Accessible ITems
Target Corporation Sued for Discrimination Against the Blind
February 7, 2006
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has filed a class action suit in California's Alameda County Courthouse against Target Corporation, the nationwide discount retailer which operates more than 1,300 stores in 47 states.
The suit - brought by NFB, the NFB of California, and a blind Californian, Bruce "BJ" Sexton, on behalf of themselves and all blind people in California - charges that Target's website 
(www.target.com) is inaccessible to the blind, violating the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Persons Act.
The plaintiffs are represented by Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley-based non-profit law firm that specializes in high-impact cases on behalf of people with disabilities, Schneider & Wallace, a plaintiff's class action and civil rights law firm in San Francisco, and Brown, Goldstein & Levy a leading civil rights law firm in Baltimore, Maryland.
"Blind customers should have the same access to Target's online services that Target offers its sighted customers," says NFB President Dr. Marc Maurer.
Target's website - which according to its home page is "powered by Amazon.com" - contains significant access barriers that prevent blind customers from browsing and purchasing products online, as well as from finding important corporate information such as employment opportunities, investor news, and company policies.
The plaintiffs charge that Target.com fails to meet the minimum standard of web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that allows screen readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind computer user. It also contains inaccessible image maps, preventing blind users from jumping to different destinations within the website. And because the website requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on Target.com independently.
For more information on this important story and it's implications, please go to Disability Rights Advocates: National Federation of the Blind v. Target (www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php)
Source: Disability Rights Advocates (www.dralegal.org)
The National Center on Disability & Access News
The National Center on Disability & Access to Education (NCDAE) hosted another in their series of webcasts with a focus for those in education on February 28, 2006. A discussion was held on National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards (NIMAS) in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), What You Need To Know Now. The webcast is archived on their web site at: NIMAS in IDEA, What You Need To Know Now (www.ncdae.org/webcasts/#content)
