LEGAL NEWSLINE

BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General announced on Wednesday that Monster.com will be the first job search and recruitment website to provide blind job seekers with full and equal access to its services and products.

The announcement is the result of an agreement between Monster Worldwide Inc., Coakley's office and the National Federation of the Blind. The agreement will provide benefits to blind and visually impaired individuals around the nation, including more than 35,000 Massachusetts residents.

"Unemployment and underemployment in the blind community are significant problems and given the extent to which computers and the Internet have become integral to our daily lives, it is essential that websites are accessible to everyone," Coakley said. "We are pleased to have worked with the NFB and Monster to make the company's valuable products and services accessible and to provide better employment opportunities to job seekers who are blind, visually impaired or have other print disabilities such as dyslexia."

Under the terms of the agreement, Monster will contribute $50,000 to the state to fund a job internship program for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, contribute $50,000 to the NFB and serve as the title sponsor of the NFB's annual convention this year.

The agreement is the most recent collaboration between Coakley's office and the NFB. Past collaborations included making Cardtronics ATMs and Apple's iTunes services fully and equally accessible for blind and visually impaired users.

"We are hopeful that with the ability to access written information in an audible text to speech format, these users will now have access to jobs, and better jobs, than ever before," Coakley said. "We want technology to improve people's lives, not create obstacles or barriers."

State and federal laws require that businesses operating places of public accommodation provide people with disabilities the full and equal enjoyment of their services, goods and facilities.