Target Lawsuit Goes Ahead
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has been given the go-ahead to proceed with a class action against Target Corp. over the inaccessibility of their web site, target.com. The NFB initially approached Target in 2005 to try and resolve the site’s problems but, when discussions failed to reach a mutual agreement, filed a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The complaint cites various problems with target.com - images that lack alternative text; site facilities (specifically completing a purchase) that cannot be used by keyboard navigators and missing page headings. The latter creates a significant problems for visually-impaired screen reader users who, not only rely upon a logical and hierarchical header structure to convey a mental model of the page, but use headings for primary page navigation.
In other words, the NFB claims that the site is badly designed.
As well as alleging breaches of the ADA, the suit also cites breaches of two state statutes - the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Californian Disabled Persons Act.
A judge considering the motion to certify a class action (a lawsuit brought by one or more persons on behalf of a larger group) has now granted permission. So the suit now becomes as a class action on behalf of persons who are blind in California and in the United States who have attempted to access the target.com website and, as a result, have been denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services offered in Target’s store.