[real-eyes] Fw: Blind Web surfers sue for accessibility - Yahoo! News

  • From: "Reginald George" <adapt@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:20:18 -0500

I know we have covered this but, this is a very nice article from Yahoo News 
a friend forwarded.


----- Original Message ----- 

Thought this news article might interest you.


Yahoo! News
Blind Web surfers sue for accessibility

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business WriterTue Oct 24, 1:45 PM ET

"Links list dialogue." "Links list view." "Your Account — Two of 164." This 
is what the Internet sounds like to Chris
Danielsen. Danielsen is blind. He's using a software program called Jaws 
that converts the text on a Web page into a
computerized voice that comes out through a speaker, allowing him to surf 
the Web using keyboard commands instead of a
mouse — the same way lots of blind people use the Internet.

In this case, his computer is listing all the Web links on the page he's on 
and telling him that the highlighted link
his cursor is on now will take him to the "Your Account" section on 
Wal-Mart's Web site.

Danielsen, who writes a blog called "The Voice of the Nation's Blind" for 
the National Federation of the Blind, says
accessing the Internet has been a "huge boon" for blind people. It's allowed 
them to accomplish a great number of tasks
on their own that would otherwise present difficulties or require the help 
of a sighted person, such as banking, buying
plane tickets and shopping for things like groceries and music.

But like any evolving technology, accessing the Internet has hardly been a 
smooth ride for the blind. Some sites can be
difficult to navigate, particularly if they contain relatively few text 
links and rely more on graphics and other visual
elements that screen-reading software such as Jaws can't interpret.

That's why the NFB, an organization that represents blind people, is suing 
Target Corp., saying that its Web site is
inaccessible to blind Internet users.

Last month a federal judge in California allowed the NFB's case to proceed, 
rejecting Target's argument that its Web
site wasn't subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that 
requires retailers and other public places
to make accommodations for people with disabilities. Target argued that the 
law only covered physical spaces.

The case, which is entering a pretrial phase called discovery in U.S. 
District Court for the Northern District of
California, could set an important precedent for applying federal 
accessibility law to the Internet.

Target said in a statement that its Web site was "committed to providing an 
online experience that is accessible to all
of our guests. Despite the lawsuit brought forward by the National 
Federation of the Blind, we have always and will
continue to implement new technologies to our Web site."

John Pare, a spokesman for the NFB, said most Web sites are far easier to 
navigate than Target's. In a demonstration of
screen-reading software for The Associated Press, Danielsen showed that many 
links on Target's side were unintelligible
to the Jaws software, and that the final purchase required the use of a 
mouse, something even the most sophisticated
blind Web surfer would have trouble with. However, he was able to navigate 
other sites and purchased a CD from Amazon.

Jaws, made by Freedom Scientific, is a popular kind of screen-reading 
software, but there are others, including
Window-Eyes, made by GW Micro, and Hal, made by Dolphin Computer Access.

Many Web sites already have made major progress in becoming accessible to 
the blind, and some, such as those run by the
government, are required to do so by law.

Yet surfing the Internet is not always worry-free for the blind. Crista 
Earl, the head of Web operations for the
American Foundation for the Blind in New York, said graphics that don't 
contain textual labels — which can be read by
screen-reading software — are a common obstacle for blind Internet users, as 
are "forms" that are unlabeled. Forms are
the little boxes where you insert data, such as a book title you wanted to 
search for.

The decision to hold Target's Web site to the same standards of 
accessibility as its physical store under the Americans
with Disabilities Act was considered a victory by many advocates for the 
blind, but at the same time others worry that
the ruling could be read too narrowly.

Not every business or Web site is subject to the Americans with Disabilities 
Act, said John D. Kemp., a lawyer with the
Washington law firm Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville P.C. The ADA applies 
mainly to public places such as restaurants,
retailers, movie theaters and health care institutions, explained Kemp, who 
has long worked on compliance issues related
to disabilities, employment and technology.

For an electronic retailer such as Amazon.com, which has no physical store, 
the law is unclear, Kemp said. "There is no
well defined policy in this area at all."

However, Kemp noted that many businesses, such as banks, see a strong 
business rationale for making their sites
accessible, and have moved aggressively to do so.

Meanwhile, other retailers are also moving to adapt their Web sites to 
screen-reading software. Kelly Groehler, a
spokeswoman for Best Buy Co., says the company has made a number of changes 
to its site since late last year, including
incorporating "alt tags" — or text that labels items like graphics — into 
its site.

Best Buy also moved code for drop-down menus to the bottom of the page, 
where it's less likely to duplicate other
elements on the page. "We're trying to be proactive here," Groehler said. 
Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella says the
site has made sure it is "reasonably accessible" to the blind.

Other retailers are making similar efforts, but it remains a challenge due 
to the continuing evolution in the
technologies used by blind people to surf the Internet, says Scott 
Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, a division
of the National Retail Federation for online retailers.

"As the retailers' Web sites continue to evolve to stay competitive in the 
marketplace, sometimes the technologies
necessary to do that are a little bit ahead of where the screen-readers 
are," Silverman said. "It's a very fast-moving
environment. Retailers want to serve all their customers, including blind 
people."

Internet search giant Google Inc. is getting into the act as well. In July 
it launched a project to identify and rank
Web sites that offer significant accessibility to the blind.

As more information and services migrate online, keeping access open to it 
is of paramount importance to advocates for
the blind.

"The blind have more access to information than they ever had in history — 
but that's only true to the extent that Web
accessibility is maintained," Danielsen said. "The technology is out there, 
and we don't need barriers to be put in our
way. Give us a way in."

___

On the Net:

National Federation of the Blind: http://www.nfb.org

Google Accessible Search:

http://labs.google.com/accessible/faq.html

American Foundation for the Blind: http://afb.org/

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information 
contained in the AP News report may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written 
authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback

To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to 
www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes


Other related posts:

  • » [real-eyes] Fw: Blind Web surfers sue for accessibility - Yahoo! News