Class action against Target

By
Angie Herrera

In February of '06, a blind student at UC Berkeley (with the help of the National Federation of the Blind) took legal action against Target for their site being inaccessible. (Sidenote: I remember this when the news popped up but am surprised I didn't write about it. But I digress...) It seems as though Target (and perhaps other retailers and individuals alike) thought that case would be dismissed or would somehow just go away. They were wrong. The case has now been given class-action status. In fact, two class actions were approved by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel: a federal one allowing blind people throughout the US who've tried to access Target's website to become plaintiffs; and a state class-action allowing blind Californians who've tried to access the site. So what does this really mean in the big realm of things? It means that e-tailers (and pretty much any business whose website contributes even moderately to their bottom line) need to step up their game and get their sites up to par with web standards and accessibility. Unfortunately, a lot of business folks just aren't getting the message about how important having an _accessible_ website really is. What I'm hoping won't happen is that companies like Target won't feel like they now _have to_ make their sites more accessible simply to avoid being sued (especially if the case goes forward and sets a precedent). That would be the absolute worst reason. I suppose one could argue that it's better than nothing, which I'm not sure I'd disagree with. The point, however, is that making your website accessible is just plain **good for business**. You open your doors up to a _much, much_ bigger audience. If you're in business to make money (and who isn't really) why wouldn't _that_ be reason enough? Or flip that on its head: if a company's site remains inaccessible, it closes itself off to more potential business. It's that simple. As Matt May at The Web Standards Project wrote back in 2006, >to what do we attribute the utter inaccessibility of many e-commerce sites: ignorance, miscommunication, or malice? I’ve seen all three in practice. Often, it doesn’t take the threat of a lawsuit to get site owners to come around; they merely need to understand the problems, and what they can do to solve them, in order of impact on the user. Working with much smaller companies than Target, I can attest to the fact that most business owners just don't know the difference. Perhaps one of the good things that will come out of this case is that owners will learn a bit more, hopefully prompting other questions and a change to their sites. _____ Want to read more about NFB vs. Target? - Target Lawsuit Given Class-Action Statu - Lawsuit over web site accessibility for the blind becomes class action - Will Target get schooled? - Taking Aim at Target(.com) - NFB vs. Target in perspective - Is this the test case we’ve all been waiting for?