Philadelphia Standards Organization

In October, Federal District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel certified the NFB lawsuit against Target as class-action, charging Target with violating federal and California statutes. Patel further ruled that the American Disability Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act required Target.com to maintain website accessibility:

“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. All e-commerce businesses should take note of this decision and immediately take steps to open their doors to the blind,” said President of the National Federation of the Blind, Dr. Marc Maurer. “Target Corporation has led a battle against blind consumers in a key area of modern life: the Internet economy.”

A ComputerWorld update suggests that more retailers will find it upon themselves to adjust their online stores for accessibility. Such options as text descriptions and keyboard-focused inputs are mentioned. Could this lead to increased adherence to WCAG guidelines?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 11:12 am and is filed under Accessibility, Evangelism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.