Analysis of Website Accessibility After National Federation of the Blind v. Target
By Nakata, Ken; HiSoftware Inc.(Pages: 13) Publication Date: January 2009
Paper provides an overview of a lawsuit brought by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) in a California state court in 2006 against the Target Corporation over the issue of the accessibility of the company’s website, and offers strategies for avoiding web accessibility lawsuits. The litigation applied the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as California’s Unruh Act and Disabled Persons Act which expand the ADA, to the company’s website citing a number of features that made navigation difficult for blind visitors. Title III of the ADA guarantees people with disabilities access to the goods and services of America; this applies to Internet-based companies regardless of whether a physical place of public accommodation exists. Implications of the ruling in favor of the NFB discussed include its implications for companies with customers in California, its application to any kind of business, and non-compliant businesses being exposed to monetary damages authorized by the Unruh Act. Strategies for improving website accessibility offered include: (1) Providing alternative text on website image content; (2) offering backup strategies for people with disabilities such as telephone numbers and e-mail addresses posted on the site, and promptly responding to telephone and e-mail queries; (3) developing a plan for addressing accessibility requirements; (4) performing an overall web review to identify customer base, and determine whether web pages are individually written or organized using a content-management system; and (5) considering the use of automated web testing for accessibility.
Published by:
HiSoftware Inc. (Website:http://www.hisoftware.com)
Link to text: https://www.hisoftware.com/whitepapers/Target_Whitepaper_acc2-09.pdf
