Target Settles Accessibility Lawsuit with National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
Posted by dpascoe on August 29, 2008
August 27, 2008 - Target settled the suit brought against it in 2006 in California by the National Federation of the Blind.
Jared Smith’s article on the WebAIM site provides a summary of the settlement, commentary, and opinions of some WebAIM readers.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Access to Web sites is critical to the full and equal participation of blind people in all aspects of modern life. The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to have reached a settlement with Target that is good for all blind consumers, and we recognize that Target has already taken action to make certain that its Web site is accessible to everyone. We look forward to working with Target in the coming months to help make additional improvements that will enhance the experience of blind visitors to Target.com. It is our sincere hope that other businesses providing goods and services over the Internet will follow Target’s example and take affirmative steps to provide full access to their Web sites by blind consumers.”
“We feel that it is a wake-up call to companies that have Web sites that are selling goods and services,” said Christopher S. Danielsen, a spokesman at the NFB. “They need to pay attention to accessibility. It is the right thing to do.” He also pointed out that the benefits of attracting new users far outweigh the costs of making changes to the site…Danielsen said that currently there are many retail sites that are “at least somewhat accessible” to the blind, but there’s more work to be done.
Back to WebAIM, their site contains excellent, detailed information about accessibility issues surrounding PDF and Flash, how they can be made accessible, as well as challenges and shortcomings.
I also recently ran across information about a browser specifically designed for visually impaired persons, called WebAnywhere.
Webguild tried it out and provided some observations.
The challenge of organizations to make their sites accessible is not going away. In looking at the comments above, I believe that the NFB, which has right on their side, is pretty comfortable being proactive on this front. Most, if not all, of the states have already passed or are considering legislation. Even though this settlement did nothing to clarify ADA Section 508 requirements where corporates are concerned, individual states have not stood still. Because of that, the NFB has plenty of other venues to press their case, if (when) they identify other opportunities to raise awareness.
Your comments/thoughts/observations welcome…..
