The Court for the Northern District of California has confirmed a previous ruling that Target.com is inaccessible to the blind, therefore violating federal and state anti-discrimination laws in the USA. What's more, the Court ruled that the case is a class action open to all "legally blind" individuals in the USA. Thanks to Out-law.com for reporting on this matter.
An initial glance through the 33 pages of the ruling suggests that the Court relied upon the plaintiff's evidence of his inability to use the Target.com, in practical terms. The Court doesn't seem to have relied on failure to comply with technical accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as was the case with the the Australian Olympics Committee ruling (see our "Making websites open to all" post from August 2006). This practical consideration of accessibility reinforces the importance of using people to test website accessibility rather than simply relying on automated testing.
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