Accessibility lawsuit - a landmark case?
by Rob Mason ~ October 5th, 2007 Filed under: Accessibility, Useful stuff.
A landmark legal case based on website accessibility could come to fruition in the not too distant future if various stories are correct. Seems like Target in the US is being sued by the National Federation of the Blind (the US equivalent of our Royal National Institute for the Blind).
In essence it seems that the website provided by Target in the US is woefully inadequate when it comes to accessibility. The prosecution’s case hinges around the fact that blind or visually impaired users cannot properly use the website, thereby discriminating against them.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - similar in purpose to the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) - all products and services offered must not discriminate against anyone with a disability, so Target are in breach. Additionally there’s various state laws that are potentially being infringed.
The only other case of a similar nature was the Australian Olympic case in 2000, which made many people sit up and take notice but little else. Hundreds of big name companies have inaccessible websites here in the UK (see my previous post for details) and if successful this case could have profound impacts around the world and pave the way for a series of additional lawsuits to be filed. You have been warned!
