Blind patrons sue Target for site inaccessibility

[mandy]

Bruce Sexton says he's one of many blind individuals who can live more independently because of the Internet.

When it comes to shopping, for example, the 24-year-old college student doesn't have to get to and navigate brick-and-mortar stores or ask employees for help. Rather, with the help of a keyboard and screen-reading software, he can navigate a Web site and make his purchase.

Or can he?

Sexton, along with a blind advocacy group, filed a class action lawsuit this week against Target, alleging that the retail giant's Web site is inaccessible to the blind and thus violates a California law that incorporates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The suit, filed in Northern California's Alameda County Superior Court by Sexton and the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind (NFB), claims that Target.com, "contains thousands of access barriers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for blind customers to use."

full article: http://news.com.com/Blind+patrons+sue+Ta...g=nefd.top

related topics:
Web Accessibility and your Small Business website http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...638.0.html
Websites make poor showing on e-accessibility http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...480.0.html

[Kristijntje]

A related article on accessibility:

The Disability Rights Commission plans to call upon disabled internet users to rise up against inaccessible website owners and help it take complaints with the force of law.

The rabble-rousing message will be broadcast by the DRC following the launch of new guidelines to amend what it says are limitations in the WAI accessibility standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/10/...eb_revolt/

[mandy]

A related article:

The British Standards Institution published new guidance yesterday for those who commission or maintain websites, to ensure that any site they make or maintain is user-friendly for disabled people. It could help with legal compliance.

PAS 78: Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites is the result of a year's collaboration among the DRC, RNIB, BBC, Tesco, IBM, the W3C and many others.

Following the guidance could help any organisation to demonstrate compliance with the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, which requires websites to be accessible and usable for disabled people.

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/10/...uidelines/

[mandy]

Update on the Target lawsuit that alleges Target's web site violates the Americans with Disabilities Act:

A federal district court judge ruled last week that a retailer can be sued if its Web site is inaccessible to the blind.

The ruling was issued Sept. 6 and allows the case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Minneapolis, MN-based Target Corp to move forward.

Target asked the court to dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its site accessible, the NFB said. The court denied Target's motion to dismiss and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to Web sites like www.target.com. The court rejected Target's argument that only its physical store locations were covered by the civil rights laws, ruling instead that all services provided by Target, including its Web site, must be accessible to persons with disabilities. The court did deny the NFB's request for a preliminary injunction against Target...

full article: http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/legal-...38198.html

[mandy]

A related article:

Mr. Masinter said one potentially thorny issue in the Target suit was whether phone services offered by online merchants were suitable substitutions for the Web site when the site did not work well for technologies like screen-reading software. Given the high cost of maintaining phone-based customer service operations, the question would be of particular interest to retailers and disabled people.

Companies in one emerging category of Internet commerce, online education, have the most ground to make up in adapting their offerings for the disabled, according to Jane Jarrow, president of Disability Access Information and Support, an education industry consultancy...

“I think people are starting to understand their obligations to make their services accessible,” he said. “The question they have is, how to do that?”...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/techno...ml?ei=5058&en=9ec5fcc54a2cca7c&ex=1163480400&adxnnl=1&partner=IWON&adxnnlx=1162894232-kQSxvGCnISPmMkoKepb73Q

[Kristijntje]

A federal district court judge certified a case involving retailer Target as a class action on behalf of blind Internet users nationwide under the American Disabilities Act. Injunctive relief and statutory minimum damages are at stake; the court denied Target's motion for summary judgment...

In Tuesday's ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel not only certified the case as a class action on behalf of blind Internet users nationwide under the ADA, she also held that Web sites such as Target.com are required by California law to be accessible...

"This is a tremendous step forward for blind people throughout the country who for too long have been denied equal access to the Internet economy," said Marc Maurer, president of the NFB. "All e-commerce businesses should take note of this decision and immediately take steps to open their doors to the blind."...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/XmBJADJI...lind.xhtml

[mandy]

The Register has a good article on the court case:

Noting that the language of the California state laws is broader than that of the ADA, Judge Patel found that websites should be covered. "[The] Unruh Act and the DPA reach Target.com as a kind of business establishment and an accommodation, advantage, facility and privilege of a place of public accommodation, respectively. No nexus to the physical stores need be shown," she said.

The Unruh Act provides that all persons in California are free and equal, and no matter what their disability "are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever."

The DPA guarantees that individuals with disabilities are entitled to full and equal access to various listed places, "and other places to which the general public is invited"...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/14/...ssibility/

[sneakymagenta]

Mr. Masinter said one potentially thorny issue in the Target suit was whether phone services offered by online merchants were suitable substitutions for the Web site when the site did not work well for technologies like screen-reading software. Given the high cost of maintaining phone-based customer service operations, the question would be of particular interest to retailers and disabled people.

Small merchants can't afford to make their sites accessible to the blind.

[mandy]

Update:

After two years of litigation, the National Federation of the Blind has settled its class action suit with Target Corp. over access to Target.com...

...in a settlement reached on Aug. 27 between Target and the federation, Target will establish a $6 million settlement fund from which litigants in the California lawsuit can make claims. The National Federation of the Blind will also certify Target.com through a non-visual accessibility web certification program once planned improvements are completed in early 2009. Target and the federation also have agreed to a three-year relationship during which the National Federation of the Blind will perform accessibility testing of Target.com...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=27616