I’m watching the evolution of National Federation of the Blind, et al. v Target Corporation with a great deal of interest.  It is a class action suit brought against Target alleging that target.com is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the site is not accessible to the blind. Specifically, the site lacked alternative text used by screen reading software.

This week a federal judge certified the class action suit against Target on behalf of blind users nationwide. The judge further held that Web sites such as target.com are required by California law to be accessible.

An accessible Web site is one that complies with the Web Content Accessibility Standards set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium.

As a company, Imaginary Landscape has been trumpeting accessible design since 1995. The market relevance of Web site accessibility has ebbed and flowed over the years, based mostly upon the state of browser wars. In 2004 a landmark argument by the New York Attorney General proposed that the Americans with Disabilities Act Web standards apply to private sites. The sites in question, Ramada.com and Priceline.com, settled.

Updated: September 28, 2021 for link rot