[real-eyes] Re: NFB Victory: Class Certified in Target Class-ActionLawsuit
- From: "William Stephan" <wstephan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:31:26 -0500
I think the NFB is whistlin Dixie here. I looked at the site and it's no
different and mo less accessible than any other I use. Now, if they want to
get the damn visual captias fixed on the credit bureau sites, I could support
that.
Bill Stephan
Kansas City, MO
(816)803-2469
William Stephan
-----Original Message-----
.From: "Jim Fettgather"<jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Sent: 10/3/07 10:11:47 PM
.To: "real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"<real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Subject: [real-eyes] NFB Victory: Class Certified in Target
Class-ActionLawsuit
.
.>
.>Lawsuit seeks to improve website access by the blind
.>A judge's ruling in a suit against Target could mean that businesses and
.>government
.>agencies would have to make their sites compatible with screen-reading
.>software.
.>By Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
.>1:52 PM PDT, October 3, 2007
.>A ruling by a judge in San Francisco could mean that businesses and
.>government agencies
.>would have to make their websites accessible to the blind, something
.>disability rights
.>advocates say is vital as the routine transactions of everyday life take
.>place more
.>and more on the Internet.
.>U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted class-action status Tuesday
.>to a lawsuit
.>alleging that Target Corp. is in violation of California and federal laws
.>because
.>its website doesn't work with screen-reading software, essentially making
.>the site
.>unusable for blind people.
.>To comply, Target would have to tag product images on its site with word
.>descriptions,
.>allowing the software to "read" those images aloud.
.>FOR THE RECORD:
.>An earlier version of this article identified John Pare as an executive of
.>the National
.>Foundation of the Blind. The organization is the National Federation of the
.>Blind.
.>Many retailers, including Wal-Mart Inc. and Amazon.com, have upgraded their
.>websites
.>or are in the process of doing so, said John Pare, executive director for
.>strategic
.>initiatives for the National Federation of the Blind. Most companies have
.>done so
.>voluntarily, he said, in response to concerns raised by the 50,000-member
.>foundation.
.>The lawsuit contends that some 10,000 people in California alone use
.>reading software
.>to access the Internet.
.>Target, in a statement, said its online business had made "significant
.>enhancements
.>to improve the experience of our guests who use assistive technologies."
.>The company,
.>based in Minneapolis, said it would request an immediate review of the
.>judge's ruling.
.>The ability to access websites is particularly important to the visually
.>impaired,
.>whose mobility is limited because they can't drive, said Eve Hill,
.>executive director
.>of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
.>Judges have applied California's disability accommodations law more broadly
.>than
.>the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Hill said; the federal law
.>focuses on
.>access to physical locations such as stores or banks.
.
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