[sacate] lawsuit over screen readers
- From: "wes britton" <spywise@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <sacate@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:41:23 -0400
Lawsuit seeks to improve Web access for the blind
A ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco could mean that businesses
and government agencies would have to make their Web sites accessible to
the blind, something disability rights advocates say is vital as the
routine transactions of everyday life take place increasingly 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 Web site 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.
Many retailers, including Wal-Mart Inc. and Amazon.com, have upgraded
their Web sites 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.
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