.

In one of the first enforcement actions of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the Internet, two major travel services have agreed to make sites more accessible to the blind and visually impaired.



Priceline.com and Ramada.com have agreed to changes that will allow users with “screen reader software” and other technology to navigate and listen to the text throughout their Web sites, according to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.



Although the software and other devices, including a vibrating mouse that lets the blind “feel” boxes and images on the computer screen, have been available for years, Web sites must have specific coding that allows the equipment to operate, Spitzer said.

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Spitzer’s settlement follows investigations over the last two years to determine if Web sites conform to the federal act and state law that require all “places of public accommodation” and all “goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations” be accessible to the disabled.