Target misses ADA mark

The folks at Amazon.com can do it. As can the people at eBay.com. And Wal-Mart does it, too. So, why, critics say, can't the IT staff at Target.com make their site compliant with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? Is it lack of skills? Incompetence? Indifference? One thing we know for certain, advocates for the blind believe the company does not want to make its Web site accessible to the visually-impaired because Target is fighting tooth and nail in the courts to keep their Web site the way it is. (Computerworld has covered this story extensively here, here and here.) But Target is losing so far. The latest set back early this month was when an appellate court upheld a California judge's ruling that the proceeding brought by the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) of Baltimore met the legal standard to become a class-action lawsuit. According to John Pare', executive director for strategic initiatives at the NFB, the goal is to get Target.com to have its site work with screen-reading software, such as JAWS from Freedom Scientific or KeyRead by RJ Cooper and Associates. Robert Stigile, president of the California chapter of the NFB, argues, "It doesn't take much to do that," adding that developers only need to supply "alt tags" to online content so a screen reader can interpret the information. Garry Grant, CEO of Search Engine Optimization Inc. in Carlsbad, Calif. who has a blind daughter he says was unable to use Target.com, agrees that there's no technical hurdles to Target. He also claims that sites that work well with screen readers "are easier for a search engine to index. It's win'win." Grant says merchandising Web sites that work with screen readers are a boon to blind people who have difficulty going out to shop.

In an e-mail response to Computerworld, a Target spokesman says the company has an NFB-related e-mail attesting to its Web site's compatability with JAWS. And, according to the spokesman "Target is committed to serving all of our guests and we believe our Web site is fully accessible and complies with all applicable laws. As our online business has evolved, we have made significant enhancements to improve the experience of our guests who use assistive technologies. Regardless of the outcome of this case, accessibility will remain a priority for Target and we will continue to implement new technologies to enhance usability of our Web site for all of our guests."

Daniel Goldstein, the NFB's counsel at Brown Goldstein Levy in Baltimore, says his hope for the ultimate outcome of the case is "that the folks designing technology don't forget that blind people exist." Stigile is confident that will be the case since, in his view "the NFB will prevail."