A breakthrough in accessible websites

Greetings. I received the following news story on an email list and thought it worthy of posting here. Let those who doubt know that the web is a place of public accommodation and must be made accessible to blind computer users. Note, this is as easy as putting alt tags on images, and/or descriptions below them. It need not require a total rewrite of a website, or a "text only" portion of the site to meet accessibility standards. Hopefully others will learn what it took a lawsuit for Target to learn, and make their sites accessible from the start. And, if you don't know how to do this, then you can find various websites that explain how, both in simple and technical language. One resource is the Computers page of my site, especially under the heading "Web Development Resources." Enjoy.

KARE11 TV, Minnesota USA
Thursday, September 07, 2006

Court rules Target must make website accessible to the blind

A federal district court judge ruled Wednesday that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued in a case
brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp.
The suit charges that Target's website (
http://www.target.com is inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the California
Disabled Persons Act. Target asked the court to dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its website accessible. The Court denied
Target's motion to dismiss and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as target.com.
The suit, NFB v. Target, was filed as a class action on behalf of all blind Americans who are being denied access to target.com. The named plaintiffs are
the NFB, the NFB of California, and a blind college student, Bruce "BJ" Sexton.
The plaintiffs are represented by Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley-based non-profit law firm that specializes in high-impact cases on behalf of people
with disabilities;
The court held: "the 'ordinary meaning' of the ADA's prohibition against discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or privileges, is
that whatever goods or services the place provides, it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability in providing enjoyment of those goods and services."
The court thus 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.
"This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the country," said NFB President Dr. Marc Maurer. "We are pleased that the court recognized
that the blind are entitled to equal access to retail websites."
Dr. Maurer explained that blind persons access websites by using keyboards in conjunction with screen-reading software, which vocalizes visual information
on a computer screen.
Target's website contains significant access barriers that prevent blind customers from browsing among and purchasing products online, as well as from finding
important corporate information such as employment opportunities, investor news, and company policies.
The plaintiffs charge that target.com fails to meet the minimum standard of web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an invisible code embedded beneath
graphic images that allows screen readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind computer user. It also contains inaccessible image
maps and other graphical features, preventing blind users from navigating and making use of all of the functions of the website. And because the website
requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on target.com independently.
Explaining the ramification of the ruling, Mazen M. Basrawi, Equal Justice Works Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates, noted that: "the court clarified
that the law requires that any place of public accommodation is required to ensure that it does not discriminate when it uses the internet as a means to
enhance the services it offers at a physical location."
"I hope that I can soon shop online at Target.com just like anyone else," said UC Berkeley student BJ Sexton, who is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. "I
believe that millions of blind people like me can use the Internet just as easily as do the sighted, if websites are accessible."