Lainey Feingold

Disabled people and their advocacy organizations engage Lainey Feingold to pursue "Structured Negotiation" -- a collaborative, lawsuit-free dispute resolution method -- when companies fail to make their digital services, ATMs, prescription labels, or other products accessible.

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What it is

Lainey Feingold is a disability rights lawyer who developed and practices Structured Negotiation, a dispute resolution and collaboration strategy that avoids lawsuits, focuses on lasting change and relationship-building, and has been used to advance accessibility for more than a quarter century.1 She helped negotiate the first web accessibility agreement in the United States in 2000 (with Bank of America) and has since reached agreements with dozens of major organizations including Walmart, CVS, Target, Wells Fargo, Major League Baseball, E*Trade, Charles Schwab, Discord, Patreon, Denny's, Albertsons, and the American Cancer Society -- all without filing lawsuits.2

These agreements have produced tangible accessibility outcomes: talking ATMs at thousands of bank branches nationwide, tactile point-of-sale devices at all Walmart, Target, CVS, Staples, and Best Buy stores in the U.S., accessible websites and mobile apps (to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 AA standards), talking prescription labels at CVS and Rite Aid pharmacies, Braille and large-print credit reports from all three major bureaus, accessible pedestrian signals at 80+ San Francisco intersections, and audio description in Cinemark theaters.2

Feingold is the author of Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits, with forewords by Haben Girma and Susana Sucunza, and editor of Digital Accessibility Ethics: Disability Inclusion in All Things Tech, a forthcoming edited collection from CRC Press / Taylor & Francis (March 2026).1 She was selected as an American Bar Association Legal Rebel in 2017 and has twice received a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award (2000 and 2014).1

Why it matters

When digital services, ATMs, retail devices, or prescription information are inaccessible, disabled people are often told their only options are to file a lawsuit or accept the barrier. Structured Negotiation offers a third path: disabled people and their organizations assert their rights by opening a direct, collaborative dialogue with the company, without the expense, adversarial posture, or delays of litigation.1

Feingold uses a "dolphin vs. shark" metaphor to describe this approach: "People often associate shark-like behavior as necessary for effective advocacy. Lainey's experience says otherwise." Dolphin skills -- open communication, transparency, collaboration, active listening, and relationship-building -- have produced binding agreements with some of the largest companies in the United States, often resulting in company-wide policy changes rather than one-off fixes.1

This matters because the resulting agreements are durable: they include accessibility governance committees, staff training requirements, and ongoing monitoring -- structural changes that outlast any single lawsuit remedy.

Real-world example

In 2021, Feingold negotiated a Structured Negotiation agreement with CVS that brought "Spoken Rx" -- an in-app talking prescription label program -- to every CVS store in the United States. This followed a 2014 agreement that first introduced ScripTalk talking prescription labels through cvs.com for blind pharmacy customers nationwide.2 The progression from a 2014 pilot to a 2021 nationwide rollout illustrates how Structured Negotiation builds ongoing relationships: rather than a single legal victory, the method creates a collaborative framework where accessibility improvements compound over time.

Similarly, a 2024 agreement with Charles Schwab updated the company's digital accessibility standards from WCAG 2.0 to WCAG 2.2 Level AA -- building on a relationship that began with a 2012 agreement.2

What care sounds like

• "We received a Structured Negotiation letter and treated it as an opportunity to improve, not a threat."
• "Our accessibility governance committee -- established through the agreement -- now reviews every product release."
• "We trained our entire development team on WCAG standards as part of our commitment."

What neglect sounds like

• "We'll fix accessibility when someone sues us."
• "Our legal team doesn't respond to advocacy letters -- only court filings."
• "Accessibility improvements are too expensive to implement company-wide."

What compensation sounds like

• "I had to find a lawyer willing to negotiate with my bank just to get a talking ATM in my neighborhood."
• "The pharmacy wouldn't give me accessible prescription labels until an advocacy organization got involved."
• "I spent months documenting accessibility failures before the company would even respond."

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