A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday granted class action status to a lawsuit against Target Corp. The suit charges that Target.com violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying access to blind Internet users nationwide. The judge also ruled that e-commerce sites are required by California law to be accessible to blind shoppers.
The rulings were issued in a case brought by the National Federation of the Blind. The suit charges that Target “failed and refused “to make its web site accessible to the blind and thus violated the ADA as well as two California civil rights statutes: the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Persons Act.
“This is a tremendous step forward for blind people throughout the country who for too long have been denied equal access to the Internet economy,” says Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. “All e-commerce businesses should take note of this decision and immediately take steps to open their doors to the blind.”
The federation complaint alleges that Target.com lacks compliant alt-text, an invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that enables screen readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind computer user. The federation’s suit also alleges that Target.com has inaccessible image maps and other graphical features that prevent blind users from navigating and making use of all of the functions on the web site. Because the site requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind Target customers also are unable to make purchases on Target.com independently, the federation says.
The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion to certify a nationwide class under the ADA for injunctive relief. The court denied Target’s motion for summary judgment.
In addition to disability rights advocates, legal entities certified to represent the class are: Brown, Goldstein & Levy, a Baltimore civil rights law firm; Schneider & Wallace, a national plaintiffs’ class action and civil rights law firm based in San Francisco; and Peter Blanck, chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute and a professor at Syracuse University.
In a statement, Target says it is "disappointed that a class has been certified. Class certification is a procedural ruling only and in no way addresses the merit of the claims brought forward by the National Federation of the Blind.
"Target is committed to serving all of our guests and we believe that 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. In fact, an internal NFB e-mail, only produced by the NFB during the discovery phase of these proceedings, confirms the usability of our web site."
Target plans to request a review of the ruling granting class certification and is "confident that we will prevail on the merits of this case. Regardless of the outcome, accessibility will remain a priority for Target and we will continue to implement new technologies to enhance the usability of our web site for all of our guests."
Target is No. 19 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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