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Blind Americans demand Web access; Target fights back

Court battle expected to heat up in coming months
By Jon Brodkin , Network World , 01/05/2007
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Retailer Target's refusal to make its Web site more accessible to the blind has fueled a high-profile court battle that is causing many companies to quietly upgrade their Web sites in the hopes of avoiding negative publicity and legal liability.

The case will unfold over the next several months, but a federal judge has already dismissed Target’s claim that Americans with Disabilities Act prohibitions against discrimination do not apply to commercial Web sites.

This ruling, and other advocacy efforts on behalf of the blind, has caused a number of “major e-tailers” to upgrade their sites to make them compatible with software the blind use to access the Internet, says Paul Rosenfeld, senior vice president of federal accessibility solutions at the SSB BART Group in San Francisco, a consulting firm founded by technologists with disabilities.

These online retailers contacted SSB BART to assist in that upgrade, but Rosenfeld says he can’t identify the companies because they wish to remain anonymous.

“This Target case, it’s been a wake-up call for e-tailers,” Rosenfeld says.

Before the case, advocacy groups for the blind would often ask companies to upgrade their Web sites and not receive immediate results, he says. Retailers typically don’t make those upgrades right away “unless there’s litigious action or some need for risk management,” he says.

There are 1.3 million legally blind Americans, and nearly 9 million more who are visually impaired, according to the American Foundation for the Blind.

Click to see: A Web site as a sighted user sees it.

A Web site as a sighted user sees it.

Blind people access the Internet with keyboards used in conjunction with screen-reading software, such as JAWS for Windows, which read aloud text, and descriptions of pictures and other images. The descriptions are known as alt-text (alternative text), invisible code embedded beneath graphical images.

Click to see: A Web site without accessibility features as a blind person experiences it.

A Web site without accessibility features as a blind person experiences it.

These text equivalents must be written by Web site designers when they put images online, or blind people will not be given a vocalized description of the picture.

Click to see: A Web site with accessibility features as a blind person reads it.

A Web site with accessibility features as a blind person reads it.

Targeting Target

A class action lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) accused Target.com of lacking alt-text for many graphics, preventing blind customers from browsing products and looking for Target locations.

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Comments (19)
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No excuseBy kate1234 on October 22, 2007, 6:14 amA few alt-tags? The ability to increase text size? A DOCTYPE?! Is this a lot to ask...? I'm not blind but understand web design, and there really is no excuse:...

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Blind people are entitled to everythin that a sighted person is;By Abby on January 28, 2007, 11:09 pmIn New York, you can order the New York Times in braille, and for those of you who won't take the time to realize what a blind individaul use to be "normal," that...

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Again, you miss the point.By Abby on January 16, 2007, 7:49 pmYou obviously are against disabled people because you have no ide how hard it is to fit in. I personally know how important it is for someone who is disabled to...

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Tax Dollars?By NocMaster on January 16, 2007, 11:38 amSince when do our tax dollars pay for Company websites? And as I said i have nothing against disabled people. But forcing every website ever made to get coded for...

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You are Vary Wrong.By Abby on January 15, 2007, 8:58 pmYou are vary wrong. If you are making a website for yourself, like something for fun, you don't have to make it accessible to everyone, although failing to do so...

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