Blind Student sues Target

Accessibility plays a big part of my job. I work really hard to make sure our websites are accessable and struggle with applications and services that are not and may allow some tweaking (or may not). Its frustrating when you tell people what you do and either they dont get the need to be accessible or worse they dont care and think its a waste of time. Heck I have done workshops and it has been a struggle to get people though the door,. When you have to turn then away from “fun” workshops like photoshop. And making websites accessible in the business world is just not considered that important.

Well, perhaps that might be changing in the future. A blind UC Berkeley student has filed a class-action lawsuit against Target Corp., saying the retailer is committing civil-rights violations because its Web site is inaccessible to those who cannot see. Blind people access Web sites by using keyboards in conjunction with screen-reading software which vocalizes visual information on a computer screen. Jaws is what we have here, its time comsuming but I have watched blind web users zip through sites lighting fast!

According to the suit, Target’s site lacks alt-text, (alternative text) code inside the graphic tag on the HTML page that a screen reader could use to provide a description of the image to a blind person. Its more than just having alt text, you have to have “meaningful text”. “Image” wont work. Target.com also has inaccessible image maps, the suit said. Image maps, when clicked , allow the patron to jump to other destinations within the Web site. But since Target’s site requires the use of a mouse to complete the transaction, it prevents blind people from making purchases online, not to mention those who only use keyboards and are not able to use a mouse. Target was informed of their problems on the website and refused to do anything about it. So came the lawsuit.

Perhaps this is the kick in the pants the private sector needs to make their sites more accessable. On a purely business/economic point they are turning away customers. Making a website accessable is not that hard, the difficulty comes from making the corporations “get it”.