[blindlaw] Court rules Target must make website accessible totheblind

[Mazen Basrawi]

The ruling in NFB v. Target is attached as an accessible PDF.

Just to clarify it was a ruling on Target's motion to dismiss, and our
motion for a preliminary injunction.

Though we didn't get a PI because Target found some blind people to say
they "enjoyed" using target's website, the judge ruled without prejudice
to issuing a permanent injunction.

M~

, 

Mazen M. Basrawi 
Equal Justice Works/Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein Fellow
Disability Rights Advocates
2001 Center Street, Third Floor
Berkeley, California  94704-1204
Tel: (510) 665-8644
Fax: (510) 665-8511
TTY: (510) 665-8716

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-----Original Message-----
From: Noel Nightingale [mailto:nnightingale at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:45 AM
To: 'NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Court rules Target must make website accessible
totheblind




Does anyone have a copy of the court's opinion?  Could you post it to
blindlaw?

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:32 PM
To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org; nabs-l at nfbnet.org;
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Subject: [blindlaw] Court rules Target must make website accessible to
theblind



>>> KARE11 TV, Minnesota USA
>>> Thursday, September 07, 2006
>>>
>>> Court rules Target must make website accessible to the blind
>>>
>>> A federal district court judge ruled Wednesday that a retailer may
>>> be
>>> sued
>>> if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued
in a
>>> case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target
Corp.
>>>
>>> The suit charges that Target's website ( http://www.target.com ) is
>>> inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with

>>> Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and
>>> the California Disabled Persons Act. Target asked the court to 
>>> dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make 
>>> its website accessible. The Court denied Target's motion to dismiss 
>>> and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a 
>>> website such as target.com.
>>>
>>> The suit, NFB v. Target, was filed as a class action on behalf of
>>> all blind Americans who are being denied access to target.com. The 
>>> named plaintiffs are the NFB, the NFB of California, and a blind 
>>> college student, Bruce "BJ" Sexton.
>>>
>>> The plaintiffs are represented by Disability Rights Advocates, a
>>> Berkeley-based non-profit law firm that specializes in high-impact 
>>> cases on behalf of people with disabilities;
>>>
>>> The court held: "the 'ordinary meaning' of the ADA's prohibition
>>> against discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, 
>>> facilities or privileges, is that whatever goods or services the 
>>> place provides, it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability in

>>> providing enjoyment of those goods and services." The court thus
>>> rejected Target's argument that only its physical store locations 
>>> were covered by the civil rights laws, ruling instead that all 
>>> services provided by Target, including its Web site, must be 
>>> accessible to persons with disabilities.
>>>
>>> "This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the
>>> country," said NFB President Dr. Marc Maurer. "We are pleased that 
>>> the court recognized that the blind are entitled to equal access to 
>>> retail websites."
>>>
>>> Dr. Maurer explained that blind persons access websites by using 
>>> keyboards in conjunction with screen-reading software, which 
>>> vocalizes visual information on a computer screen.
>>>
>>> Target's website contains significant access barriers that prevent
>>> blind customers from browsing among and purchasing products online, 
>>> as well as from finding important corporate information such as 
>>> employment opportunities, investor news, and company policies.
>>>
>>> The plaintiffs charge that target.com fails to meet the minimum
>>> standard of web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an 
>>> invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that allows screen 
>>> readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind

>>> computer user. It also contains inaccessible image maps and other
>>> graphical features, preventing blind users from navigating and 
>>> making use of all of the functions of the website. And because the 
>>> website requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind

>>> Target customers are unable to make purchases on target.com
>>> independently.
>>>
>>> Explaining the ramification of the ruling, Mazen M. Basrawi, Equal 
>>> Justice Works Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates, noted that: 
>>> "the court clarified that the law requires that any place of public
accommodation is
>>> required to ensure that it does not discriminate when it uses the
>>> internet
>>> as a means to enhance the services it offers at a physical
location."
>>>
>>> "I hope that I can soon shop online at Target.com just like anyone
>>> else," said UC Berkeley student BJ Sexton, who is a named plaintiff 
>>> in the lawsuit. "I believe that millions of blind people like me can

>>> use the Internet just as easily as do the sighted, if websites are
>>> accessible."
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.kare11.com/money/business_article.aspx?storyid=134062
>>>

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