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Posted on 10/02/2006 5:44:59 AM PDT by stm
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled this month that a lawsuit filed against Target Corp. by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the accessibility of the retailer’s Web site can move forward.
NFB officials contended that the ruling sets a precedent, establishing that retailers must make their Web sites accessible to the blind under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
“This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the country,” said NFB President Marc Maurer.
When asked if the NFB would file lawsuits against other retailers in an effort to improve Web site accessibility, NFB spokesman John Pare said, “You probably could imagine that we would.”
The lawsuit was filed a California Superior Court on Feb.7 as a class action on behalf of all blind Americans. The suit was moved to federal court a month later.
The NFB says the Target ruling sets a precedent. The NFB says the Target ruling sets a precedent. The plaintiffs in the case — the NFB, the National Federation of the Blind of California and blind college student Bruce Sexton — claimed that the Minneapolis-based retailer’s Web site, www.target.com, violates federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities.
Target had filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the laws don’t apply to Web sites because they aren’t physical places of public accommodation. The retailer further claimed that applying California statutes to its Web site, which is accessible to consumers nationwide, would violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In her decision early this month, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel also denied an NFB motion for a preliminary injunction to force Target to promptly make its site accessible to blind people. Patel ruled that sufficient questions were raised in the lawsuit with respect to whether the average blind person can access Target’s Web site.
“While disappointed the lawsuit was not entirely dismissed, Target is pleased the court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction,” the retailer said in a statement to Computerworld.
“We believe our Web site complies with all applicable laws and are committed to vigorously defending this case,” the company said, adding, “We will continue to implement technology that increases the usability of our Web site for all our guests, including those with disabilities.”
Mazen Basrawi, a lawyer at Berkeley, Calif.-based Disability Rights Advocates, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said, “This is groundbreaking. No court has yet ruled directly that the ADA applies to Web sites, which [Patel] has clearly done in this opinion. We hope that it [this case] is going to encourage businesses to include accessibility in their Web development.”
When asked about its policies by Computerworld, The Home Depot Inc. said that it “continually reviews and updates its Web site on the basis of many factors, including customer feedback.” In a statement, the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer said that it “is currently developing enhancements to the site that would further improve the shopping experience for our customers with disabilities.”
In the ruling, Patel said that the ADA statute “applies to the services of a place of public accommodation, not services in a place of public accommodation. To limit the ADA to discrimination in the provision of services occurring on the premises of a public accommodation would contradict the plain language of the statute.”
In an endnote following the decision, Patel noted that Target’s Web site “is a means to gain access to the store, and it is ironic that Target, through its merchandising efforts on the one hand, seeks to reach greater numbers of customers and enlarge its consumer base, while on the other hand it seeks to escape the requirements of the ADA.”
Gawd, is it April 1st already?
Next thing you know they will be suing the San Francisco Chronicle because they can't read the newspaper.
Are they supposed to provide Braille monitors?........
This is absurd!
This judge should have laughed this suit out of court!
If Yawn Effing Kerry had been elected, all blind people would now be able to see!
What in hell is Target supposed to do? Go to every blind pseron's home and wave a hand over them and "make them see"?
LMAO...this is legal insanity at its best. I'm surprised this man isn't suing Playboy or Penthouse instead.
What that means is that special software designed for that purpose must be able to "read" the textual material.
This is not an easy task. For one thing the average sighted individual really has a difficult time understanding what it is the blind don't see.
The private sector has been exempt from this requirement ever since the legislation was passed that made it mandatory for the government.
Did someone bother to look at the law first?
This judge should be shown a Braille Interface for the PC. Why should a web retailer be responsible? Next thing they will rule is that each state DMV is discriminatory because the eye tests are stacked against blind people.
You can get those in braille. You should feel the centerfold for September!..........
There is a font in Windows that enlarges all text..........
I'm visually impared and I get along very well on the i-net, thank you. I use firefox, and, if I can not read the text, I increase the text size Is it easy, no, but it isn't a FR (target, Walmart, The Home Depot) problem, it is mine.
I guess all government services and retailers must now provide teletext functionality on their telephones for those who are deaf. (How would one accomodate Helen Keller?)
My sister designs websites (made 2 or 3 for me for free, heh-heh), and she makes sure that all her sites are accessible up front. I don't agree that the gubmint should butt in, but for a big retailer like that to ignore the blind is just stoopit. 10 million people, more or less.
I'm sorry if I offended you, I am hearing impaired, myself. I wear a hearing aid, but am told by my doctors that eventually it will not be enough to keep me hearing. I get aggravated by TV channels that don't have closed captioning............
As muawiyah states in his post just above yours, there is software that will transform text to speech, or to braille readers. The problem is that many retail websites don't follow the text standard necessary for conversion to speech or braille. The blind have the technology, but if websites don't use the correct protocols required by that technology, then it cannot work. For example, having text as a graphics file would not be readable by that technology. Also, those code words used by different websites and IM services aren't machine readible which means they can't be accessed by the blind. The blind have a heck of a hard time to function in society and roadblocks like this on the internet are just one example. Or do you suppose they should be just shut away so as not to be an inconvenience to you or society?
Can I get my drivers licensenin braille?
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I’m fortunate that I don’t have any physical handicaps and I’m sure being blind, deaf or paraplegic doesn’t make life any easier.
The private sector, sometimes because of mandate and some times because it just makes good business sense, are often wiling to make reasonable accommodations but where does it end? This makes no sense.
What if I am illiterate? Is Target or Wal-Mart responsible to send someone who can read to my house every week to read the weekly circular for me? What if I’m intellectually impaired? Does my local retailer have to assign me a personal shopper to make sure I make good purchases because I’m not able to make good choices for myself?
I can’t imagine all the different handicaps that might have to be accommodated and the fiscal burden that creates and how we all end up paying for it.
I think of the Discovery Channel series, “Little People – Big World”. What an inspiration this family is. They don’t let their physical challenges get in their way and they prosper and survive without and perhaps because the government and the world doesn’t make things “easy”.
BTW - Why is it that the drive up ATM at my bank has keypads in Braille?
ping
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