[gui-talk] Fwd: NFB Victory: Class Certified in Target Class-Action Lawsuit

[David Andrews]

>
>Hi folks,
>
>Haven't seen this reported yet on our lists, but NFB has scored a major victory here in San Francisco when a federal judge certified our class-action lawsuit.  This ruling means we can now procede with what promises to be a groundbreaking trial on internet access.  Here's the report, below, from today's Los Angeles Times.
>
>Bryan Bashin
>
>
>Lawsuit seeks to improve website access by the blind
>A judge's ruling in a suit against Target could mean that businesses and government
>agencies would have to make their sites compatible with screen-reading software.
>By Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
>1:52 PM PDT, October 3, 2007
>A ruling by a judge in San Francisco could mean that businesses and government agencies
>would have to make their websites accessible to the blind, something disability rights
>advocates say is vital as the routine transactions of everyday life take place more
>and more 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 website 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.
>FOR THE RECORD:
>An earlier version of this article identified John Pare as an executive of the National
>Foundation of the Blind. The organization is the National Federation of the Blind.
>Many retailers, including Wal-Mart Inc. and Amazon.com, have upgraded their websites
>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.
>The lawsuit contends that some 10,000 people in California alone use reading software
>to access the Internet.
>Target, in a statement, said its online business had made "significant enhancements
>to improve the experience of our guests who use assistive technologies." The company,
>based in Minneapolis, said it would request an immediate review of the judge's ruling.
>The ability to access websites is particularly important to the visually impaired,
>whose mobility is limited because they can't drive, said Eve Hill, executive director
>of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
>Judges have applied California's disability accommodations law more broadly than
>the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Hill said; the federal law focuses on
>access to physical locations such as stores or banks.