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?

Lastest Buzz from the Web Standards project says that the The US National Federation of the Blind has been filed a lawsuit against Target for the inaccessibility of their website. This is big. Although there is legislation which addresses the need to address accessibility on the web, it is not enforced. This lawsuit could bring about the beginning of the end of inaccessible websites. If Target is forced to fix their broken website, a lot of organizations will surely follow.

What’s big about this is that for those of us who have been evangelising standards and accessibility for years, we are armed with the skills to manage the demand when it comes. The problem is that skills aren’t always enough. You may be able to walk the walk but you need to be able to talk the talk. Accessibility can mean a variety of things and the message needs to be clear when you deliver it.

Christian Heilmann has written three articles on Digital Web which may prove to be helpful in developing your own version of the message which are worth a read. The first article, 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Care About Accessibility, brings several good points about why organizations don’t care about accessibilty issues. These may help you develop your own reasons why they should. Internalizing these points can help the Standards evangelist in all of us prepare for the accessibility conversation.

Heilmann’s second piece is a two part article discussing Seven Accessibility Mistakes (part 2). All seven points he makes in this article are important to the idea of accessiblity. Something which caught my eye though was at the end of Seven Accessibility Mistakes Part 2 when he writes, Start a catalogue of success stories of user-centered design for all your projects. You might be able to implement one bit in each of those and assemble a good portfolio to show new prospects in the future. This is equally important when it comes to evangelising accessibility and standards because people love to follow in the footsteps of success.

The point here is that although talking to clients about accessibilty is akin to talking to your kids about sex, if you are prepared for the conversation it will be easier. Knowing why a client should, or should not, implement a particular feature or trick on their site before the conversation arises will help you to avert the crisis.