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Website accessibility for disabled persons

This case should be watched with great detail by internet retailers selling goods in the United States. While the class action lawsuit brought forth against Target makes claims that Target "failed and refused" to make its website accessible to the blind, it makes me wonder how many sites actually do consider disabled consumers during the development of a site.

Technologies like ajax and Flash create very usable experiences (when executed correctly!), but creating alternate methods of navigating and purchasing online without ajax or Flash presents an interesting challenge for internet retailers.

From the article:

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.

Where lawsuits like this end? Will the Googles and Yahoo!s of the world be required to develop completely accessible applications to accommodate disabled persons? Where is the line drawn? On e-commerce sites? On highly-trafficked sites like Google Maps? Search?

Fortunately, for sites really well optimized for search engines, the underpinnings of an accessible site are already in place for disabled persons. However, advanced functionality (ajax, flash, etc.), while creating a trendy web 2.0 experience, still acts as a road block for search engines and thus disabled persons accessing sites through screen readers.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.