Handicapped chess players and Americans With Disabilities Act

So I have suggested this several times nicely and gotten nowhere.  Nice is not necessarily one of my best things.

Chess.com has millions of participants and, in fact, loves touting their membership in 8 figures on their home page.  There are currently only two ways to input moves into chess.com -using a mouse and using a touchpad.  It is simple to envision more including keyboard entry, voice entry, or simply extensions that allow people to create whatever entry system they want - someone so inclined could use extensions to create a retinal tracking input application like on a gun ship.  But those of us with hand problems have extreme difficulty entering moves on chess.com.  It is very frustrating.

Chess.com is a public accommodation subject to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  For awhile it was unclear whether a website was a public accommodation but now that defense doesn't work anymore (I'd be happy to give a list of cases).  Chess.com has a much weaker case than just about anybody else trying that defense as memberships are free for the part that affects disabled people and they put their 10M+ membership number on the front page.

Chess.com has launched all kinds of other services including Chess960, ChessKids, and now 4-person chess (the one that tipped me over the edge).  The defense that they don't have the resources to comply with the law is obviously false.

Vast numbers of elderly people have problems with their hands.  Many younger people do as well from accidents, carpal tunnel syndrome, other diseases.  The class affected is large.  The lack of input flexibility affects other classes as well, notably blind people who are doing a decent job with these lawsuits.

So I am asking now less nicely for chess.com to do something about complying with the ADA.  In the U.S., you can't ignore laws because you don't like them or somebody else ought to take care of it.  Title III absolutely requires accommodation of handicapped people as a public accommodation.  I would much rather have this go peacefully with changes made to the website to make this work for everyone.  There are very large numbers of people who would like to use this accommodation but can't because your programmers are busy writing 4-person chess applications instead of complying with the law.  Completely unacceptable.  Let's save me the trouble of sending the certified letter this week, writing the complaint, filing it in Federal Court, all that messy stuff.

Thank-you.

In a quick search, it doesn't appear that there is a legal consensus that a website such as Chess.com would count as a "public accommodation" under law. From what I'm seeing, from an admittedly short search (and IANAL), is that there have been rulings that go both ways, as to whether or not a game site, like this, falls under the regulations.

The best method to voice your concern with the site would be to communicate directly with staff by opening a ticket:

https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/emails/new

I've read your post but am still not sure what you want them to do.

Please explain in 100 words or less. That should be easy if you concentrate.

We're probably all on your side.

Funny, I read OP's post and I have a pretty good idea what OP wants: alternative ways to enter moves, which work well with shaky hands.  For example, OP suggests "keyboard entry, voice entry, or simply extensions that allow people to create whatever entry system they want."  Under 20 words and crystal clear.

In another post, OP suggests "Undo/Confirm" buttons as a protection against misclicks.  It works like this: first you play a move, then (before the move goes to your opponent) two buttons pop up: "Undo" and "Confirm."  If you misclicked, just hit Undo, no harm done.  Didn't misclick?  Hit Confirm and send the move to your opponent.

OP has a problem and is (quite reasonably) asking chess.com to solve it.  OP even suggested several possible solutions.  From what little I know of programming, I suspect at least two of these solutions are extremely easy to implement (Undo/Confirm and keyboard entry), and the others ... don't look that hard, for a website with the resources of chess.com.

I personally would like Undo/Confirm for my slower games, even though I'm young with healthy hands -- it's really disappointing when a piece drops one square short.  (In the same vein, I thank the ADA every time I take heavy luggage up the elevator in public transit.  These things benefit all of us.)

Ummmm... I realize this is probably futile, but can we please be nice?

On a side note, October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

http://www.abilityone.org/media_room/ndeam.html

Wow, threatening with lawsuits. What a great way to get people to listen to you. 

Good job OP, you're sure to win friends and influence people this way.

I might have been with you until you started that.

Yep, looks like we need a new forum: Site Feedback & Threats of Lawsuits.

In the older V2 version of chess.com, under online chess--settings--move prefernces, there is the option to confirm moves with a Submit button.

edit; V3 has a similar option.

That was for daily games. It is still there, Settings>>Daily Chess, second option down.

This isn't my area of law, but iirc, even if chess.com were subject to it, only a REASONABLE accommodation is necessary.  You like to play speed chess - why don't you issue a demand to NASCAR that they build you a special stock car so you can compete in the Daytona 500?  You say "nice is not necessarily one of my best things."  Guess what, it isn't one of my best things either, and I can smell a shakedown artist from a mile away.  Are you really a lawyer?  Your post was unprofessional (airing your laundry on an internet forum), it actually works to diminish support for the ADA, it was extremely gauche, and you should be ashamed of yourself for writing it. 

I don't know how many of those 10m players on chess.com are Americans. I very rarely get paired up with Americans. Definitely less than 10% of the time, maybe less than 5%

Not that the suggestion is not a good one. Just that going at it by way of an American law may not be the best strategy.

https://www.chess.com/settings/close-account

you have done it before when you were gerberk.  what's new now?  i would have posted on your thread but apparently i'm blocked. 

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/closing-my-account-1

you're welcome.

@nairb27:  Your Undo/Confirm suggestion is utterly unworkable in a 5 minute blitz game.  My opponent has just moved, I took a second off my clock and just as I tried to move, he undid it.  In a real life, OTB chess club, this would lead to bodies being carried out the door by deputy coroners, and it wouldn't be my body. 

@mizujab:  chess.com is an American website, it doesn't matter how many Americans play on it; what matters is that it's run by and hosted on the internet by Americans, so American law is the correct recourse, but unfortunately for the OP, the ADA notwithstanding, it does not favor him, and I know more about American law than I know about chess.

@uygfgddy, et cetera:  I offer several answers of increasing determination to your off-topic question of how to close an internet account that won't let you close it.  You can just ignore it and go about your business.  You can pretend that the first account never existed, and create a new account on chess.com.  You can avoid the URL "chess.com" altogether.  You can avoid the internet altogether and retire into a life of monastic seclusion.  You can decommission your box, and since your flag shows you in Vatican City, I would suggest breaking it over your knee and tossing it out of an upper-story window of St. Peter's Basilica during a major Papal address.  I have actually decommissioned a box with a 20 gauge shotgun, but I don't think that the Swiss Guards will let me do that where you are.  The most determined answer to your question, which I don't actually recommend, is to find a gas oven somewhere in that big building of yours, put your head in, turn on the gas but don't light the fire, and recite the Lord's Prayer over and over until you are in the presence of the Lord, which should take about five minutes.   

If the link isn't working for you, for whatever reason, open a ticket and staff can close your account.

https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/emails/new

I stand in respect of your almost perfect reply.  I don't know how to close internet accounts either if the buttons don't work.  There's a head guy on here, Erik I believe, who may be able to help you if you ask him directly.  Beyond him stands your Christian God, and as a man of pagan faith myself, I can tell you that beyond him stands the Goddess of our reality. 

Did you file the complaint?

Let's make Chess.com the most accessible site to play chess!