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Blind Student Sues Retailer over Its Inaccessible Website
Bruce Sexton Jr., a blind student at the University of California, along with the National Federation for the Blind, have filed a class action lawsuit against retailer Target, which has 1,400 stores in the United States and operates online at www.target.com.
Sexton, who is the president of the California Association of Blind Students, alleges that Target’s website is inaccessible to the blind. Accordingly, the lawsuit charges that the alleged lack of access by excluding “the blind from full and equal participation in the growing Internet economy that is increasingly a fundamental part of daily life,” violates two California laws, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Disabled Persons Act.
The lawsuit specifically alleges that Target’s site lacks alternative text (“alt-text”) or the code that allows screen readers to detect and communicate a description of the image. Additionally, the site, which requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, is missing accessible image maps, rendering it difficult to carry out certain actions including jumping to different site destinations. Sexton alleges that while he is able to search for items on the Target site, he is unable to associate prices with the various goods, and moreover cannot purchase anything from Target.com without the assistance of someone with sight.
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/08/MNGO7H4VBP128.DTL